I look forward to you posting the link to your tutorial on HN. I was fiddling with assembler in 1987, but I am probably fifteen years older than the author. I suspect that I am still teachable; I am confident the author is.

I mean, define web app.

We want to get hyper technical, I'd argue with Flutter web and Firebase I could even teach a non-programmer how to build a basic web app with about 3 months .

A lot of times these more experienced programmers are able to plan things better, versus folks from our generation who just jump in and start writing JavaScript until it works.

Hmmm, I started programming in 1982 on a TRS80 Color Computer, and am still at it building web and desktop apps. I agree if you were out of the scene for a while it'd be a hard task to get to grips with things, but otherwise some of us can still understand and maybe even use some of the newfangled stuff.

Huh, I was writing BASIC code (and even some 6502 Assembler) back in 1980. Somehow I manage to get my feeble brain to comprehend the modern web stack. I guess I must be exceptional.

I was playing with BASIC on a Wang PC in 1987 and today I write and maintain webapps using React (among other things).

Perhaps you didn't mean it that way, but I found your comment demeaning.

what breaks my heart is it doesn't have to be that way. less so than in 2022 than any other time.

Is this based on experience teaching such people, or assumptions?