Be nice if the browser version auto loaded images like most apps do.

Good list. Some extra info on xcom, it is basically a remaster of an 80s 8bit game called Laser Squad.

Nice quote - but I don’t think it does hold up as truly as it did in the 80s. There is an unimaginable wealth of systems and design tools available now that were not around then. Even something take for granted like a gui schema designer - hell, even SQL itself wouldn’t be around until almost a decade later, and that was partly designed to simplify database queries. Every step like that has simplified what we do today. Debugging tools are light years ahead of when I was writing C in the early 90s. Debugging then was pretty much “try and compile it and then fix the errors”. Now there’s linters, memory profilers, automatic pipelines and all the rest of that. Much of that is offset by the fact we do far more complicated things than we did, and that those very tools mean there’s a lot more to learn and master beyond the mere language.

I do concede and agree with your last paragraph. Design is more important than implementation, and elegance of code and concept is a timeless beauty. One of the hardest things I’ve had to learn is that thinking about coding is often far more productive than actually coding, and too many times I’ve been a busy fool, re-writing and starting over many times because I later found out a better way.

I disagree completely.

Great! It would be a boring world if we all thought alike.

Programming is inherently difficult,

That’s where we differ. I don’t think it is - and I’m not saying that because I think I’m good, it’s because programming is just a different way of thinking - that’s why there’s books like “Zen and the art of computer programming” and “The Tao of programming”. (I haven’t read “No Silver Bullet” but I’ll keep an eye open. I was actually writing code back in 1986 so it might be interesting to compare because I think programming has changed a huge amount in that time)

Not all programming is easy, just as not all of it is hard. The range of this subject is massive, and blanket statements, pro or anti, just don’t cut it when you dig into it.

I’ve heard that a lot, but I think it’s an outdated view.

Programming should be easy, or at least easier. That’s a view shared by everyone who writes and contributes to documentation on all languages and also those who develop the languages as well. (With varying success).

Every damned one of us was a shit coder when we started, that’s part of the process - not least amongst us who are self taught. Yet some go on to do great things and be wonderful coders (including yourself, no doubt).

You had a bad experience, fair enough, but it’s a big brush to tar everyone with. I think everyone should be a programmer. If nothing else it teaches them a little how software actually works and that’s a good thing.

Me too, but I couldn’t eat a whole one.

Run the cables more neatly.