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Microsoft Small Basic

Microsoft Small Basic
Small Basic.png
Small Basic running on Windows 7
Original author(s)Microsoft DevLabs
Developer(s)Microsoft DevLabs
Initial release2008
Stable releaseMicrosoft Small Basic v1.0 / 12th July 2011
Written inMicrosoft .Net 3.5
Operating systemMicrosoft Windows
PlatformMicrosoft Windows
TypeIntegrated development environment
Websitehttp://www.smallbasic.com/

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 accredits this as an easy programming language for beginners to grasp. The language itself has only 14 keywords,[1] and the environment is beginner-friendly, with a straightforward interface. Small Basic Version 1.0 (12 June 2011)[2] was released with an updated Microsoft MSDN website that included several new Small Basic guides for beginners through a partnership with ComputerScienceForKids.com. The published Small Basic guides include a complete Developer's Reference Guide, a Beginning Small Basic tutorial, and a republished classic programming book by David H. Ahl.[3]

Microsoft Small Basic was designed by Microsoft DevLabs and released as a Technology Preview[4] in October 2008. Its intended audience is anyone looking to begin programming, including children and beginner adults as well.

Contents

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.Write("Hello World")

or:

TextWindow.WriteLine("Hello World")

The first example just writes 'Hello World', but the second example writes 'Hello World' then enters a new line below it.

Note that traditional Basic variants, including Microsoft QuickBasic, used a different syntax:

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

Data Types

The language supports basic implementation of data types, like strings, integers and decimals.

TextWindow.WriteLine("Enter your name:")name = TextWindow.Read()TextWindow.Write("Enter your age: ")age = TextWindow.ReadNumber()TextWindow.WriteLine("Hello " + name + "!")TextWindow.WriteLine("In 5 years you will be " + age + 5 + "years old!")

In the above example, the TextWindow library gets user input twice- Read() for a text value and ReadNumber() to get a number. ReadNumber also makes the language more user-friendly by preventing invalid numerical values, such as "asdf", from being typed.

Advanced programmers should note that Small Basic stores all values- including Arrays- as formatted strings. Hence, strings containing numerical data can be manipulated as numbers in various contexts, and vice versa:

TextWindow.WriteLine(Math.log("100")) 'Prints 2TextWindow.WriteLine("100" + "3000") ' Prints 3100TextWindow.WriteLine("Windows " + 8) ' Prints Windows 8TextWindow.WriteLine(Text.GetLength(1023.42)) ' Prints 7 (length of decimal representation including decimal point)

(The second example can be overcome by using Text.Append().)

Libraries

Standard Library

Small Basic ships with a standard library that is fairly extensive, considering the language is intended to be used to learn, rather than to develop production-grade applications. This standard library has the basic classes you would expect from a library, such as the ability to create and read files, as well as providing a "Turtle" class, similar to Logo, and the ability to retrieve images from Flickr.

As this is a language for learning, the process of retrieving images from Flickr has been vastly simplified, as demonstrated in the Small Basic code below.

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

Third-party Libraries

Small Basic also allows the use of libraries created by a third party. These libraries must be written in a CLR-compatible language, and the classes that are intended for use with Small Basic must be static, and must be flagged with an attribute showing that Small Basic is to use them. Functions, properties, and variables within these classes must return a "Primitive" structure, which is contained within the Small Basic standard library.

An example of a class to be used in Small Basic is provided below, written in C#.

[SmallBasicType]public static class ExampleSBClass{  public static Primitive Add(Primitive A, Primitive B)  { return A + B;  }   public static Primitive SomeProperty { get; set; }   public static Primitive Pi  { get {  return (Primitive)3.14159; }  }}

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

Older Basic dialects, like Microsoft QuickBasic, did not use

EndFor

but

Next i

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.[5]

See also

Related Microsoft technologies:

Related languages:

References

  1. ^ Microsoft Small Basic Home Page
  2. ^ Small Basic 1.0 Released
  3. ^ Small Basic Programming Books
  4. ^ About DevLabs
  5. ^ The Basics of Small Basic

External links

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