Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Homework #8

500+ word essay on where you think programming and software engineering are headed; do you agree with the Future of Programming - why or why not?

After watching this video, I decided to visit the Cloud9 IDE website.  Their slogan is "Your code anywhere, anytime".  The introduction video they provide is very cute, informative, and to the point. 

I definitely do NOT have extensive experience with IDE's.  I have used two- NetBeans and ECLIPSE.  I use Sublime Text2 as my text editor and that is what Cloud9 IDE reminds me of- visually speaking.  

I think one of the most exciting features of this web browser IDE is the real time collaboration support.  This will help communication between engineers by leaps and bounds.  It's pair programming, but one programmer can be in China and the other in America.  Also if you are experiencing an error or problem, another engineer can see what the problem is in real time and the two of you do not have to fight to keep in sync- so the problem will most likely be resolved much faster.  There is even a chat button.  They say on the site's intro video that "it's like google docs, but for coding".  This real time collaboration will save so much time and frustration.  After all, time is money.

Software engineering as a profession is already decentralized, but with advances coming in (especially from a communication standpoint), you'll be able to work for companies in other countries in the comfort of your own home (not that you can't already- it might just become more common).

I also really liked the idea of accessing my code from wherever whenever...or as they put it "Your code anywhere, anytime".  Convenient.  

Another feature that I really liked was how you can zoom out of your code very easily.  I have probably mentioned before that I am a very visual person and, spatially, I get very confused/ lost in my code at times.  This feature is very slick, and I dig it.  

Three minutes into the video, the journalist interviewing mentions that Apple came out with a faster browser...yadayadayada...and the man being interviewed explained that faster browsers is what is making his work possible.  It will be exciting to see the advances that bring progressive change to different areas of software engineering.  

Like we keep mentioning in class- soon everything in our daily life will involve a computer- more so than now.  Hardware and software will keep evolving and keep improving, bringing forth lots of exciting advances. 

I agree with the video article.  Life is continually becoming more convenient- so why not coding?  Like I said, I don't have much experience with IDE's, but watching that video got me really excited.   Small things like fixing bugs always annoy me when my teacher or classmates aren't having the same problems and they can't explain why/fix the problem- now it doesn't seem like that will be a time consuming issue anymore.  These advances- thanks to the communication aspect especially- will help so much with teaching and mentoring (which is an exciting thought for us new grads).  Cloud9 IDE is something I will consider in the future...if not near future.  The only thing that makes me nervous is the security, even though they say it's "secure" in the video...is it really?



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