My manager is at least 55+ (he retired, but came back because he was bored) - he writes code all day. My CTO is 50, he also writes code (though not as much as my manager).
From my (limited) experience, it looks like, as we age, we have these options:
1. Continuously learn new things - this negates the "old man" perception in the industry
2. Be good (not necessarily bleeding edge) in programming, but have good domain knowledge (this ties us to one domain though) - these kind of people are very valuable, as most programming jobs don't need bleeding edge skillsets.
From my (limited) experience, it looks like, as we age, we have these options:
1. Continuously learn new things - this negates the "old man" perception in the industry
2. Be good (not necessarily bleeding edge) in programming, but have good domain knowledge (this ties us to one domain though) - these kind of people are very valuable, as most programming jobs don't need bleeding edge skillsets.
3. Become a suit