How about a simpler Functional language? Maybe AppIgnite?

I think nearly every programmer has written a game. Why? Because dev's tend to be gamers...they are "game domain experts." What a Dev knows is easiest for them to program. Like my friend, who released a time tracker app, he was a contract programmer and he needed a time tracking solution so he wrote it and sold it to others. It was written because it was in his head.

Think of all the niche apps out there that could be written, but will never be written because the "domain expert" is not a programmer. Ideally, there would be a "functional" language intuitive enough for anyone to get started, right-out-of-the-box.

And when I say "functional" I'm not referring to the myriad of expressive languages that have emerged, I envision something visual, less syntactic, but still extensible, so that the idea-man could mock up a working app and possibly team-up with others to extend the solution.

I'm really excited to hear more about AppIgnite. Although it's not yet ready for prime-time I think Jason is on the right track. I learned about AppIngine on Techzing (an outstanding Podacast, where Jason and Justin share everything of interest from the world of entrepreneurial dev's). They both have home-grown commercial apps and share their daily thoughts and experiences through the Podcast.

I know the dream of a "programmer-less-programming-language" has come and gone in many forms, but listening to Jason expound on AppIgnite's design I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on it. This has the potential to be a productivity "game-changer" for everybody who has an idea for an app, but nowhere to start.