Re:Ask HN: Why don't smartphones encourage programming like ...
by cantaloa on Saturday April 15, 2023 @01:15PM
(#35582528)
Yes, just look how much our expectations of computers and software have changed in 40 years. People aren't wowed by Zork anymore, especially not one running on their phone next to some of the most compelling software in the world.
Besides, anyone wanting to dabble in building interactive toys in 2024 can just open up codepen.io or index.html on their computer. It's already accessible. I wouldn't expect beginners to flock to build that same toy in Xcode that runs in an iOS simulator.
2. In the 80s seeing your choice of text on a screen was something really new to most people. Teletext would not be universal until the end of the decade. Nothing in the house had even a text display. Calculators were numeric only. These days, everything has a display.
3. There were no polished programs to compete with. A lot of early games were very simple. There was no App Store or Steam. You could write a Tic Tac Toe game never having seen a commercial implementation. Even if it was bad, your friends would be impressed.
If you want inclusive coding, Scratch is the world’s largest coding community for children - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35373052 . The 40 characters wide Basic terminal was of its time.