Yes, a few minutes spent reading about Applesoft BASIC or Microsoft BASIC would've reduced the cringe factor in reading a neophyte trying to mentally grapple wi

Yes, a few minutes spent reading about Applesoft BASIC or Microsoft BASIC would've reduced the cringe factor in reading a neophyte trying to mentally grapple with old technology. "bytecode" and "virtual machine", no, no, no. That's not the path to enlightenment... in this case, print debugging, is your best bet.