//Editor'sComment

What Does the Future Hold?

By EldenNelson

Yesterday,my 8-year-old son, Nigel, wanted to show me a computer game he had just "written"(see Figure 1). To me (and to you, I'm sure), it looked like just a bunch offolders. That's his game, though, and - if you'll allow for some parentalindulgence - it's a pretty clever one.

Figure 1. Here's my son's first computer game. No programming required.

Accordingto Nigel, the game is called "The Game." The board is made of four concentric rectanglepaths. When you click on a folder, then press and hold the letter it startswith, Windows cycles through selecting all the folders in that rectangle, likea roulette wheel. The object is to let go of the key when the "youwin" folderfor that rectangle is highlighted. You then get to move on to the next, smallerrectangle. There, the cycling goes faster, and it gets harder to land on theright folder. The person who can get all four "youwin" folders in the fewesttries, wins.

I doubt "TheGame" has the Xbox people shaking in their boots, but it's a pretty fun gameand Nigel didn't write a single line of code to create it; he simply used thetools that exist on the Windows Desktop in a creative way.

This gotme thinking: Development tools are becoming increasingly sophisticated andautomated, and that's not going to stop. By the time my 8-year-old is 23, howmuch development will actually be of the hand-coded variety? If he chooses tobe a computer programmer, will he create his applications entirely visually,kind of like he is now? Or will he still need to know a programming language?Essentially, what will being a "developer" mean in the year 2017?

Bear inmind that this question applies to more than just the kids who'll startprogramming - at least professionally - years from now. Most of us will stillbe in the workforce for a good long while yet, so this question applies to us,too. So get out your crystal ball and tell me: What do you think your job willbe like in 15 years? Pretty much the same? Or wildly different? I'm interestedin your thoughts. E-mail me at mailto:elden@aspnetPRO.com.

In the Much Nearer Future ...

Dataaccess is the single most requested topic in asp.netPRO, so I'mconfident you're going to love our special year-end blowout November/Decemberdouble issue. Here's a mere sampling of what you'll find (yes, there's evenmore than what I'm mentioning here):

• Lookinto the data technologies crystal ball: Dave Reed, general manager of XML and data technologies atMicrosoft, discusses where data technologies are headed.
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• Generatecode to call a stored procedure: Creating the code to call a stored procedure can be pain. Usingthe info and code from this article, though, you can build a standalone utility(or download the add-in) to query a SQL Server database for the parameters of astored procedure and write the code to call that stored procedure.
• Getthe message out with SQL Server Notification Services: Learn to use XML, SQL, and theMicrosoft .NET Common Language Runtime (CLR) to build a scalable notificationapp quickly. You'll be able to generate messages that go to a wide variety ofchannels, including Short Messaging Service (SMS), e-mail (Simple Mail TransferProtocol, or SMTP), Instant Messenger (IM), and .NET Alerts.

Elden Nelson is editor-in-chief of asp.netPRO and its companionnewsletter, asp.netNOW. E-mailhim at mailto: elden@aspnetPRO.com.

Tell us what you think! Please send any comments to mailto:feedback@aspnetPRO.com.