Microsoft Small Basic

This article is about the Microsoft programming language. For the GPL programming language, see SmallBASIC.

Microsoft Small Basic

File:Small Basic.png Small Basic running on Windows Vista
Original author(s)	Microsoft DevLabs
Developer(s)	Microsoft DevLabs
Initial release	2008
Stable release	Microsoft Small Basic v0.7 / October 2009
Written in	Microsoft .Net 3.5
Operating system	Microsoft Windows
Platform	Microsoft Windows
Type	Integrated development environment
Website	Small Basic

Microsoft Small Basic is a simplified variant of the BASIC programming language introduced by Microsoft in October 2008. With a bare minimum of concepts, Microsoft touts this as an easy programming language for beginners to grasp. The language itself has only 15 keywords, and the environment is beginner friendly with a straight-forward interface.

Microsoft Small Basic was designed by Microsoft DevLabs and released as a Technology Preview in October 2008. Its intended audience is anyone looking to begin programming, including children and beginner adults as well.

Language

The actual language is a modified version of Microsoft's QBasic language, but ported over to the .Net Framework. The traditional 'Hello World' can be written as:

TextWindow.WriteLine("Hello World")

The language itself is Turing complete and supports concepts like conditional branching and loops. Variables are typeless and dynamic, and there are no scoping rules. The language supports subroutines and the runtime uses them for event handling purposes.

Conditional Branching

TextWindow.Write("Enter the temperature today (in F): ")
temp = TextWindow.ReadNumber()
If temp > 100 Then
  TextWindow.WriteLine("It is pretty hot.")
ElseIf temp > 70 Then
  TextWindow.WriteLine("It is pretty nice.")
ElseIf temp > 50 Then
  TextWindow.WriteLine("Don't forget your coat.")
Else
  TextWindow.WriteLine("Stay home.")
EndIf

Looping

TextWindow.WriteLine("Multiplication Tables")
table = 4
For i = 1 to 10
  TextWindow.WriteLine(i + " x " + table + " = " + table * i)
EndFor

Libraries

The software ships with a builtin set of libraries which are quite modern and intended to grasp the learners' interest.

For example to change the desktop wallpaper to a variety of 10 mountain photos, the students would make use of a prebuilt "GetRandomPicture" method for Flickr so the code becomes simply:

For i = 1 To 10 
  pic = Flickr.GetRandomPicture("mountains") 
  Desktop.SetWallPaper(pic) 
  Program.Delay(10000) 
EndFor

Turtle

Microsoft Small Basic ships with a Turtle graphics library that borrows the idea from Logo. For example, you can make the turtle draw a square by simply saying:

For i = 1 to 4
  Turtle.Move(100)
  Turtle.TurnRight()
EndFor

Testing

The first trials were successfully done with several middle school children, most of them children of workers at Microsoft. Small Basic was also successfully tested using a hands-on lab approach to a group of 25 high school girls.

External links

• Official Site
• The Basics of Small Basic discussion with Vijaye Raji and Erik Meijer on SmallBasic*