Learning to Program the Easy Way

There is a really great article out at Gizmo's Freeware page about learning to program.

Titled Best Free Ways to Learn Programming it details over a dozen freeware logic learning platforms and introductory programming languages.  The author suggest that you begin your programming journey in two steps.  From the site:

Do it it two steps:

First I suggest to you to start with programming languages which enable you to learn the basics about the language in a short amount of time. They should also enable you to produce usable results reasonably quickly before you will lose interest which can happen especially in cases where the users are children. It doesn't matter that your first language is not powerful or not popular or fashionable. What you want initially is quick results to keep you interested.

Second, when you will get more experience with simple languages you can at any time jump to more sophisticated programme languages if you want or need to.

Of particular interest to me are:

• Limnor Studio
• Programming Without Coding Technology (PWCT)
• Robomind
• Scratch
• Bug Brain

Take a look and see what catches your interest!

Just Basic

Introducing Just BASIC

Just BASIC is a simple windows programming environment for creating programs for Microsoft Windows.  It is popular with hobbyists since it is freely available and can create stand alone applications.  It is offered by ShopTalk Systems, the creators of Liberty BASIC, and is a subset of that language.

From the Just BASIC website:

Because Just BASIC is based on the classic BASIC programming language it is easy to learn, and it has been extended with structured programming facilities and with easy to use GUI commands.  Create your own Windows programs without needing to learn the underlying details of the Windows operating system!
Why Just BASIC?

• Free to download and use!
• Create standalone Windows programs royalty free
• Full tutorial and many example programs
• Large online community
• Syntax coloring editor
• Easy debugging
• Graphics including sprites and printing

Resources:

• Just BASIC website
• Just BASIC user community forum
• Just BASIC Community Wiki
• Just BASIC files archive

Screen Shot:

Have you seen Small BASIC

Microsoft has created a small hobbyist programming language in the spirit of QuickBASIC of so many years ago.  This new language is called Small BASIC.  It is intended to be a platform for introducing people to the craft of programming.  Unlike QuickBASIC, Small BASIC is built on top of the .NET platform.

Microsoft says in promotional information that "Small BASIC puts the "fun" back into computer programming."  They have worked hard to make the development environment friendly and easy to use and have paired that with a language that is quick easy to master and features a rich and engaging set of libraries.

Microsoft has targeted the language at both youth and adults with the aim of easing them into the world of programming with little pain.  Here is a screen shot of a pre-1.0 version:

Microsoft says the following:

Learn the programming concepts starting with the fundamentals and move your way up. Small Basic is based on .NET and what you learn here could be easily applied to other .NET programming languages like Visual Basic. And when you do graduate to Visual Basic, you can bring your existing programs with you using a built-in conversion utility.

Check out some of the featured applications:

Tetris	Collision Physics	Soko Ban

Resources:

• Small Basic Home Page
• Small Basic Discussion Forum
• Getting Started Guide

Some Sample Games:

• Astroids
• Tower of Honoi
• Snake Bite

Here we go...

Its up and running!  We are on our way.  

So - what is this blog all about anyway?  Well - Programming!

The plan is to host tutorials, web-casts, code examples and other resources for new and developing programmers to further their programming experience and knowledge.  The primary focus will be BASIC, C and PHP.  Watch for other technologies along the way as well.

- Bjaz