SmallBASIC (v0.7)

[xadrieth]

Has anyone else heard of this? (I discovered it around v0.2)

It's yet another variation of BASIC, created be MicroSoft, I tried it out (v0.7), and within the first 10 minutes, I though "This is so damn cool.".

It works right out of the box, and is very powerful (microsoft claims you can make a SmallBASIC compiler with SmallBASIC itself). The IDE is extremely friendly and simple. A new feature of SmallBASIC called "Graduate" is able to translate your SmallBASIC code into VisualBASIC.

Take a look at this 5 line program (from their 69 page manual, which acts more like a tutorial book).

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

What it does that every 10 seconds, it replaces your current desktop picture with one from Flicker with the tag "Mountains".

You have got to try this out.

http://www.smallbasic.com/

I wish I had this when I first learned programming.

[Mr. DOS]

Pedantic comment: it's written as Small Basic, not SmallBASIC.

It looks neat, but honestly, I'm still glad QBasic was the only thing on hand when I started learning; while I did pick up a case of the GOTO bug, I still learned a lot from it. I'm not really sure this is such a good thing for beginning programmers: on one hand, it's BASIC, so it's easy to learn, but on the other hand, a quick skim of it shows that it seems to do an awful lot for you.

--- Mr. DOS

[natrobius]

I don't think this will really be of use anywhere except the educational area. Any serious programmer, or serious learner even will want more power and control than this.

[ah-blabla]

I don't think this will really be of use anywhere except the educational area. Any serious programmer, or serious learner even will want more power and control than this.

That is very true. You might as well learn a "real" language when learning to program. Nowadays, I know a lot of schools in Switzerland teach Java, which is one of the best languages (my opinion) around. You won't get far with Small Basic on your CV.

I must admit I do program basic (TI-Basic 68K Basic), but that is only on my calculator, and even there I mostly program in c. The advantage with basic on the calculator is I can program it directly on the calc, whereas with c I need to write it, compile it on the computer, and then transfer it.

Regarding the random picture loading tutorial -- it might be cool -- but that's more the "wow" factor of technology for technology's sake -- practicality is limited: I don't really see the point in changing backgrounds; I hardly ever see my actual desktop since I keep windows on top of it.