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Announcing Small Basic v0_2!

As promised, we have a new release of Small Basic!  This version contains all the most requested features by the user community.  Thanks everyone for the great suggestions and for making Small Basic better and better!  Please keep the feedback flowing.  We're listening.

For those that are new, Microsoft Small Basic is a project that aims at bringing the fun back to programming and encourages everyone, from kids to adults to take their first step into the wondeful world of programming!

At a high level, this release includes the following updates:

  • Bug fixes on the IDE
  • A smarter compiler with better language service features, including auto-indent
  • Inclusion of ElseIf keyword in the language
  • Better File access operations
  • Access to position and angle of Turtle

Check out the latest version here.

Here's a complete list of all the updates

Language and Editor

  • Several Crash fixes
  • Support for non-US regional OS settings
  • Auto-indent 
  • Parentheses for conditional expressions are now optional
  • Added ElseIf keyword to the language
  • Support for inline comments
  • Fixed bug with negative step value in For..EndFor

Library API Additions

  • Array
    • GetItemCount
    • ContainsIndex
    • ContainsValue
    • RemoveValue
  • Desktop
    • Get ScreenWidth and ScreenHeight
  • File
    • CreateDirectory
    • DeleteFile
    • GetFiles
    • GetDirectories
    • WriteContents Fix: Now works even if the file doesn't already exist.
  • GraphicsWindow
    • Performance Improvements
    • Width/Height Fix: No need to set these twice
    • Hide Fixed crash
    • Add/FillTriangle
    • RotateShape
    • CanResize You now have the option of changing the resize mode
    • Left/Top You can now position the window
    • GetColorFromRGB Construct a valid color value from the color components
  • Math
    • Power
    • GetRandomNumber Fix: Is one based and includes the max-number in range. [Breaking Change]
  • Program
    • Fixes for End()
    • ProgramDirectory Gets the directory of the program
  • Text
    • Append For those times when you want a number to be treated as text
    • GetCharacter Unicode character code to Character
    • GetCharacterCode Character to Unicode Character code
  • TextWindow
    • Clear
    • Left/Top
  • Turtle
    • Angle
    • X, Y

Comments

  • Anonymous
    December 18, 2008
    えー、日本ではとんと目立たない Small Basic なわけですが。 米msdn Forumでは...

  • Anonymous
    December 18, 2008
    Small Basic para os brasileiros tambem. Muito bom :-)

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2009
    今年もよろしくお願いいたします。 Happy New Year 2009!This New Year's card was made by using Small Basic v0.2. The string HAPPY NEW YEAR! was drawn by Turtle Graphics. The sourc

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2009
    This is a great application. It allows kids to learn easily to program. This version is better - my son loves building programs on this IDE. The only thing that I think that can improve is the API functions - I think it should be able to access Windows API to draw controls... Although this, it is a great application.

  • Anonymous
    January 13, 2009
    That random number function thing nailed the game I wrote.  Took me a while to figure out when I could have just read the release notes before downloading.  No one to blame but myself. I think starting at one for a random function makes a lot of sense for a teaching language.

  • Anonymous
    January 26, 2009
    Starting programming? have fun! Why not pick up a much better language for learning? Try Smalltalk. it has been in this world much longer than basic and a lot more fun, i think! See squeak.org and "Smalltalk"on Wikipedia

  • Anonymous
    July 16, 2009
    Hey, i just started on small basic programming and it is so AMAZING, tough, but AMAZING i planned on becoming a computer programmer, i was wondering if you could give me a list of each, i guess action, things like "goto" or "TextWindow", what things are called.  i was wondering if you could send me a list of all those and what each do, i would greatly appreciate it.

  • Anonymous
    July 17, 2009
    Try the following for links to forums, blogs, and especially to a getting started guide: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/devlabs/cc950524.aspx For a list of other commands go to: http://doc.smallbasic.com/

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