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