AI as a programming helper is picking up a ball that most software companies dropped. “Claude” automates tasks by talking to you in normal English.
In the 90s every techie knew Basic, which was closer to natural English than other computer languages. As complex programs for editing, graphics and audio developed, most of them offered a gateway for automation. You could tell the program to process a bunch of images or wave files in a certain way, or to draw a set of curves fitting a shape, or form an animation or speech, or anything else you could imagine.
The makers dropped the ball by using a wide variety of fancy or proprietary languages for control functions. None of them used the universally understood Basic. You had to master a different dialect for each big program. Unsurprisingly, very few people used these automation abilities, and most programs eventually abandoned it. If they had made automation more attractive and convenient, “Claude” wouldn’t have such a clear advantage.
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