For people without mentors or exposure to the craft, they often have no idea why or where to start. They don't even know enough to select a book to start with. Add to that the immense complexity they face just to get python or .net working.
When I started all I had to do was turn on the computer (booted to a BASIC interpreter), type a few lines, and hit F2.
> For people without mentors or exposure to the craft, they often have no idea why or where to start.
I think you missed my point. My point was that it doesn't take being a "special" person to get started. These days all you do is type "How do I learn to be a programmer" into google and you'll get a general gist of where to begin. The assumption that people are that utterly helpless makes my mind boggle.
> Add to that the immense complexity they face just to get python or .net working.
Ok, I'll let you get away with .NET, but getting python installed and starting it from the command line is not immensely complex. Even my brother who is technology averse managed to do this without even asking for my help.
> When I started all I had to do was turn on the computer (booted to a BASIC interpreter), type a few lines, and hit F2.
You were lucky, when I were a lad, the computer turned on and presented me with a monitor ROM prompt, then I had to work it out from there ;)
When I started all I had to do was turn on the computer (booted to a BASIC interpreter), type a few lines, and hit F2.