Here's an interesting article: 5 reasons we don’t write code like we used to
Many of these reasons align neatly with the design principles behind MiniScript. Most modern programming environments are cobbled together from dozens of libraries, frameworks, and underlying technologies, all with their own idiosyncrasies, and often with completely different syntax. To make even a simple web app you must learn at least three languages (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript). To make a serious web is much worse: you must understand a dozen different frameworks, databases, server configuration, docker containers, backend languages, shell scripts, git, and on and on.
I've been a professional programmer for over 25 years, and honestly, all that stuff isn't fun. Programming is fun — but most of what goes into app development today isn't programming. It's all that other cruft.
MiniScript and Mini Micro are designed to make programming fun again, by (1) keeping it simple, and (2) eliminating all that extra stuff as much as humanly possible. You fire up Mini Micro, and you are at a prompt, ready to type MiniScript code. In fact that's why there isn't even a separate language at the shell prompt than what you use to write programs; it's all MiniScript. One language, and as I'm sure you all know, a language so simple it can be documented in a single page.
Yes, it still stands on the shoulders of giants — Mini Micro is built in Unity, which itself leverages other technologies like .NET, OpenGL, etc. But all that is carefully hidden. I could rewrite Mini Micro in a completely different engine (e.g. Unreal), and nobody would ever know. To the user, Mini Micro is its own virtual machine with its own language, and that is the only language you need to know. Moreover, apart from possible differences in speed, it runs identically no matter whether the host environment is Mac, Windows, Linux, or (someday) some other platform.
Of course there's a reason why most other development environments have been assembled from a hodgepodge of other languages and frameworks. Doing something like Mini Micro is hard. It requires a lot of work, and quite a bit of careful thought, to define APIs that are simple and consistent; and to provide all the tools you need — from sprites and sounds down to the code editor itself — so that you can focus on the fun part: programming.
So, no, Mini Micro isn't a cure for all the world's software development ills; it has a restricted purpose, which is making 2D games, simulations, and demos. But for that purpose, I strongly feel that it's hit the sweet spot in providing tremendous power while maintaining great simplicity. I hope you enjoy using it as much as I do!
