Wired HC Article - rev too complicated?

[Kurt Kaufman]

Speaking only for myself as one who had not the slightest interest in 
programming until I discovered HyperCard (indeed, I had NO knowledge of 
computers until my father-in-law, 30 years my senior, introduced me to 
the Mac in 1990), I do remember my initial discomfort at first using 
SuperCard. But I stuck with it, and eventually put aside HC.  The same 
occurred when first trying MetaCard, but at the time I did not need to 
produce applications for operating systems other than Mac, so its use 
was not compelling.  Much later, when I tried Revolution, again I felt 
distinctly ill-at-ease trying to deal with the notion of substacks, 
groups, menus-as-buttons, etc. as expressed in terms of their use in 
RunRev. However, needing a cross-platform solution for my clients, I 
stuck with it, deciding instead to learn the minimum necessary to work 
with RunRev, and the rest as I went along.  In terms of remembering how 
to do something, I often seem to learn best by trial-and-error, so in 
having to do X, and doing it incorrectly for RunRev, helps improve the 
chances that the correct method will thereafter be remembered.
Whether I would have become interested in programming at all were I to 
begin with the RunRev starter kit is difficult to say.  I do think what 
others have already mentioned about certain people having an interest in 
programming much as others enjoy puzzle-solving is a key factor. 
Certainly the inclusion of easy-to-script tutorials with impressive 
results is important.  For example, including a tutorial for a stack 
that would access a web site would also impress those who tend to think 
of the Internet and computers almost interchangeably.

-Kurt