Small Basic 1.0 is here!
After more than two years of pre-release versions of Small Basic, we are finally releasing the 1.0 version. Although we know that there a number of features we still haven’t implemented, we feel that Small Basic now has a solid set of the core features that make it useful to beginners. We hope to get everyone onto the 1.0 version so that we have a common baseline to move forward.
Over the past few months, we have been focused largely on our online experience and also the Small Basic translation efforts. There is a huge demand for Small Basic outside the US, and so we want to help beginners in other parts of the world to get started in programming. Here’s what’s new:
- Small Basic 1.0 – Small Basic 1.0 is a minor update to version .95 with the following changes:
- The Icelandic language was added through the great work of a volunteer in the community. (Thanks to Jon B Georgsson!) The addition of Icelandic brings us to 20 languages. That’s pretty amazing and demonstrates both the strong demand for local versions of Small Basic for and also the great support we have from the global Small Basic community.
- We updated the Small Basic setup and version information.
- Some editorial bugs were fixed in the strings used by Small Basic.
- The End User License Agreement (EULA) has been updated to reflect that Small Basic is no longer considered ‘Pre-Release’ software.
Although we haven’t really added new features in 1.0, besides Icelandic, we do have a list of feature requests from users, and we are looking at how we can add them in the future. I also want to let you know about some new Small Basic extensions from our friends at the TeachingKidsProgramming website. More details below…
TeachingKidsProgramming provides free courseware to introduce kids (ages 10+) to programming. New in this compatible release of the Small Basic Fun extensions ( https://extendsmallbasic.codeplex.com ) is a recipe '(m)adLibs' which you can use to introduce the MVC pattern to your kids. It includes several new objects, such as a Viewer and a Parser to support teaching of this pattern.
- New Small Basic website on MSDN – A lot of work has gone into re-creating the Small Basic website. We hope you will find it useful. In addition to a new look and cleaner design, we have also partnered with Computer Science for Kids to publish sample chapters from several of their Small Basic E-books on our site. We hope you will find these high-quality guides useful for learning and having fun with Small Basic.
- Translated Curriculum – We’ve been receiving requests from abroad for translated versions of our teaching curriculum. So over the last several months we have put a lot of effort into making this curriculum available in more languages. This is a work in progress as some languages still have English screenshots, but we do now have all languages translated. You can find the curriculum here.
Finally, we’d like to thank the Small Basic community for your passion around this product and for teaching young people the joys of computer programming. The Small Basic Virtual Team shares your passion, and we look forward to our continued partnership on this project.
The Small Basic Virtual Team
Comments
Anonymous
July 12, 2011
Thanks, team! I appreciate the constant stream of improvements you've released!Anonymous
July 12, 2011
I'm still getting 0.95 from the download link.Anonymous
July 12, 2011
Thank you for your commment. Yes, some users are still seeing version 0.95 (5.7M in size) due to server caching issues. Hopefully this issue will clear up later today. Please note that the 1.0 version is 5.74M. Sorry for the inconvenience.Anonymous
July 12, 2011
FYI: When I clicked on the Small Basic 1.0 link I got the 0.95 msi downloaded, not 1.0 as I expected.Anonymous
July 13, 2011
ArthurZ, sorry for the inconvenience, all the servers are still replicating and this takes some time.Anonymous
July 13, 2011
V1.0 is there now. You must manually uninstall your cuurent version using add/remove programs before the new version will install.Anonymous
July 13, 2011
This is fantastic stuff. Thanks so much for all your efforts!Anonymous
July 15, 2011
May I Have Small Basic 1.0 in french language please !! :) Regards. BillAnonymous
July 15, 2011
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July 23, 2011
I run a program. The dark screen does not appear and I can't tell if my program actually worked?Anonymous
July 27, 2011
Very nice resource and easier and fun way to learn for kids, I am going to link this page and spread the word on my site for education help www.singlemomeducationhelp.com .Anonymous
September 12, 2011
may i have small basic with persian language?Anonymous
September 12, 2011
Armin, Small Basic is translated by volunteers. However, we have not been able to find one for Persian. If you are willing to help us, please send us a mail at smlocfdb@microsoft.com and I will let you know the next steps to take. Thank you, SandraAnonymous
September 12, 2011
Brian, can you please send your program to smlocfdb@microsoft.com so we can take a look and help you out with this issue? Best regards, SandraAnonymous
September 29, 2011
I'm a student and I have a subject that requires me to write a report on programming language compilers. I was tasked to write on Small Basic. I was wondering if you guys have documentation on how the small basic compiler interprets each statement of code. Thank you!Anonymous
November 03, 2011
bu program çok güzelAnonymous
November 12, 2011
I love SB. When next version with new feature?Anonymous
December 07, 2011
DOES IT EXIST IN FRENCH PLEASE , IF NOT WHEN COULD IT BE DONE , THANK YOU IN ADVANCEAnonymous
December 09, 2011
Just can't wait for the next release. Any peeks?Anonymous
December 09, 2011
Please do release a version for MAC OS X. It's the best compiler for kids programming available now, and the closest to old good BASIC.Anonymous
December 24, 2011
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February 19, 2012
I cannot get Small Basic to play .wav files or .mp3 files using XP. Is there a fault with Small Basic?Anonymous
February 23, 2012
When I save a file it is still using *.sb not *.smallbasic by default. Was surposed to be fixed in v0.9? We use both Scratch and Smallbasic extensively in teaching Computer studies and the conflict is still annoying. We try to teach them to save SmallBASIC with .smallbasic on the end manually but they spell it wrong!Anonymous
February 27, 2012
ovaj program je tako supe i ne želim da nikada ukinuAnonymous
February 27, 2012
ee evo je tako cool i tako je dobar programAnonymous
April 23, 2012
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June 10, 2012
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June 10, 2012
I used to use this in beta. GR8 (I NO THIS IS A LATE COMMENT, I JUST UPGRADED)Anonymous
June 17, 2012
I love this! I got ot from a pc mag disk : PC User Thanx to u and the magazine! :)Anonymous
June 23, 2012
Just a quick 'THANK YOU' for the developer(s) of SB. Not only has it renewed my never realized desire to learn programming (since ~ 1980), it has also captured the attention of my two young daughters. I absolutely love watching them when they've went a little beyond the PDF and figured out something on their own. The rewards are great!Anonymous
June 25, 2012
Hi! Very nice program! Can I help in translating it to Greek?Anonymous
June 25, 2012
my email is karaberis@sch.grAnonymous
June 26, 2012
Cris, thank you for offering the translation of the User Interface into Greek. I will contact you via e-mail about this.Anonymous
August 11, 2012
Seems like SmallBasic, a very noble venture, is simply dead in the water with no updates in over a year. Unfortunately it doesn't upconvert to VB.NET as perscribed, where an update "fix" would be very nice indeed.Anonymous
August 25, 2012
I love small basic thank you microsoftAnonymous
October 06, 2014
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March 27, 2015
Dave, are we sure we want to do something that was started in 2008? Is that your question? Thanks!