A future filled with smarter devices and robots means a future full of… programming. As people's devices get more complex, they'll need to do some things that are now mostly the domain of professional computer scientists. They might need to program in behaviors for personal robots, for example. Programming skills can also help people organize their digital music or picture collections and write their own apps for things they want their smartphones to do.
Now, several researchers are thinking about how to create programming languages that will bring coding to the masses. Two $10 million National Science Foundation grants in the U.S., given out April 3, will fund projects that include some research into more accessible programming. Such languages may spread in just three or four years, researchers say.
