A Davidson wrote:
>
> For specifics, I would pay attention to Java, Networking, Platform
> Neutrality, and maybe even AI (although no telling when AI will come of
> age), and make sure you are good at writing multi-threaded software because
> undoubtedly the future is in parallel.
I definitely agree with the parallelism part - it may be worth studying Linux or Perl or BeOS just to pick up the POSIX process idiom, if you haven't already. "One processor per person is not enough!" I suspect that the next decade may see the breaking of Moore's Law classic due to the requirement for gargantuan investments in manufacturing facilities, but we'll still see an actual steepening of the performance/price curve as most new systems come with two, then four, then eight processors.
Network programming will get even bigger, and Java is probably worth knowing just for the RPC utilities. (Alternatively, pick your buzzword: CORBA, IDL, DCOM.) I'll also toss in a side vote for being comfortable with XML.
AI will come knocking as a programmer's tool, and as substrate for multi-system-integration.
--
sentience@pobox.com Eliezer S. Yudkowsky
http://pobox.com/~sentience/tmol-faq/meaningoflife.html
Running on BeOS Typing in Dvorak Programming with Patterns
Voting for Libertarians Heading for Singularity There Is A Better Way