Holoprogramming is a recurring theme in TNG and VOY. There's even a recurring character that is supposed to represent this role of specialized programmer, Reginald Barclay, among other one-ofs (such as Dr. Zimmerman).
> Picard says "Tea, earl grey, hot" and the computer instructs the replicator to create such a beverage. He doesn't even think about someone coding up a "tea" app - the computer is intelligent enough to know what he needs and controls the device to deliver.
You are clearly not versed in the ways of Star Trek. This notion is directly confronted in the classical scene of Lt. Paris asking the replicator for tomato soup in VOY, and getting super annoyed by the way it is programmed.
Doesn’t Neelix create some replicator programs as well? I want to say for Kes.
This is evidenced by both Neelix's and the Kazon surprise when the Voyager crew is able to replicate water.
There is a catch in the first episode, which clearly shows replicator technology being employed by the sporocistians (it's how they beam down food to the Ocampa).
I was more certain about my Neelix memory though, and I managed to find Neelix 1: https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Neelix_1
I think it's a bit unfair to say this about Asimov, seeing how most of these stories were written in the 1940s and 1950s, before the idea of a "programmer" really came into being. But nevertheless, having done a quick dive into the texts, I found a few snippets where Asimov did describe the work of a programmer, with the best example possibly being the following from "Escape!" (published in 1945):
> The robopsychologist continued: “Here is what we’re going to do. We have divided all of Consolidated’s information into logical units. We are going to feed the units to The Brain singly and cautiously. When the factor enters — the one that creates the dilemma — The Brain’s child personality will hesitate. Its sense of judgment is not mature. There will be a perceptible interval before it will recognize a dilemma as such. And in that interval, it will reject the unit automatically — before its brainpaths can be set in motion and ruined.”
> Robertson’s Adam’s apple squirmed, “Are you sure, now?”
> Dr. Calvin masked impatience, “It doesn’t make much sense, I admit, in lay language; but there is no conceivable use in presenting the mathematics of this. I assure you, it is as I say.”
Isn't that programming?
elmerfud•1h ago
Even in the current society a programmer is not some dedicated person to just program things. They have to be able to branch out and understand the systems their program is going to interface with. It is no different in Star Trek. It seems programming is more common across all jobs but there absolutely those who specialize in it.