How Programmers Stole the Web
http://www.asktog.com/columns/028WebStealers.html

Tognazzini, Bruce
Nielsen Norman Group
2000

Abstract:

In the late 1970s, a great flood of creative talent, drawn from the ranks of people who had never before touched a computer, took to the keyboards of the early microcomputers and started a revolution. The early programming environments and languages were simple, natural, and accessible. Within five years, that group had been disenfranchised by the advent of 'serious' computing environments, such as Pascal and C, and software settled back down to being the business of professionals. With the advent of the web, another even greater flood of talent was unleashed, but this time the end came sooner. Within two years, the originally simple HTML environment had become clouded with hacks on top of hacks, as the C++ boys moved in and took over. The new talent could only continue to produce pretty pictures, while the traditional priesthood again took up the real work of programming. The web has stagnated ever since.