One of the many potentially great things that died when DEC did was Modula-3, a language with huge promise (and one that didn't jump the shark with Wirth (see: Oberon)). There's a small community keeping it alive, and it's design is still influential (the creator of Python cites it as a primary influence). Perhaps it's time to give it another look. Whenever these sorts of "what should the language look like..." debates come up, as often as not I think "sounds like Modula-3".