[SoftwareMaven]

It is surprising how many business people aren't afraid to build monstrous macro-driven spreadsheets, but cringe at the thought of programming.

Makes me wonder if it is a UI problem. In the macro spreadsheet, you have data with code tied to it. In the programming world, you generally have code accessing data.

The abstractions might just be wrong for business people and a "simple" change could reduce a lot of IT pain.

[jacques_chester]

The reason that spreadsheets are popular is the same reason that many students trying to solve a maths problem immediately plug in the knowns, without rearranging terms first. It's fear of the abstract and comfort of the concrete.

[goalieca]

Ironically, it's a marketing problem.