Any attempt to predict any future subject includes in general two components: extrapolations of the current trends and discussions about possible surprises. The extrapolation of the trends based on the latest function derivatives seems to be the easiest one. However, one has to be careful with fashionable trends and associated hype peaks. When one looks at the HEP software in the past 40 years, one sees regions of stability, often coinciding with the development and exploitation of a large accelerator, but also big changes when the hardware or/and software technology permits large steps. These large steps are often associated with surprises unthinkable a few years before. These two observations will likely continue to be true for the coming few decades, if not more. This paper is an attempt to analyze the current function derivatives based on similar analysis many years ago, and also propose some directions and developments that may become key components for our future software.