What is Small Basic?
Small basic is microsofts latest and greatest Minified programming language. Small basic is a great language to start learning on as everything has been simplified so as its easy to pick up and write some code. While this really simplified code is basic, it can create some quite impressive results without much work. There have already been a fair few games made in small basic and with flickr integration amongst its features its well worth a quick look.
Learning Small basic won’t take you long, whatever your skillset – even if its the first programming you ever do, you are likely to find it fairly easy to just pick up small basic and write a short script for something. For example you could write a 1 line script to randomly display a flickr image on the screen, or with the LOGO turtle intergration you could use it similar to the basic programming a lot of people learn in school.
Small basic is great fun and small, give it a try, Subscribe to this blog (click the rss icon top right) and we will guide you through the smallbasic paths, learn a bit of programming and look at some great little software’s people have developed using Small Basic.
The best bits for us about small basic are:
- Its Free!
- Its Tiny (a small download and a small knowledge base)
- Its New (relatively)
- Its Fun
- Its Quick
- Its a great place to start learning programming
- Its like Q Basic and Basic, only newer and easier!
Microsoft Describe it as:
Small Basic is a project that’s aimed at bringing “fun” back to programming. By providing a small and easy to learn programming language in a friendly and inviting development environment, Small Basic makes programming a breeze. Ideal for kids and adults alike, Small Basic helps beginners take the first step into the wonderful world of programming.
- Small Basic derives its inspiration from the original BASIC programming language, and is based on the Microsoft .NET platform. It is really small with just 15 keywords and uses minimal concepts to keep the barrier to entry as low as possible.
- The Small Basic development environment is simple, yet provides powerful modern environment features like Intellisense™ and instant context sensitive help.
- Small Basic allows third-party libraries to be plugged in with ease, making it possible for the community to extend the experience in fun and interesting ways.