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Programming Should Not Be an Elite Practice

Posted by Matt Birchler
β€” 1 min read

I wasn't going to link this this, but then I got to the last paragraph:

The entry barrier to programming needs to be high! Programming is engineering; it's not something where you throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks and just assume that programming languages, browsers, and operating systems are made of magical dust.

So basically, he creates a bit of a straw man argument and then closes it out with this gem, suggesting that we should not adopt easier-to-use development systems because "the entry barrier to programming needs to be high."

To hell with that. The entry barrier to programming should be as low as possible so that people can learn it, and programming becomes something far more people can do. This is why things Apple is doing like Swift Playgrounds, Shortcuts, and SwiftUI are so exciting to me; they enable many more people to start writing programs/scripts/automations/whatever than would have been able to before.

You may dislike React, and that's fine, but (a) there's a reason React and similar tools have become popular, and it's not just because companies are stupid/evil, and (b) the elietist tone does not play well at all, in my opinion.