Many of us love programming innately. It’s almost in our DNA. Some of my first programming experiences were on a used Commodore 64 that we picked up at a local garage sale. It didn’t come with any software, so if I wanted it to do anything it was up to me to make that happen. It was a lot of work, but it really was a lot of fun for me too. Later I move to QuickBasic, then to Visual Basic, and on and on from there.

I was the only developer who got his start with the Commodore 64. I guess you could consider the Commodore 64 to have used a “Rapid Application Development” programming language, but really it was a “Fun Application Development” language, and I think that went a long way to winning me over.

Most modern programming languages today are about rapid application development, this might help to keep current developers productive, but what will bring in tomorrow’s developers? What is today’s “Fun Application Development” language?

I think Microsoft’s Small Basic is a great answer to that question.

Small Basic

Small Basic Blog

Small Basic is a simple and easy programming language with a friendly environment that provides a cool and fun way of learning programming. From making turtles animations to running a slide show on the desktop, Small Basic makes programming natural and effortless.

• Small Basic derives its inspiration from the original BASIC programming language, and is based on the Microsoft .NET platform. It is really small with just 15 keywords and uses minimal concepts to keep the barrier to entry as low as possible.
• The Small Basic development environment is simple, yet provides powerful modern environment features like Intellisense™ and instant context sensitive help.
• Small Basic allows third-party libraries to be plugged in with ease, making it possible for the community to extend the experience in fun and interesting ways.