I think there's always going to be friction for old programmers used to their ways, but why then aren't new programmers more successful with their piñata alternatives to text? ;)
Alternatives have been proposed and they haven't caught on so far (for general usage, I'm not talking about specialized applications where they make sense).
If I think of non textual rep I'm getting a picture of someone trying to strike a pinata with a blind fold on where the someone is me.