Agreed on the "let's make programming more accessible" point, but meh on the "good old days" view. I've been writing software since 1976 so I have some perspect

Agreed on the "let's make programming more accessible" point, but meh on the "good old days" view. I've been writing software since 1976 so I have some perspective on the good old days. Programming was always arcane, and it always required specialized knowledge and the patience to work at a level of detail few people find enjoyable. Yes, there were things like hypercard that opened up programming at a certain level to a certain semi-skilled person. Excel falls into the same category. But in the end it is not the symbology, or the tools, or the environment that makes programming difficult: it's the mental process of building up complex behavior from little pieces, analogous sometimes to being handed a bag of atoms and instructed to build a toaster. Some of us find building up these intricate abstract models fun and rewarding, but believe me we're a tiny masochistic fraction of humanity.