When Dartmouth College launched the Basic language 50 years ago, it enabled ordinary users to write code. Millions did. But we've gone backwards since then, and most users now seem unable or unwilling to create so much as a simple macro
I’m not sure I agree. I think most people can understand recipes or instruction lists and totally could program, if they wanted to and had to. They just don’t want to and usually don’t have to. They find it boring, tedious and it’s also increasingly inaccessible (e.g. JavaScript tooling is the classic example).
But I think mainly people just don’t find it interesting. To understand this, think about law. You absolutely have the intellect to be a lawyer (you clever clog), so why aren’t you? For me, it’s mind-numbingly boring. If I was really into law and enjoyed decoding their unnecessarily obtuse language then I totally would be a lawyer. But I don’t.
There was a very noticeable drop off in people at my university computer science program after the first programming class. There is an actual wall there for a lot of people in terms of comprehending how programming works, things like assigning a value to a variable where difficult concepts to some.
I’m not sure I agree. I think most people can understand recipes or instruction lists and totally could program, if they wanted to and had to. They just don’t want to and usually don’t have to. They find it boring, tedious and it’s also increasingly inaccessible (e.g. JavaScript tooling is the classic example).
But I think mainly people just don’t find it interesting. To understand this, think about law. You absolutely have the intellect to be a lawyer (you clever clog), so why aren’t you? For me, it’s mind-numbingly boring. If I was really into law and enjoyed decoding their unnecessarily obtuse language then I totally would be a lawyer. But I don’t.
There was a very noticeable drop off in people at my university computer science program after the first programming class. There is an actual wall there for a lot of people in terms of comprehending how programming works, things like assigning a value to a variable where difficult concepts to some.