I wrote about this half a year ago: https://bjoernkw.com/2016/03/13/load81/ https://bjoernkw.com/2016/03/13/load81/ "Because the C64 boots directly into BASIC

I wrote about this half a year ago: https://bjoernkw.com/2016/03/13/load81/ https://bjoernkw.com/2016/03/13/load81/ "Because the C64 boots directly into BASIC the main user interface of the machine is an easily accessible programming environment." Though I only realised it on a subliminal level back then, booting your computer and being able to program it right from the boot prompt with immediate feedback was one of the magical properties of the C64 and to some extent the Amiga. In a way you could say these computers offered the first general purpose REPL. This property is severely lacking from every mainstream OS nowadays, which of course is intentional because for the most part these operating systems target consumers and hence quite understandably try to hide perceived complexity at all costs. Ironically, the environment that comes closest to these early desktop programming environments is Microsoft Excel. In fact, my father (whom I'm incredibly grateful for introducing me to computers at a young age) although not a programmer by profession used to develop business applications on his C64 while just a few years later he resorted to Excel for the same tasks, which in some ways of course made things easier but also was limited in what you could do with it. I'm quite sure a modern, well-designed programming environment in that vein would be conducive to both business application development and education.