Microsoft Support for Small Basic

[z-s]

I have a question to litdev if microsoft ended support to small basic then who is currently handling it.
And if anyone is not handling it currently can we update small basic.

[litdev]

ZS, my understanding is that MS has nothing to do with it any more.  There is no-one left at MS that is able or wants to update it.  There may be technical, political, commercial or just nobody that can do it reasons for this - I don't know.  There were several attempts to create a browser or app version, but the current desktop version 1.2 remains the best in my opinion despite its faults.  sVB has recompiled it with modifications to the language and IDE, I chose to keep the old compiler for consistency, but provide SB-Prime and LD extension.

Also, the original developer of SB Vijaye Raji, who was a MS employee at the time created it in his free time as I understand it (so it never was really a full MS project I don't think).  He maybe still maintains the website, and does maintain the Import/Publish capability, but is not actively developing or promoting it.

So it is up to the community to use it - it would be nice to update it, but frankly if we spent more time programming with what we have rather than thinking of ways to change it the better.

[z-s]

Got it Means We Can Update Small Basic Happy To Hear This We Could Add Some New Interesting Features After Studying Deeply
Anyone Can Describe Some New Features For Small Basic That We Could Add To SB In Feature.

[litdev]

Or we could just do some programming with it!

[z-s]

I don't know it is a coincidence but today I saw a post in small basic enthusiasm group someone asked is small basic dead and Vijay rajiee reply to it that he is keeping import export feature still available.

Is Small Basic dead?
In last Feb, I was searching for a publisher for my book about Small Visual Basic for 6 years old. I think this particular reply from Philip Conrod, the president & publisher of Kidware Software LLC may show you where Small Basic is right now. This is only a part of his reply regarding SB and sVB, while the rest of his replay was about issues related to VB6 and VB .NET:
"Thank you for your email. I found your video on Small Visual Basic very educational and interesting. I plan to download your IDE and play around with it. Looks very cool! I love that you added a Designer with Windows Forms capabilities.
Unfortunately, Microsoft stopped promoting Small Basic and the sales for our Microsoft Small Basic books have gone to almost zero in the last couple of years. Without a big company like Microsoft continually promoting a kid friendly IDE (like Small Basic) there is not enough of a "paying" market to sustain and grow a paperback academic curriculum for a new IDE. With that said, I like what you have done so far and I hope to see Small Visual Basic grow."
And this is a part of my reply:
" Hi, Philip:
Thank you for this fast, honest and detailed reply.
Regarding Small Basic issues, Small Basic is loosing the battle against Scratch and Python in the last decade, due to some possible reasons:
1. Scratch and Python are growing and getting more popularity, while SB has no new features since 2013, even bugs are not fixed!
2. SB runs only on windows (which is still a big issue in sVB that I hope to fix in the future).
3. MS is steadily killing VB .NET since 2014, which gave Python the freedom to fill the void as the next easiest language on the planet. MS is actually executing the whole VB family (VBA, VBScript), which is giving python script the power to take over office applications!
4. SB itself is not perfect. I tried to teach it to my nephews and Arabic kids via a series of videos, but I felt that the easy part is not interesting, and the interesting part is not easy! This is when I suggested to the SB team to create Visual Small Basic (which I renamed Small Visual Basic later), but they didn't care, so, I played with a proof of concept shall it convince them, before realizing that I have to complete the project myself!"
Now, my question for Small Basic enthusiasts:
What do you think about that?
What should we do to attract kids to Basic again whatever they like to start with (Small Basic, Small Visual Basic, TwinBasic, VB .NET, ModVB)?
Or should we give up and move on to C# or Python?

Vijaye Raji
Admin
Philip is right and Microsoft might not be promoting Small Basic. However that doesn’t mean the language and the IDE are dead. I am still committed to keeping the import/export service running for Small Basic.
There’s nothing stopping people from using it to learn and enjoy programming. Hope this community can sustain itself without needing promotion from Microsoft

[AbsoluteBeginner]

(translated by Google Translate)

The attractiveness of any item to the user is determined by the set of advantages and disadvantages that the item has.

Today, the advantages of Small Basic are "Ease of use", "Good libraries", "Great Code Editor" and "Aliases" which remove language limitations.
The disadvantages of Small Basic are "Not the highest program execution speed", "Only text-based way of creating code" and "Lack of a convenient way of graphically representing the logic of the program being created".

In order for our Small Basic to become better, we can eliminate almost all of the listed shortcomings, except for "Low program execution speed".
When we do this, Small BASIC will be used by EVERYONE who will like the set of benefits of this tool. 

( this is a Law of Nature  )