But ColdFusion didn't change much. And the abstractions it provides are generally frowned upon and ultimately, you need to learn what lies beneath. Doing that for Mathematics would be a bad idea. I can't find the reference but it was Feynman or someone who said something about that we have to let go of the idea that I am here to show you why Mathematics or Physics is fun. Mathematics is fun but it requires work on your part. If it seems cruel, that isn't so to torment you - that's how it is. There are shortcomings and people work consciously to overcome them.

There always is room for improving mathematics or programming or anything for that sake. But why not aim at converting the non-programmers to programmers(which takes work - a lot of work) and then working at optimizing programming for programmers? It seem like a better option than transforming programming to suit non-programmers.