Scott Hanselman

When your intern responded, "I've seen a typewriter" to your question about old computers and mainframes, I laughed out loud. It was such a great, honest comment. It's really telling that the next generation of programmers might assign the relevance of a mainframe the same relevance of a typewriter. It says more about mainframes than it does about the next generation of engineers.

It was really interesting to hear Shady and Eric feelings about dynamic languages. It echoes the message that the Pragmatic Programmers people have been sending to the Java and .NET world for the past couple of years. I heard an undercurrent of appreciation for simplicity. I hope that's true. I think the future of software could use a healthy dose of simplicity.

It was great to have a glimpse into their perspective. Thanks for doing this show!

Interesting discussion, but a little sad. I hope their comments about the lack of students interested in programming isn't reflective of the rest of world. When I was in high school and college (late 70's, early 80's), there seemed to be so many of us excited about making a computer follow our instructions and do cool things. Maybe it's just all too familiar these days? Back then it was amazing. To be able to get your own computer for the first time, no matter how primitive (TRS-80 Model 1, 4K Level 1 Basic was what I started with), was an incredible high. I remember when I discovered my first computer magazine. I was so thrilled, I was literally dizzy with excitement.

Is the passion gone? Or is it being rediscovered by the few who are playing with dynamic languages? Seems like we've come full circle with that. I hope the passion is still there, and being discovered by more people than it seems your interns have seen around them. I've been learning Ruby, trying to rekindle that initial passion I've seemed to lose over the years. With C#, etc., you can do just about anything, but those languages can make you feel restrained and overwhelmed at times. I love .NET, but I miss the immediacy and instant feedback of molding the computer to what I want. Waiting for IronRuby...

I hope this evolution turns more kids on to this field. I can't imagine not being excited about this at their age. I find it hard to believe that so many kids are choosing other fields, or sitting on the couch watching TV. Maybe I should learn a language like Ruby well enough to even do nothing more than teach it... to help get kids excited about this field again.