BASIC was more than just the BASIC language (which wasn't particular good), it was the environment and integration with the hardware that made it a successful s

BASIC was more than just the BASIC language (which wasn't particular good), it was the environment and integration with the hardware that made it a successful springboard for countless developers. Being built into home micros was part of it, but it also included built-in switching video modes, drawing, audio, I/O, even inline assembler (not in all variants, but certainly the better ones). This creates a very effective and accessible learning curve. Javascript is the closest modern equivalent - but the language and it's API's are too complex. A browser-based BASIC (compiling to Javascript of course), exposing all the above in a sane synchronous manner would be interesting.