Back in the day (1970s-1980s), every computer came with BASIC or something preinstalled -- often in ROM. Growing up I thought computers were for programming as

Back in the day (1970s-1980s), every computer came with BASIC or something preinstalled -- often in ROM. Growing up I thought computers were for programming as bikes were for riding or pencils were for writing with. Using someone else's program was always an option, but you always had the full capability of the machine ready to put to your own uses, and an easy way to get started. We forwent this in favor of getting that consoomer dollar. We gave the user ever more elaborate premade applications, which is nice; meanwhile, programming environments went from the default mode of interaction with the machine to expensive add-ins (thinking of early Windows with Visual Basic and ToolBook). HyperCard was free on the Mac, but didn't keep pace with the machine's expanding capabilities. QBasic was perfect for the DOS environment, but it didn't really transition to Windows except as Visual Basic, which again was an expensive add-on. Speaking of, even the RAD tools of yesteryear are largely gone. We have open-source dev environments now, but they aren't approachable the way microcomputer BASIC was. Getting someone set up with Node or even Rails requires command-line jiggery-pokery and installing all sorts of dependencies, just to get started. And now, we're somehow hoping that a somewhat cleverer Dissociated Press is going to bring back citizen programmers? Fuck no. If we want end users to program their own apps, we have to find our way out of the shit we created, not add new layers of shit to deal with the old layers. The pathway to citizen programmers is making programming accessible, with full capabilities available, with documentation, right from the jump. No toy languages (e.g. Small Basic). Kids should be able to write turtle-drawing programs with the same language/environment adults use to build real-world applications.