I’m not as down on textual coding as the author of this piece is, but I do think he may be on to something. Programming — whether via textual means or something else — absolutely does need to become more accessible to mainstream users. The problem with modern software from a usability perspective is that so much of the user’s experience today is heavily scripted, and for the most part, users are not allowed to deviate from that script, or to tie their own data together in interesting and useful ways without relying on some software developer to make doing so possible first. But even if users could carve their own paths, the ability to do so wouldn’t do them any good if they didn’t know the first thing about how to do it. The challenge is to make a system that makes “programming” feel no different than using pre-canned applications. (HT: HN.)