The Apple II was kind of special, though. BASIC was available to you within a few seconds of turning the machine on, and it was built-in. The availability of the language kind of prompted you to try things out and explore the system.
I see the learning curve as being a lot higher for kids these days. Computers are more accessible and prevalent, but the amount of effort to get something running, even "Hello World", is much higher.
Someone (was it Bill Atkinson?) once said he wished HyperCard was built into the ROM of every Mac. I wonder what the world would be like now with a whole generation of kids playing with hypertext and simple OO concepts.
I see the learning curve as being a lot higher for kids these days. Computers are more accessible and prevalent, but the amount of effort to get something running, even "Hello World", is much higher.
Someone (was it Bill Atkinson?) once said he wished HyperCard was built into the ROM of every Mac. I wonder what the world would be like now with a whole generation of kids playing with hypertext and simple OO concepts.