Batteries included: how AI will transform the who and how of programming

A 1947 paper introduced the concept of subroutines, a significant step in improving programmer productivity and widening the scope of who could be a programmer. Today's advances such as syntax highlighting, high-level languages, IDEs, libraries and frameworks, APIs, Visual Basic, code completion, refactoring tools, spreadsheets, and LLMs have further enhanced programming capabilities and productivity. The introduction of AI assistants like Cloudflare's new feature will continue this trend, making developers more productive and allowing more people to enter the field of programming. AI's potential is being compared to electricity's impact on work and life, as it has the power to revolutionize how programs are written, who writes them, and how humans interact with software. The future may bring even more exciting ways of programming through neural-type machines.