Redmond Provides a Leg Up to Beginning Programmers with Small Basic
Redmond Provides a Leg Up to Beginning Programmers with Small Basic
Posted 12/22/2008 at 8:04pm
| by Mark Edward Soper
16
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If you're of "a certain age," you might remember when "computer literacy" equaled "everyone will be a programmer." Unfortunately, the limitations of BASIC (line numbers leading to incomprehensible "spaghetti code," primitive graphics, and no syntax checking) made most would-be programmers dropouts.
I haven't written a computer program in over 20 years, but Microsoft has introduced a modern, easy-to-use language designed for the masses (and for dropouts like me): Small Basic.
Small Basic, available in pre-release version 0.2, runs on Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, Windows Vista 64-bit Editions Service Pack 1, Windows XP, Windows XP 64-bit. It relies on .NET Framework 3.5 SP1, which you will need to install if you don't have it already.
This Ain't Your Daddy's BASIC
Microsoft says that Small Basic "is a project that is aimed at making computer programming accessible to beginners. The project comprises a simple programming language that gathers inspiration from the original BASIC programming language; a modern and attractive programming environment; and rich, extensible libraries. Together they make programming fun for kids and adults alike."
Don't mistake Small Basic for BASIC, though. Line numbers are nowhere in sight, and the syntax is easy to understand, with only 15 basic keywords. Small Basic also includes built-in Logo-style Turtle graphics, so you can work with text, numbers, and graphics.
No Spaghetti Code, and No Brain Tangles, Either
By banishing line numbers, Small Basic prevents "spaghetti code," and its IDE (integrated development environment) provides plenty of hand-holding with features such as command completion and reference (using Microsoft IntelliSense) and syntax checking. The IDE provides separate editor and program windows, and doesn't compile programs, so you can run a program immediately, modify it, and see what happens. I could have used this level of user-friendly immediate gratification when I was struggling with a 110-baud TTY connection to a time-sharing mainframe a long time ago (but in this galaxy).
Learning More
The 4MB Small Basic installer includes the program and a 62-page PDF file, Introducing Small Basic.pdf (also available separately), which teaches the language through tutorials. If you're curious, check out the new MSDN Small Basic blog, which also offers weekly code samples, and the MSDN Small Basic code gallery.
More like this
Marcus_Soperus
December 23, 2008 at 5:58pm
One of my cousins had to write some phrase 100 times as punishment for some high school infraction. He asked the teacher if he could type it.
He "typed" it, all right. He wrote a BASIC program that printed the phrase 100 times, tore off the printout, and took it to school the next day. The teacher accepted the printout.
----------------------------------------------------------
It's amazing how illogical a business built on binary logic can be.
AndyYankee17
December 23, 2008 at 6:30pm
yep that's what a real geek would do, completely bypass the copy and paste
Keith E. Whisman
December 23, 2008 at 11:04pm
Back then you needed scissors, paste and a copy machine to do something as simple as copy and paste.
Queenof1
December 23, 2008 at 1:31pm
I remember "programming" in BASIC for Olympics of the Mind, a sort of competition for Gifted children. I was the only one without a partner. There were several problem that you had to code properly and then show the judges the code on the screen. I came in 1st place.
BTW, what was the graphical program back then? I coded some sort of design and even changed the ink color.
shellpc
December 23, 2008 at 2:22pm
did that back in gw BASIC 3.0 back in junior high. It was part of the whole BASIC package, I forget what it was called though.
nekollx
December 23, 2008 at 8:58am
icodes a all text branching story in BASIC
then my teacher erased it insteado f reviewing it
:/
mlauzon
December 23, 2008 at 12:15pm
Why end it?!:
10 PRINT "HELLO WORLD!"
20 GOTO 10
RUN
Although, you didn't really need to use double digit numbers, you could use single digit numbers as well...for example:
1 PRINT "HELLO WORLD!"
2 GOTO 1
RUN
Of course you could start using double (etc) digit numbers if the program was really long: 1-10, 1-100, 1-1000
Michael
bloodgain
December 23, 2008 at 7:44am
Oh yeah, it's all fun and games until someone has to add more than 10 lines of code!
Driftweed
December 23, 2008 at 12:48am
Man those were the days! sitting in front of the telvision with the radioshack Tandy computer just typing away and PRAYING no one stepped on the power chord, lol. Even remember my first cassette tape "hard drive", and even later on connecting to the "internet" with my kick ass 2400 baud rate modem!
yeah those were the good old days...
Keith E. Whisman
December 22, 2008 at 11:31pm
The basic language was awsome. I remember the OS OSS that would on the fly compile and execute the code. I had hundreds of basic programs for an Atari 800 way back when. It really was awsome. It had a cassette tape drive for storage and a diskette drive also for storage and the modem was the same you saw in WarGames. How Sweet those days were. Way back when.
nmanguy
December 22, 2008 at 9:25pm
No line numbers? I wonder if it will end up being like the BASIC that Texas Instruments puts on calculators.
Keith E. Whisman
December 23, 2008 at 1:26am
Yeah I remember Line numbers.. those were the days..
10 goto 20 if y or something like that
20
30
40
run
At the end of the code you just typed Run and then pressed enter and if everything was good then the program would run. I used to enjoy a simple program I wrote for my own enjoyment that would count from 1 to infinity or until the computer over heated and died but I can't remember the code. It was simple like three lines and there was a goto in there somewhere.. and an If and what not... God that was ages ago but hey you could have decent graphics with basic it just took thousands and thousands of lines of code. You had to break up the screen into a grid and give the coordinates in your code. it was simple and easy and I understood it.
I don't remember much about it anymore and I look at C or Visual basic and I'm completely lost.
mgalletly
December 23, 2008 at 7:20am
10 int i=0
20 print i
30 for i=i+1
40 goto 20
run
If memory serves from my old TRS-80 Color Computer.
AndyYankee17
December 23, 2008 at 3:46am
int i = 0;
while(1)
{
cout << i;
i++;
}
something like that?
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