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Small Basic V0.9 is here!

  • Article

Marking the 300k download milestone, comes the 9th installment of Small Basic, the fastest and the best yet!  This version of Small Basic packs a ton of bug fixes, performance improvements and some of the most requested features. 

Download the new version here!

Firstly, the Small Basic compiler and runtime have been overhauled and the result is a big performance gain.  Some tight loop programs run up to 4 times faster than the previous versions.  This has been the primary focus of the release.

Next, we have new additions to the library. 

  • We now have a Controls object that allows you to add Buttons and TextBoxes and react to click and text change events. 
  • The Shapes object adds support for adding/modifying, animating and zooming text.  This is extremely useful for displaying and updating text frequently, like the score in a game.
  • The Sound object now has a new operation, PlayMusic, which plays music described by a subset of Music Markup Language supported by QBasic.  An example is: Sound.PlayMusic("O5 C8 C8 G8 G8 A8 A8 G4 F8 F8 E8 E8 D8 D8 C4")

And then, there are the bug fixes.  I won’t go into the details but there are a ton of fixes.  An important update is the change in the default extension for Small Basic documents.  Small Basic documents get a default extension of “.smallbasic” instead of “.sb” to avoid conflicts with MIT’s Scratch.

Last, but certainly not the least, is the support for right-to-left languages and the first localized language in that series is Arabic.  Also included are Dutch and Polish versions, bringing the count of supported languages to 15!

Comments

  • Anonymous
    June 11, 2010
    Terrific. I use it in the computer labs 2nd - 5th grades.

  • Anonymous
    June 11, 2010
    Congratulation! I like SmallBasic very much !  

  • Anonymous
    June 12, 2010
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    June 15, 2010
    I love it... I think they did a really good job. I love microsoft, the only thing i dont like is Internet Explorer. I hope Internet Explorer 9 is alot faster and better.

  • Anonymous
    June 15, 2010
    I love it... I think they did a really good job. I love microsoft, the only thing i dont like is Internet Explorer. I hope Internet Explorer 9 is alot faster and better.

  • Anonymous
    June 15, 2010
    I love it... I think they did a really good job. I love microsoft, the only thing i dont like is Internet Explorer. I hope Internet Explorer 9 is alot faster and better.

  • Anonymous
    June 15, 2010
    I love it... I think they did a really good job. I love microsoft, the only thing i dont like is Internet Explorer. I hope Internet Explorer 9 is alot faster and better.

  • Anonymous
    June 16, 2010
    Small Basic is good environment. I want that you to do many libraries for other purposes. Thanks. vijayeg, can you do many tutorials(on russian language). Thanks a lot=) Send me to maxibonino@gmail.com

  • Anonymous
    June 17, 2010
    I've written a number game program. The computer picks a number and you try to guess it. I'd like to see if any one could import it, simplify the code but with the same result, and then post the import code on this page. Import code: XRF373

  • Anonymous
    June 17, 2010
    v0.9 is great! I really like the Controls object

  • Anonymous
    June 18, 2010
    Why didn’t I know about this!? I’ll have to give this a shot. Why does it use floppy disk icons for save? How many children know what a floppy disk is? Seriously, it’s about time you dropped the floppy Microsoft.

  • Anonymous
    June 18, 2010
    My Mandelbrot programs run much faster in v0.9 than they did in v0.8.  This is a very nice improvement. thanks..

  • Anonymous
    June 19, 2010
    small basic 0.9 is great! how do you get the program to read the text boxes in the library "Controls" ?

  • Anonymous
    August 08, 2010
    I'm afraid this is a v1.0 feature request as I couldn't find anywhere else to post. I have just successfully ported a couple of Basic programs that have been with me a number of years (Mandlebrot Set Generator & Tic Tac Toe) My only problems were associated with

  1. No 'Exit Loop' statement.
  2. Subroutines not accepting parameters aka. Local variables
  3. No Functions Please consider these, as they will encourage good programming practise. Keep up the good work!

  • Anonymous
    August 08, 2010
    It says, "Firstly, the Small Basic compiler and runtime have been overhauled..." There is no compiler mentioned in the pdf instructions, nor any button with that option. It cannot run without the .net framwork and the .dll files.

  • Anonymous
    August 16, 2010
    I tried out my long-dormant BASIC skills on this and man.  What the heck?  No "print" command?  No if/then loops?  No variable($)?  No GOSUB? So much for ever jumping back in and learning a little coding...

  • Anonymous
    October 20, 2010
    I love the Sound.PlayMusic operation, but unfortunately it seems that the published silverlight version would not play the tunes. Other sound functions (particularly the built-in sounds like chimes) work though in the silverlight version.

  • Anonymous
    October 23, 2010
    This small basic is BRILLIANT! Just what the doctor ordered. Ever since the loss of VB 6 there has been no simple programming language for those of us who want to create quick programs. One of the reasons why people yelped loudly about the loss of VB 6 and the creation of VB.NET was because a simple "quick-and-dirty" language was lost. The push-bike was traded for the Ferrari. But we need a push-bike every now and then! Please don't turn Small Basic into another Ferrari, but keep it small and sweet. One request: could Small Basic include a mechanism whereby we can create forms visually, just as was the original vision of VB that helped make it take-off? Thanks, Marty.

  • Anonymous
    October 23, 2010
    Hey this is fantastic! Only just stumbled across it! Since the move from VB 6 to VB.NET, there has been the lacuna of a simple programming language in a Windows .NET context. What VB had, was that it was simple and VB.NET became complex. But there are many tasks that need a "quick-and-dirty" fix. Thanks so much for creating Simple Basic so that we can do this! One request: is it possible to provide the ability to create Forms visually, as VB originally did? This is one of the reasons why VB became so popular! Please, keep Small Basic simple! We don't need another complex language. I love it that you don't have to declare variables. Just simple and easy. Thanks, Marty.

  • Anonymous
    November 08, 2010
    Good on Microsoft for some nod towards the roots of computer programming enthusiasm. Here's hoping that a version of Small Basic makes it into the next Windows.

  • Anonymous
    February 19, 2011
    How dow you replace the older versions