The Lost Art of Simple and Personal Software
The modern web has a lot of power, yet I often find myself thinking about the 90s. Tools like Visual Basic, Delphi, and even Flash, didn't just let us build personal programs; they made it fun, mainly because they made starting so easy.
Firing up Visual Basic, Delphi, or Flash was like walking into a workshop with your tools all laid out. You could just start working on your problem. Visual UI design, drag-and-drop parts, easy database connections, and self-contained executables. These all made working on a personal project something you actually wanted to do. I remember this ease letting me try to build a chess puzzle solver in high school, automate renaming a bunch of files for my mom’s scanning project, and even create a Pokémon trivia app in Flash that I proudly shared with friends on floppy disks. These weren't huge projects; they were things I could explore because the tools were easy to use.
There’s a big gap between slapping together a script and building large web applications. It feels like we don’t have as many options for that middle area these days. Old desktop IDEs were great for this because they cut down on the setup and let you focus on your actual idea—the important part. This low barrier didn't just get you to build solutions for small problems; it got you into the habit of making things, a kind of creative flow where the tools didn't get in your way.
The Modern Maze: Choices, Overhead, and Why We Don't Bother
Trying to get that simple "idea-to-program" feeling today often feels like trying to find your way through a maze. A personal project that used to be a fun weekend thing now starts with a long list of decisions before you can even think about the actual logic:
- Core Language (Backend/Full-stack): Python, Go, Node.js, Ruby, Java, C#?
- Web Framework: Flask, FastAPI, Django, Express, Spring Boot, Rails?
- Frontend Framework/Library: React, Vue, Svelte, Angular, or just plain HTML/CSS/JS?
- JavaScript Ecosystem: npm, yarn, pnpm? TypeScript? Bundlers like Webpack, Parcel, or Vite?
- Styling: Plain CSS, SASS/LESS, Tailwind CSS, Styled Components, CSS Modules?
- Database: SQLite for something simple? PostgreSQL for something solid? A NoSQL type like MongoDB?
- ORM/Database Client: SQLAlchemy, GORM, Prisma, Dapper, or just write SQL yourself?
- API Design: REST, GraphQL, or gRPC?
- Packaging & Deployment: Docker, serverless, a PaaS, or set up a server yourself?
This decision overload is exhausting and a major turn-off, especially for small personal tools where you shouldn't need to be a systems architect. This difficulty often kills projects before they even begin. It's a far cry from the old 'open IDE, design, code, solve' approach that made building small utilities enjoyable.
Even new GenAI coding tools, which are supposed to make development simpler, often just show how complex things are. Tools like GitHub Copilot, Windsurf, or Cursor can write some code for you, but when they mess up or keep on giving you weird output, it’s often because current tech stacks are just so complicated. There are so many ways to do simple things that the AI can get confused. This just shows that the complexity is still a roadblock to that "just build it" feeling and makes starting new, small projects less attractive.
This isn't just nostalgia; it's about software as a personal problem-solver, a role now harder to fill. New programmers might not even grasp the empowerment of easily building a useful tool, an experience defined by quick starts, not setup battles.
What's truly missed is that low-friction environment which didn't just let you build, it made you want to. While that casual, spur-of-the-moment tool creation has faded, the desire for simpler, direct building methods remains strong. Advancements in AI, low-code platforms, and a growing awareness of this "friction problem" offer hope. Perhaps we're nearing an era where the joy of effortless creation returns, letting us improve our digital lives, one small program at a time.