MacVoices #25092: More With Jim Rea On Software Development Past and Present (2)

Jim Rea continues reflecting on ProView’s 40-year journey, highlighting how personal computing and software development practices have evolved. He discusses the shift from fully graspable, simple systems to today’s complex technologies requiring specialized expertise. Jim emphasizes the ongoing necessity of human judgment in programming, even with advanced tools like LLMs and search engines. He explores the concept of "prompt engineering" and the enduring challenge of accurately defining project requirements, asserting the essential role humans will maintain in tech innovation. (Part 2)

Today’s edition of MacVoices is supported by MacVoices Live!, our weekly live panel discussion of what is going in the Apple space as well as the larger tech world, and how it is impacting you. Join us live at YouTube.com/MacVoicesTV at 8 PM Eastern 5 PM Pacific, or whatever time that is wherever you are and participate in the chat, or catch the edited and segmented versions of the show on the regular MacVoices channels and feeds.

Show Notes:

Chapters:

00:10 Introduction to Jim Rea
00:53 Early Days of Personal Computing
02:35 Evolution of Development Practices
05:25 The Role of the Internet in Programming
11:20 The Challenge of Finding Information
12:13 The Impact of LLMs on Programming
17:17 Defining LLMs vs. AI
20:10 Prompt Engineering and Software Development
23:48 The Future of Human Programmers
26:58 Reflections on Technological Progress
29:58 Conclusion and Farewell

Links:

Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of ProVUE at MacWorld Expo!

Guests:

Jim Rea built his own computer from scratch in 1975, started programming in 1977, and has been an independent Mac developer continuously since 1984. He is the founder of ProVUE Development, and the author of Panorama X, ProVUE's ultra fast RAM based database software for the macOS platform. He’s been a speaker at MacTech, MacWorld Expo and other industry conferences. Follow Jim at provue.com and via @[e-mail] on Mastodon.

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