I see languages like rust and platforms like the BEAM helping, but there is still such a significant loss of knowledge around so many things.
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TLDR: Technological knowledge can get lost over time, it has happened before (first ~10 minutes are examples of technological knowledge that has been lost over time), and it is happening right now with software.
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While I partially agree with Jonathan in some cases, that I completely do not understand his opposition to Language Servers. Hell, we have been using that almost for ever (Exuberant Ctags, Emacs TAGS, cscope, etc.) and building such functionality into editor has main disadvantage that is stated in the specs - you need to build new integration for each of the editors. In that same manner we can say why do we need remote APIs, this is just library that is external, just make it a library instead and build it into your program.
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Another talk in the same spirit:
I keep coming back to rewatch this from time to time, I don’t necessarily agree on everything though
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You see, there is something about the different levels of the profession of computer science. Unfortunately the term “computer programmer” encompasses too much in the field to be generalized like that, because it gets too specialized. Another example of a broad field would be Electronics Technology/Engineering Degrees. Because the specialization for certain jobs, means you have to pick a field in and specialize in one aspect of the science of creating a product (like power supplies, microwaves, televisions, or audio equipment).
The Problem with learning status (like a doctorate degree) doesn’t really mean anything when it comes to creating the product. So you can’t really go by Doctorate, Masters or Bachelors degrees to filter the candidate for the job. So mostly I had to rely on what they did before, and their performance with a previous project as the major decision factor.
Also, I think people who do program a website, or use a cms are not real computer programmers. They are just creative people using what the programmers program to make it. These I call content or web programming.
The people that program frameworks, and simplified languages, I call computer programmers. They assemble a code framework based off of a computer scientist’s language. The computer programmer usually will work in a language they have specialized in.
A computer scientist is more akin to the inventor. As they develop the language to logically interact with the hardware. The computer programmer is their consumer.
Liability has always been defaulted to the programmers when things go wrong, but sometimes its not the case, sometimes its caused by stacking multiple technologies, or flaws in new technologies which would be the Computer Scientist’s fault.
