The Unique Features of the Small Basic Language

Silver Contributor

Feb 12, 2019

First published on MSDN on Oct 22, 2012

Authored by Ed Price

This blog post originates with the question in the Small Basic FAQ . We also wanted to give the community a chance to answer this question in depth in the TechNet Wiki article .

What are the unique features of the Small Basic language?

Imperative
Just like the early variants of BASIC, Small Basic is imperative and doesn't use or expose beginners to concepts like scopes, types, object orientation, and more.

Size
The Small Basic language consists of just 14 keywords.

Ease of Use
The language only uses text operators (AND, OR); not symbol operators like { } or & and |

Easy to Share
Share programs easily with the "Publish" and "Import" buttons, which share programs to and from the Small Basic program share server (smallbasic.com). Example .

Type System
There actually isn't one. You can create string and numeric constants and assign them to variables. Operations performed on these variables will be interpreted according to the content.

Variables
All variables are global and are always initialized. They can be used before they're assigned.

Events
You can create a sub-routine and assign it to an event. This will wire the it up to an the event.

Libraries
The libraries provide static "Objects" that group operations, properties and events. New libraries can be created using other .Net Languages and added to the Small Basic runtime.

Graduate to Visual Basic
By clicking the "Graduate" button, you can move your program into Visual Basic and continue to learn programming, building the skills of a professional developer!