The future needs programmers

Bill Thompson at the BBC asks the question Who will write tomorrow's code?, and it's a similar question to the one I've asked before now.

How do we get kids interested in programming computers, as opposed to just using them?

Sadly we are creating a generation of computer-savvy kids. They know how to search the internet, write up reports and play their games. Many of them even know how to do things it took me years of playing to discover, but somehow we are not instilling the same level of joy or interest in actually creating the applications used to run the computers.

Bill suggests, among other things, that's it's an education problem, and in some cases a simple access problem. The tools to develop software are not provided with many computers, without the tools, you are never going to encourage people to try it out.

But I think it goes deeper than this - we just don't provide any encouragement or reason to learn programming. Let's face it, programmers are not exactly the trendiest part of the gene pool. I'm not saying we need role models, but perhaps we should be pointing out how much fun programming can be? Or how rewarding it can be?

Perhaps, too, we should be more open about how programming works, and how easy it can be to produce fun stuff. Tools like Ruby on Rails, for example, make it very quick and easy to produce some fun and exciting stuff. Promoting tools like this for development would potentially start people people down the development slippery slope that leads to the bigger and more extensive projects.