The Unique Features of the Small Basic Language

[Ed Price]

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!

• Color
  Each type of code is assigned its own color, built right in the language's IDE. See Small Basic: IDE Colors .
  

What should be added to this list? Leave a comment!

You can also add to the community version of this list on TechNet Wiki .

- Tall Basic Ed