I'm probably equally rusty, but I believe ",8,1" loaded programs written in machine language, and ",8" was for BASIC programs (at least that's what I recall doing). So it looks like the port was written in BASIC.
Sounds like what AppStream is going for is Windows applications hosting, with the user I/O being shuttled to a non-Windows device. In that case, Windows Server is the only logical choice.
Yep, nothing to do with the original bill. Arizona legislators have the ability to introduce "strike everything" amendments (first sentence of the amendment identifies this as what it is), which completely discard the text of an existing bill being considered and replace it with something else. This is usually done because (I believe) the process of replacing the text doesn't change where it is in the actual legislative process, allowing controversial bills to bypass parts of the process, or allowing legislators to reintroduce bills that were killed by previous votes.
I'm glad I like living in Arizona for plenty of other reasons.