It's not really that terrible of a concept -- some of the earliest high-level languages (e.g., COBOL) were designed to be "readable" by less-technical staff. It

It's not really that terrible of a concept -- some of the earliest high-level languages (e.g., COBOL) were designed to be "readable" by less-technical staff. It just requires careful design and structure. IMO, it only falls apart (and becomes such a nightmare) because of the imprecision of spoken & written word. Computers don't understand idioms, colloquialisms, and the like, and so non-technical staff are tricked into thinking a language/program can do more than it actually can do.