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Many institutions are finding that their first year students have difficulties appreciating both the process and the art of programming. The problem appears to be threefold: first, relatively cumbersome syntax associated with conventional programming languages inhibits their ability to appreciate the forest for the trees; second, they seemingly do not appreciate the underlying process of computation, making the semantics of many artefacts of programming languages obscure; and third, they fail to appreciate programming as an intensely social endeavour.

In this paper we propose a platform, GlassOnion, specifically designed to increase appreciation for the inherently multi-faceted nature of programming. The platform aims to simplify the incremental transition along a spectrum from modern abstractions on one end, to modern architectures on the other. Starting with abstractions such as those made popular in modern …