Questions for those who have done programming-heavy research

[commodork]

To those of you who spend a majority of your Ph.D. in front of a computer, how do you like it? Does it get monotonous? Do you still feel like you're able to bring creativity to your work and innovate? I'm particularly interested in hearing from anyone who might have experience in more experimental research and made a switch towards primarily programming. Do you miss having "hands-on" research experience? 

 

I'm currently debating such a switch, and it's tough to decide without any insight into what the day-to-day is like.