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Why does Small Basic exist?

We've spoken to college students about Small Basic in the past and I've heard Small Basic explained and presented. That led me to realize that we need a short and concise explanation for the existence of Small Basic...

 

Small Basic exists to help students as young as age eight learn the foundations of computer programming and then graduate to Visual Basic via the free software, Visual Studio Express, where they can continue to build on the foundation by learning Visual C#, VB.NET, and Visual C++.

 

And here is a more feature-oriented explanation from the Small Basic founder, Vijaye...

What is Small Basic?

Small Basic is a project that is focused at making programming accessible and easy for beginners. It consists of three distinct pieces:

  1. The Language
  2. The Programming Environment
  3. Libraries

The Language draws its inspiration from an early variant of BASIC but is based on the modern .Net Framework Platform. The Environment is simple but rich in features, offering beginners several of the benefits that professional programmers have come to expect of a worthy IDE. A rich set of Libraries help beginners learn by writing compelling and interesting programs.

Who is Small Basic for?

Small Basic is intended for beginners that want to learn programming. In our internal trials we've had success with kids between the ages of 10 and 16. However, it's not limited to just kids; even adults that had an inclination to programming have found Small Basic very helpful in taking that first step.

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Comments

  • Anonymous
    May 15, 2013
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    May 16, 2013
    Good objective. I reckon kids are the most important resource on the planet. I'm also glad and appreciative that it's not just limited to kids as inclusion is an important concept as well. From what I can gather MS have been making a turbo charged contribution to the world since its start up, and not just to the world of technology.:)

  • Anonymous
    May 16, 2013
    Good objective. Nice information you have provided. Thanks for the post..!

  • Anonymous
    May 17, 2013
    Really good initiative ! I used to learn programming with qbasic, with the end of the DOS's era I'am happy to see the next "version" of Basic to come alive to fill a big gap in the learning step. I worked in a school some year back, and In the mid-90's era they had to switch from qbasic to another language. They took at first visual basic, but they choose another product in the end to make the learning step easier due to the age of the student. So really good initiative for Small Basic :-)  (it remind me the old day when was a kid you had in magazines quickbasic code to make a game by yourselft, hehe :))

  • Anonymous
    May 18, 2013
    Carlos, thank you for your comment! Anybody who read it can find the Small Basic extension list here: blogs.msdn.com/.../small-basic-extensions-gallery.aspx Thanks!

  • Anonymous
    May 18, 2013
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    May 18, 2013
    Thank you, Yagmoth! Yes, Microsoft's first product was a version of BASIC. And we've continued that trend to today with VB.NET and Small Basic! Quick BASIC was a good product, but there wasn't a need for another professional version of BASIC. However, Small Basic fills the gap (as you mentioned) by existing as an educational product, and not as a business-based product. (Another example is Kodu, which is for younger kids.) In our technological and online world today, education needs to be free. And Microsoft is helping meet that need with free solutions to learn development. Thanks!~

  • Anonymous
    January 11, 2015
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