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Microsoft Small Basic
Paradigm	Structured,imperative,object-oriented
Designed by	Microsoft,Vijaye Raji[1][2]
Developer	Microsoft
First appeared	October 23, 2008; 17 years ago (2008-10-23)[3][4]
Stable release	v1.2 / October 1, 2015; 10 years ago (2015-10-01)[5]
Typing discipline	Dynamic,weak
Platform	.NET Framework 4.5[5]
OS	Small Basic Desktop:Windows XP (up to version 1.0),Windows Vista,Windows 7,Windows 8,Windows 8.1,Windows 10,Windows Server 2008 R2[6] Small Basic Online:web browser
License	MIT License[7]
Filename extensions	.sb,.smallbasic
Website	smallbasic-publicwebsite.azurewebsites.net
Influenced by
Logo,QBasic,Visual Basic .NET

Microsoft Small Basic is aprogramming language,interpreter and associatedIDE.Microsoft's simplified variant ofBASIC, it is designed to help students who have learntvisual programming languages such asScratch learn text-based programming.^[8] The associated IDE provides a simplified programming environment with functionality such assyntax highlighting,intelligent code completion, and in-editor documentation access.^[9] The language has only 14 keywords.^[10]

Microsoft announced Small Basic in October 2008,^[3] and released the first stable version for distribution on July 12, 2011,^[20] on aMicrosoft Developer Network (MSDN) website, together with a teaching curriculum^[22] and an introductory guide.^[23] Between announcement and stable release, a number ofCommunity Technology Preview (CTP) releases were made.

On March 27, 2015, Microsoft released Small Basic version 1.1,^[21] which fixed a bug and upgraded the targeted.NET Framework version from version 3.5 to version 4.5, making it the first version incompatible withWindows XP.

Microsoft released Small Basic version 1.2 on October 1, 2015.^[5] Version 1.2 was the first update after a four-year hiatus to introduce new features to Small Basic. The update added classes for working with Microsoft'sKinect motion sensors,^[5] increased the number of languages supported by the included Dictionary object, and fixed a number of bugs.^[6]

On February 19, 2019, Microsoft announced Small Basic Online (SBO). It isopen source software released underMIT License onGitHub.^[24][25]

In Small Basic, one writes the illustrative"Hello, World!" program as follows:

TextWindow.WriteLine("Hello, World!")

Microsoft Small Basic isTuring complete. It supportsconditional branching,loop structures, andsubroutines forevent handling.Variables areweakly typed anddynamic with no scoping rules.

The following example demonstrates conditional branching. It ask the user forCelsius orFahrenheit and then comments on the answer in the appropriate temperature unit.

' A Program that gives advice at a requested temperature.TextWindow.WriteLine("Do you use 'C'elsius or 'F'ahrenheit for temperature?")TextWindow.WriteLine("Enter C for Celsius and F for Fahrenheit:")question_temp:' Label to jump back to input if wrong input was giventempunit=TextWindow.Read()' Temperature Definitions in Celsius:tempArray["hot"]=30' 30 °C equals 86 °FtempArray["pretty"]=20' 20 °C equals 68 °FtempArray["cold"]=15' 15 °C equals 59 °FIftempunit="C"ORtempunit="c"ThenTextWindow.WriteLine("Celsius selected!")tempunit="C"' Could be lowercase, thus make it uppercaseElseIftempunit="F"ORtempunit="f"ThenTextWindow.WriteLine("Fahrenheit selected!")' We calculate the temperature values for Fahrenheit based on the Celsius valuestempArray["hot"]=((tempArray["hot"]*9)/5)+32tempArray["pretty"]=((tempArray["pretty"]*9)/5)+32tempArray["cold"]=((tempArray["cold"]*9)/5)+32tempunit="F"' Could be lowercase, thus make it uppercaseElseGOTOquestion_temp' Wrong input, jump back to label "question_temp"EndIfTextWindow.Write("Enter the temperature today (in "+tempunit+"): ")temp=TextWindow.ReadNumber()Iftemp>=tempArray["hot"]ThenTextWindow.WriteLine("It is pretty hot.")ElseIftemp>=tempArray["pretty"]ThenTextWindow.WriteLine("It is pretty nice.")ElseIftemp>=tempArray["cold"]ThenTextWindow.WriteLine("Don't forget your coat.")ElseTextWindow.WriteLine("Stay home.")EndIf

Small Basic does not support an inlineIf statement as doesVisual Basic, for example:

Iftemp>50ThenTextWindow.WriteLine("It is pretty nice.")

This example demonstrates a loop. Starting from one and ending with ten, it multiplies each number by four and displays the result of the multiplication.

TextWindow.WriteLine("Multiplication Tables")Fori=1To10TextWindow.Write(i*4)EndFor

Whileloops are also supported, and the demonstratedForloop can be augmented through the use of theStep keyword. TheStep keyword is used in setting the value by which the counter variable,i, is incremented each iteration.

Small Basic supports basicdata types, likestrings,integers anddecimals, and will readily convert one type to another as required by the situation. In the example, both theRead andReadNumber methods read a string from the command line, butReadNumber rejects any non-numeric characters. This allows the string to be converted to a numeric type and treated as a number rather than a string by the+ operator.

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 shall be "+(age+5)+" years old!")

As Small Basic will readily convert among data types, numbers can be manipulated as strings and numeric strings as numbers. This is demonstrated through the second example.

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)

In the second example, both strings are treated as numbers and added together, producing the output 3100. Toconcatenate the two values, producing the output 1003000, it is necessary to use theText.Append(text1,text2) method.

The Small Basicstandard library includes basic classes for mathematics,string handling, andinput/output, as well as more exotic classes that are intended to make using the language more fun for learners. Examples of these include aTurtle graphics class, a class for retrieving photos fromFlickr, and classes for interacting with Microsoft Kinect sensors.^[26]

To make the classes easier to use for learners, they have been simplified. This simplification is demonstrated through the code used to retrieve a random mountain-themed image from Flickr:

Fori=1To10pic=Flickr.GetRandomPicture("mountains")Desktop.SetWallPaper(pic)Program.Delay(10000)EndFor

Small Basic includes a "Turtle" graphics library that borrows from theLogo family of programming languages. For example, to draw a square using the turtle, the turtle is moved forward by a given number of pixels and rotated 90 degrees in a given direction. This action is then repeated four times to draw the four sides of the square.

Fori=1to4Turtle.Move(100)' Forward 100 pixelsTurtle.Turn(90)' Turn 90 degrees rightEndFor

More complex drawings are possible by altering the turning angle of the turtle and the number of iterations of the loop. For example, one can draw ahexagon by setting the turn angle to 60 degrees and the number of iterations to six.

Small Basic allows the use of third-party libraries. These libraries must be written in aCLR-compatible language, and the compiled binaries must target a compatible .NET Framework version. The classes provided by the library are required to bestatic, flagged with a specificattribute, and must use a specific data type.

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

[SmallBasicType]publicstaticclassExampleClass{publicstaticPrimitiveAdd(PrimitiveA,PrimitiveB)=>A+B;publicstaticPrimitiveSomeProperty{get;set;}publicstaticPrimitivePi=>(Primitive)3.14159;}

If available, the Small Basic development environment will display documentation for third-party libraries. The development environment accepts documentation in the form of anXML file, which can be automatically generated from source code comments by tools such asMicrosoft Visual Studio andMonoDevelop.^[27]

• Marji, Majed; Price, Ed (2016).Learn to Program with Small Basic: An Introduction to Programming with Games, Art, Science, and Math.No Starch Press.ISBN 978-1593277024.
• Carlson, Edward H; Philip Conrod, Philip; Tylee Conrod, Lou (2013).Small Basic For Kids: A Computer Programming Tutorial. Kidware Software.ISBN 978-1937161828.
• The Basics of Small Basic discussion with Vijaye Raji and Erik Meijer on SmallBasic
• Introduction to Small BasicArchived 2010-07-11 at theWayback Machine discussion with Vijaye Raji and Robert Hess on SmallBasic
• Microsoft Small Basic for .NETArchived 2016-04-13 at theWayback Machine Review of Microsoft Small Basic, with sample application
• Category:Microsoft Small Basic Tasks implemented in Microsoft Small Basic onrosettacode.org

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of:Windows Programming

• Official website
• Microsoft Small Basic onGitHub

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