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Why not we (software developers) take the route of improving end-user software and letting people easily accomplish their mundane everyday tasks, instead of letting them program as a remedy to the sorry state of software? Have you looked at it that way? Would people buy a car that required them to tweak it and service it right after it went out of the showroom?

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I think you misunderstood me. I'm not saying that people should become literate in programming so they can program their own solutions, although that'd obviously be good. I'm saying that we should encourage people to become literate in programming if only so they could express their needs more clearly and evaluate solutions better.

I likened programming to composition. Most people who took composition courses don't necessarily need to write papers on a daily basis, but they certainly benefit from being able to interpret and evaluate material. If I could get people to understand the general concept of a data type, I'd certainly have an easier time of communicating with them and satisfying their needs.

That's definitely an approach we should keep trying. But it hasn't worked out very well so far and I'm convinced that it's impossible to create an application that fits 100% of the needs of 100% of its users. I would definitely buy a car that allows me and maybe even makes it easy to tweak it. But I wouldn't want one that requires me to do so.

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