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Redmond Provides a Leg Up to Beginning Programmers with Small Basic

 
    If you're of "a certain age," you might remember when "computer literacy" equaled "everyone will be a programmer." Unfortunately, the limitations of BASIC (line numbers leading to incomprehensible "spaghetti code," primitive graphics, and no syntax checking) made most would-be programmers dropouts. I haven't written a computer program in over 20 years, but Microsoft has introduced a modern, easy-to-use language designed for the masses (and for dropouts like me): Small Basic. Small Basic, available in pre-release version 0.2 , runs on Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, Windows Vista 64-bit Editions Service Pack 1, Windows XP, Windows XP 64-bit. It relies on .NET Framework 3.5 SP1, which you will need to install if you don't have it already. This Ain't Your Daddy's BASIC Microsoft says that Small Basic "is a project that is aimed at making computer programming accessible to beginners. The project comprises a ... (link)

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