I used to think that Python was the answer to this. Not dealing with dependency hell or any other "enterprisey" features, just plain Python with maybe a graphic

I used to think that Python was the answer to this. Not dealing with dependency hell or any other "enterprisey" features, just plain Python with maybe a graphics lib for outputting graphics to the screen. It requires almost no rituals to get something going. But of course, you have to boot into your OS first, open a text editor or IDE, etc -- it doesn't replicate the "instant on" appliance feel of the C64. I loved my C64 and BASIC was my first programming language... but boy was it limited. It wasn't a good BASIC for the standards of its time. It was hard to program games with it, and in order to do any graphics you had to PEEK and POKE, which can hardly be considered "programming in BASIC" or user-friendly...