I wonder what the barrier is like for kids these days to make their first code edit, and how likely it is to happen without any intention of learning to program. All these walled gardens may at times contribute to great products but so much of my personal development came from tinkering on systems that not only allowed but invited such behavior that I wonder what is being lost.
Are you kidding? Practically every web page has a JavaScript program for them to look at.
There are thousands or maybe millions of open source programs for them to experiment with. There are dozens of online editors from online Processing in CoffeeScript http://pcsedit.appspot.com/#edit/mbarkhau/example.coffee to tryruby.org and a ton of other things.
So I don't think there is any barrier for making a code edit, but on the point about it happening without any intention of learning how to program, that is a good point. Because you really don't need to learn how to program to make the computer do interesting things. When you have only a small number of really simple computer games to play with you are more inclined to start making code edits.
Practically every web page has a minified JavaScript program to look at, and even stuff that's not minified often depends on ajax calls or other server side components that aren't easy to duplicate and start tinkering with for someone that doesn't already know what they are doing (or even for someone that does.)
But yes, online editors are an amazing resource, as are open source programs.
I wonder what the barrier is like for kids these days to make their first code edit, and how likely it is to happen without any intention of learning to program. All these walled gardens may at times contribute to great products but so much of my personal development came from tinkering on systems that not only allowed but invited such behavior that I wonder what is being lost.