It's ironic.<p>I grew up on a ZX Spectrum [1] and then a Commodore 64 [2]. In those days, one of the first things you would do after hooking up a new [type of] computer was to open up its physical manual and type some of the programs in it.<p>In order to wow you with the technical capabilities of your shiny new toy, those first few programs almost immediately showed you how to do graphics, sound and music.<p>Those things quickly captivated me and other children who grew up on these things. It never took long before a curious kid would change one number to another, and <i>instantly make different things HAPPEN.</i><p>Today the major operating systems don't even come with an IDE, let alone a graphics API that isn't convoluted or can be used without registering windows and creating contexts and whatnot first. The lack of a simple sound/music API (e.g. that will play tunes from a string of notes) is even more woeful.<p>It's ironic that in today's much superior (and more expensive) technology, there is such a static friction to overcome before you can Make Things Happen on a computer out-of-the-box.<p>[1]: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX_Spectrum" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX_Spectrum</a><p>[2]: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_64" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_64</a>