[Uehreka]

Sure “everyday users” aren’t clicking “View Source”, but that’s not really what the issue is about.

When I was a kid, every piece of software I used was pre-compiled, and therefore opaque. This made it difficult for me to figure out how people made certain things, and after a while I lost interest in programming.

When I got back into it later, one thing that made a huge difference was being able to see how various cool JS sites were built. The ability to “View Source” like that was revolutionary, and also allowed me to build some early fun projects, like a Cookie Clicker “AI” that could play the game automatically by calling the functions I could see in the game’s source.

I’m far from the only person with experiences like these. Yes, there was programming before View Source and there will be programming after. And for those of us with the right tools or reverse engineering skills, View Source isn’t particularly relevant. What we’re losing is a pipeline that helped people become/stay interested in programming, which makes it likely that future programmers who would’ve followed a path like mine will do something else instead.

[est31]

On the other hand, it's never been as easy to contribute to OSS projects as it is now. Github has severely lowered the requirements compared to earlier settings where you had to get an e-mail client, configure it in just the right way, etc. You have live coding youtubers, there are discord communities for all types of technology, and knowledge about programming and technology is extremely available through Google, way more than it was 20 years ago. I think young people still have tons of opportunities to start out.

[SergeAx]

Today's JavaScript "View source" is 90% useless because of Webpack et al. The original program is effectively compiled into obscure and obfuscated lowest-common-denominator JS.

[cercatrova]

You're really not going to "view source" and understand anything when all the JS I ship is minified and uglified. Nowadays, JS is simply another compile target.