Thoughts of a hobbyist programmer for almost 50 years

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 I posted this tonight to Reddit, and it is getting some positive traction.

We have seen many perspectives about vibe coding in this community.  Professionals are concerned about security, and also seem fearful of encroachment on their profession.

I may have a unique perspective. While I have never been a professional programmer, I have been a hobbyist programmer since 1979.  Yes, you read that right, for 47 years. I started on the TRS-80 Model I and then the IBM PC and its descendants.

There have been three developments that have thrilled me over those decades:

  • Getting a computer 
  • Going online (CompuServe, Bulletin Boards, the Internet and then the web)
  • And Artificial Intelligence

I have programmed mostly in script languages like BASIC, Visual BASIC, PERL, PHP, and Python. And ones you probably never heard of,like Toolbook and Dbase III.

And I’ve dabbled in Java, Cobol even, and C.

I am not generating SaaS applications with the hopes of getting rich. I do not understand their security needs sufficiently.

I am developing Windows apps using Python and had success.  And literally in the last two days have done a couple of Android apps.  

Not understanding the code has not been a problem. If I run into a bug, I ask AI to figure it out. It may take a few passes but it has worked. In a couple of cases, I’ve made suggestions when it seemed to be going nowhere based on my own coding experience.

Hopefully I've established some bona fides for my conclusion:

Originally programmers worked in binary, then moved up to assembler, then Cobol and other higher level languages.

Professionals will still be needed for those technologies; often they are the best for the job.

AI makes English (and other written languages) the new high level language.  Bugs will be squashed, shortcomings overcome, and skeptics converted or moved aside.  Vibe coding is here to stay.

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