12 predictions for the future of programming
If hitting a target is hard and hitting a moving target is even harder, then creating a new hit technology is next to impossible because the shape and nature of the target morphs as it moves. Think of building a swish new laptop just as laptops are heading out of favor, or a must-have mobile app just as smartphones plateau, or a dynamite tablet experience just as the wearable future takes hold.
It's no secret that technology trends move fast -- and the tools and means for building those technologies constantly evolve. But if you don't lift your head up every once in a while to look past the next year's projects, you could end up coding yourself down an inescapable rabbit hole.
To help you prepare for -- or at least start contemplating -- a future that's screaming across the sky faster than we can see, we've compiled a dozen predictions about how the next five years of programming will shake out. Our crystal ball is very subjective, and some of the following conjectures might not prove universal. Some won't be fully realized in five years. Others are already true, but the extent of their truth is not as well-established or widely known as it will be fairly soon. Some may surface as half-truths because some faction of coders may take a different path. Some might even be flat-out wrong.
