> You can use AppleScript and Automator to automate some tasks, but you can't really call that programming
If Hypercard was programming, so is AppleScript. So is Python. So is bash. I think we're talking about the general "programming" - since I also see Excel included alongside Hypercard in this reminiscence - not the more specific (and arbitrary, IMHO) programming vs. scripting language divide.
I loved Hypercard and was also a regular in the AppleScript world for a decade (and made a good part of my living on it at the time), but there are far more options for anyone remotely motivated to program today and with the exception of XCode (probably the least accessible option) they are preinstalled and freely available. And if downloading a free development environment with a simple installer is too great a burden today, I don't think you would have gotten anywhere in the good old days.
I don't really see the burden today - we have more options than ever, and many are available out of the box, and the rest almost universally free. I can automate my OSX environment with AppleScript, JavaScript, Python, Ruby, and bash (and doubtless others) out of the box. I can build command line applications out of the box. I can build Web applications with GUIs out of the box. I can easily extend AppleScript or Python (and, I'm certain, Ruby and bash) to allow me to build GUI applications.
Programming in the 80's was different, for sure, but I have a hard time understanding the sentiment that it was somehow more accessible. Sure, BASIC was preinstalled on some platforms. Still, most platforms today have more, and better, options out of the box than any platform of the early 90's. Did you write C in the 90s for Mac OS (if we're accusing Apple of being inaccessible because of the lack of preinstalled XCode at the moment, then the 90's were far worse if you ever had to pay for THINK C or CodeWarrior).
If Hypercard was programming, so is AppleScript. So is Python. So is bash. I think we're talking about the general "programming" - since I also see Excel included alongside Hypercard in this reminiscence - not the more specific (and arbitrary, IMHO) programming vs. scripting language divide.
I loved Hypercard and was also a regular in the AppleScript world for a decade (and made a good part of my living on it at the time), but there are far more options for anyone remotely motivated to program today and with the exception of XCode (probably the least accessible option) they are preinstalled and freely available. And if downloading a free development environment with a simple installer is too great a burden today, I don't think you would have gotten anywhere in the good old days.
I don't really see the burden today - we have more options than ever, and many are available out of the box, and the rest almost universally free. I can automate my OSX environment with AppleScript, JavaScript, Python, Ruby, and bash (and doubtless others) out of the box. I can build command line applications out of the box. I can build Web applications with GUIs out of the box. I can easily extend AppleScript or Python (and, I'm certain, Ruby and bash) to allow me to build GUI applications.
Programming in the 80's was different, for sure, but I have a hard time understanding the sentiment that it was somehow more accessible. Sure, BASIC was preinstalled on some platforms. Still, most platforms today have more, and better, options out of the box than any platform of the early 90's. Did you write C in the 90s for Mac OS (if we're accusing Apple of being inaccessible because of the lack of preinstalled XCode at the moment, then the 90's were far worse if you ever had to pay for THINK C or CodeWarrior).