From Phone Booths to Large Language Models: The Twilight of Traditional Programming

From Phone Booths to AI: The Twilight of Handwritten Code
The C++ Books in the Phone Booth
When Phone Booths Become Libraries and Programming Becomes Prompting
Traditional Programming in the Age of AI
Phone Booths, Programming Books, and the End of an Era
From Phone Booths to AI: The Twilight of Handwritten Code

After dinner, I walked past an old British phone booth that had been turned into a tiny community library. Among the donated books were HTML and C++ programming books, which reminded me of how phone booths once connected people at great cost, but have now become relics of another era. With the rise of AI and large language models, handwritten code may one day follow the same path — remembered like phone booths and abacuses, as part of a fading technological age.

That day after dinner, I went for a walk with my family. We walked about 5 kilometres in total. On our way back to the village, I noticed a converted old phone booth filled with books. Among them, there were even books on HTML and C++ programming.

These roadside red phone booths are one of the iconic features of Britain. Many of them have been around for twenty or thirty years, but most are no longer in use. With the development of mobile phones, the internet, and 5G communication, staying in touch with others has become easier and cheaper than ever.

I still remember the second day after I arrived abroad in 2004. At a phone booth near a crossroads in Luton town centre, I put in one pound and called home to let my family know I was safe. But after only a few seconds, the credit ran out and the call was cut off. Looking back now, it really feels like something from another era.

Today, many of these phone booths have been turned into tiny community libraries. People can donate books, and others can take books home to read. Sharing knowledge while also receiving knowledge from others creates a warm and pleasant community atmosphere.

However, with the rapid development of AI, large language models have become incredibly powerful. AI is quickly changing the nature of programming. Perhaps in the near future, programming will become as simple as using a calculator, or as natural as drinking water. Those introductory books on HTML and C++ may no longer be the essential “secret manuals” they once were. After all, more and more code is already being generated by AI.

Maybe in a few years, writing code manually will be called “traditional programming”. Just like the abacus, it was once an essential skill, but eventually became part of history.

Times have truly changed. The same is true for phone booths, and the same is true for programming.