I think the increasing popularity of functional programming or at least less imperative-style programming is making FPGAs more accessible. I remember my first

I think the increasing popularity of functional programming or at least less imperative-style programming is making FPGAs more accessible. I remember my first brush with VHDL during my first year of CompSci and having a hard time adjusting to the fact that what you are writing is not a program that is executed step by step (whether line by line or instruction by instruction), but a description of hardware components/functions that all "run" simultaneously. Now that my brain is more comfortable thinking in terms of functional solutions, this all makes a lot more sense, but I haven't revisited FPGA programming since.