Ask HN: Would a color PET have been better than c64 for high level programming?

[amichail]

Hobby programmers in the 80s would not have been distracted by trying to code fancy graphics and sound using low level programming.

Instead, they could have programmed in a high level language such as BASIC and exercised their creativity in a different way that is more relevant in today's world.

[dtagames]

What do mean? The Commodore 64 shipped with BASIC. Even the cheap VIC-20 had it. And both machines had a real keyboard, making programming much easier than with the PET and its squashed, square keys.

[amichail → dtagames]

But the fancy graphics and sound were a distraction for hobby programmers. Not only did you need difficult low level programming to make the best of them, but they also enabled distracting games made by others that kept you from programming more.

[JohnFen → amichail]

Those "distracting games" often were what brought people into programming in the first place. If they didn't exist, a whole lot of top-notch programmers would never have entered the field.