[80386]

What about a spreadsheet program that can be scripted with Javascript?

JS is nice because all you need to write it is a text editor and a web browser, both of which just about all computers have. I had an entry-level job that involved a computer once and automated a lot of the painful stuff with JS - I bet that if more people knew JS, more people would do the same.

I don't know if that'd be a good business proposition, but I think it could be a good on-ramp.

[davedx]

Google Sheets uses JavaScript as its scripting language. The problems I've had there are related to how complicated it is to get data in and out of Sheets. If you want to update a sheet you own, you need to do a full blown OAuth2 implementation.

[mmckelvy]

Excel has an JavaScript API now as well right? At least I heard rumblings to that effect. Not sure how hard / easy it is to get data into / out of though.