> Your common people back then were far more computer-literate than most of career programmers today.
I absolutely don't buy this.
My father, a high school English teacher, could barely run a spreadsheet that I set up for his grades--something that basically everyone can do today without blinking.
I second this. Flash, HyperCard, Dreamweaver, VisualBasic 6 are all the tools I (along with my classmates) played with during high school before any official cs/engineering training.
I absolutely don't buy this.
My father, a high school English teacher, could barely run a spreadsheet that I set up for his grades--something that basically everyone can do today without blinking.
And even he could use Hypercard.
It's the tools, not the people.