Yeah, it's free. Give yourself a gift. Or give a kid a future in computer software that they might not otherwise have. Just click:

What is Small Basic? Well... Small Basic is Fun, Simple, Social, & Gradual.

And these resources will guide you. Ten year olds have used these resources on their own to learn Small Basic:

• Small Basic Getting Started Guide
• Small Basic Teaching Curriculum
• Small Basic E-Books

Maybe you want to see what people have been doing with it first...

Small Basic Program Gallery (listed by Category)

Small Basic Extension Gallery

Small Basic Student Testimonies - 47 students, from age 8-13, explain how easily they learned Small Basic and how great it is.

Maybe you're ready to engage with the community...

   Small Basic Forum

   Small Basic on TechNet Wiki (all articles)

   Small Basic Site

Enjoy! 

   - Ninja Ed

The TechNet Guru Awards celebrate the technical articles on TechNet, contributed from valued wiki authors like YOU!

Each month, the contributions are scored by a panel of judges (5 per category, 2-3 in each are MS experts), and the winners of each category are showered with love and attention from all corners of TechNet.

More about the TechNet Guru Awards:

• TechNet Guru Competitions
• TechNet Guru Contributions for DECEMBER 2013

Now let's see November's winners!

Small Basic Technical Guru - November 2013

Congratulations to litdev, Nonki and Joe!

Also worth a mention were the other entries this month:

• How to Remove Goto Statements by Nonki Takahashi
  Ed Price: "Great method for structured programming!"

Thank you again to all our contributors!

   - Ninja Ed

Check out LitDev's November gold medal winner for the Small Basic Guru contest:

Small Basic: Dynamic Graphics

This is also LitDev's first gold medal! So congrats go to LitDev!

Here is an excerpt section from the article...

===============

Advanced Collisions

To get sprites to bounce off each other realistically can be complicated.  Basically we need to do the collision in a center of mass reference frame using geometry like the figure below, then convert from the center of mass frame back to the actual frame.

This is an example implementation of this in Small Basic.

If this is not clear then perhaps avoid this or consider trying using a physics engine to do it for you, such as the LDPhysics (Box2D) method.

===============

Here are all the winning Small Basic articles from November:

Small Basic Technical Guru - November 2013

Congratulations to litdev, Nonki and Joe!

Also worth a mention were the other entries this month:

• How to Remove Goto Statements by Nonki Takahashi
  Ed Price: "Great method for structured programming!"

You can find all the Guru winners (for all the Microsoft technologies) here: TechNet Guru Awards - November 2013

Thanks again to LitDev!

   - Ninja Ed

Welcome to our interview with Nonki Takahashi!

In the TechNet Guru contest (for Small Basic), Nonki has 4 gold medals and 8 total medals (see TechNet Guru: The Most Frequent Award Winners).
  

This game came from the December Challenges here: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/39673f2b-1f37-465e-9401-c66455aff42a/challenge-of-the-month-december-2013?forum=smallbasic

Game Challenge

1. Write a clone of the Simon game.

From NaochanON:

Wednesday, December 04, 2013 12:58 PM

 VJL218-0   

Simon image changed. Clicked color visible. 

The next day, Nonki Takahashi posted this:

Thursday, December 05, 2013 12:29 PM

Later that day, Nonki Takahashi posted his new version:

Thursday, December 05, 2013 2:21 PM

This is my game challenge: FHV760-5.

Thanks to Nonki and NaochanON for these great games!

   - Ninja Ed

Happy New Year!

Time for a fresh start!

We're looking for the first Gurus of 2014!!

This is your chance to make your mark on the Microsoft developer community.

All you have to do is add an article to TechNet Wiki from your own specialist field. Something that fits into one of the categories listed on the submissions page. Copy in your own blog posts, a forum solution, a white paper, or just something you had to solve for your own day's work today.

Drop us some nifty knowledge, or superb snippets, and become MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY GURU OF THE MONTH!

This is an official Microsoft TechNet recognition, where people such as yourselves can truly get noticed!

HOW TO WIN

1) Please copy over your Microsoft technical solutions and revelations to TechNet Wiki.

2) Add a link to it on THIS WIKI COMPETITION PAGE (so we know you've contributed)

3) Every month, we will highlight your contributions, and select a "Guru of the Month" in each technology.

If you win, we will sing your praises in blogs and forums, similar to the weekly contributor awards. Once "on our radar" and making your mark, you will probably be interviewed for your greatness, and maybe eventually even invited into other inner TechNet/MSDN circles!

Winning this award in your favoured technology will help us learn the active members in each community.

Feel free to ask any questions below.

More about TechNet Guru Awards

We have two contributions so far and 14 days to go!

• Small Basic: Font by Nonki Takahashi   
• Small Basic: Threading by LitDev 

Thanks in advance!

   - Ninja Ed

Wiki: Small Basic Portal

This article is a portal that categorically lists all the Small Basic articles that are on TechNet Wiki. Please add more Wiki articles about Small Basic here:

Wiki: Small Basic Portal

Before we unravel this article, did you know that Small Basic is the perfect tool for kids to learn how to program? It used to be that a dad would put his tweenager down in front of Visual Basic, they'd scratch their head and run off.

But now we have Kodu for the little ones (my Four year old daughter is learning it; I'm starting my Three year old on developing some basic mouse and click skills in Purble Place and Paint). And then I'll start my 7 and 8 year old daughters on Small Basic soon (they're progressing through Kodu quickly).

I made this blog post that gives 47 testimonies of kids, age 8-13, who have used and learned programming on Small Basic (my kids aren't even on this list yet): http://blogs.msdn.com/b/smallbasic/archive/2012/10/25/small-basic-elementary-student-testimonials.aspx

Now, we'll take a snapshot in time of the goodness you can currently find on this portal...

Getting Started

• Small Basic Curriculum
  • Small Basic Curriculum: Online
    • Lesson 1.1: Introduction
    • Lesson 1.2: Statements, Properties, and Operations
    • Lesson 1.3: Variables
    • Lesson 1.4: Conditions and Loops
    • Lesson 1.5: Branching and Subroutines
    • Lesson 2.1: Graphics Window
    • Lesson 2.2: Turtle Graphics
    • Lesson 2.3: Exploring Shapes
    • Lesson 2.4: Sound, Program, and Text Objects
    • Lesson 2.5: Clock, Desktop, and Dictionary Objects
    • Lesson 2.6: Flickr, ImageList, and Network Objects
    • Lesson 3.1: File Input and Output
    • Lesson 3.2: Stacks and Arrays
    • Lesson 3.3: The Math Object
    • Lesson 3.4: Events and Interactivity
    • Lesson 3.5: The Controls Object
    • Lesson 3.6: Debugging Aids
    • Lesson 4.1: Playing with Shapes
    • Lesson 4.2: Responding to Events
    • Lesson 4.3: Collision Detection
    • Lesson 4.4: Advanced Games
    • Lesson 5: Sharing Code
    • Lesson 6: Graduating to Microsoft Visual Basic
    • Show What You Know Answer Key
  • Download the Small Basic Curriculum
  • International Small Basic Curriculum
• Small Basic Getting Started Guide
  • Chapter 1: An Introduction
  • Chapter 2: Understanding Our First Program
  • Chapter 3: Introducing Variables
  • Chapter 4: Conditions and Branching
  • Chapter 5: Loops
  • Chapter 6: Beginning Graphics
  • Chapter 7: Fun with Shapes
  • Chapter 8: Turtle Graphics
  • Chapter 9: Subroutines
  • Chapter 10: Arrays
  • Chapter 11: Events and Interactivity
  • Appendix A: Fun Samples
• Small Basic E-Books
  • The Developer’s Reference Guide to Small Basic
  • Beginning Microsoft Small Basic
  • Basic Computer Games - Small Basic Edition
• Small Basic Tutorial: Creating Your First Program

Overview

• Get Started with Small Basic
• Small Basic FAQ
• Small Basic is a Great Programming Language for Beginners
• Development Map for Becoming a Good Programmer Using Small Basic and MSDN
• Small Basic: Control Statements
• Small Basic: Difference Between Local and Remote
• Small Basic: Dynamic Graphics
• Small Basic: Font
• Small Basic: Threading
• Small Basic: How to Debug
• Small Basic: Parameter or Return Value Range for Math Function 
• Small Basic: Supported Languages
  
• Small Basic Basics:
  • Small Basic: Array Basics
  • Small Basic: Event Basics
  • Small Basic: Grammar Basics
  • Small Basic: Stack Basics
  • Small Basic: Text Basics
  • Small Basic: GraphicsWindow Basics
    

Advanced Tips

• Small Basic: Programming Tips
• Small Basic: IDE Colors
• Small Basic: Did You Know?
• Small Basic: Parameter or Return Value Range for Math Function

Extensions

• Small Basic: List of Extensions
• Small Basic: How to Create an Extension Using C#
• Small Basic: How to Create an Extension Using VB.NET    
• Small Basic: Fremy Extension

How To

• Small Basic: How to Convert Multi-Line Text into an Array of Lines
• Small Basic: How to Create For Loops            
• Small Basic: How to Draw Triangle
  
• Small Basic: How to Format a Code Block
• Small Basic: How to Make a Check Box
• Small Basic: How to Make a Turtle Maze Game
• Small Basic: How to Remove Goto Statements
• Small Basic: How to Rotate a Shape Not from the Center     
• Small Basic: How to Use Trigonometric Functions
• Small Basic: Read and Write CSV Files
• Small Basic: Graduate to C#
  

Samples

• Small Basic Sample: Arrays
• Small Basic Sample: Flickr Collage
• Small Basic Sample: GameGraphics
• Small Basic Sample: Graphic Car Race
• Small Basic Sample: JetLag
• Small Basic Sample: Snake
• Small Basic Sample: Turtle Plus Flickr

Troubleshooting and Known Issues

• Small Basic Known Issue: 21691 - Rectangle and Ellipse Become Smaller in Remote
• Small Basic Known Issue: 21694 - Font and Pen Width Change Earlier in Remote
• Small Basic Known Issue: 22108 - Viewport of GraphicsWindow is Narrower and Sometimes Resized in Remote

And then also check out all the other portals on this page:

• Wiki: Portal of TechNet Wiki Portals

And make sure you go here for all the latest Small Basic articles: Wiki: Small Basic Portal

Thanks to Nonki, LitDev, and all the contributors who made these articles!

Have a great Wikiweek

  - Ninja Ed

From Jibba Jabba...

"I'd like feature GoToLoop's conversion of "Death Valley" for the TextWindow.

It's a classic piece of code that demonstrates advanced use of the TextWindow producing an informative code sample and very playable game.

It uses multi-threading (parallel processing) to "overcome the lack of an InKey() analogous function for the TextWindow" and demonstrates the rarely used Program Arguments operation and property, and, File.GetSettingsFilePath() operation.

Here's the Import ID KTX387-2  and link http://smallbasic.com/smallbasic.com/program/?KTX387-2

Runs locally. Mad."

Thank you to GoToLoop for the great contribution to our community!

   - Ninja Ed

TechNet loves you!

We love your contributions at TechNet Wiki sooo much that we give you more than just love in return...

We give you NOTORIETY, GLORY... and VIRTUAL MEDALS!

That's not all, this love we have, together, it flows both ways my friend.

You give us stuff, we give you stuff, like interviews, recognition points, Ninja Belt rankings, and of course front page love!

If the love is strong enough, who knows where it could end! We may even invite you into secret clubs and other initiatives.

So why not spread the love a little further this Valentines, with more than just a cheap card from the highstreet...

Express your love for your favourite technology in a TechNetWiki article!

Pour your heart out to us, capture our hearts and woo us with your prowess!

All you have to do is add an article to TechNet Wiki from your own specialist field. Something that fits into one of the categories listed on the submissions page. Copy in your own blog posts, a forum solution, a white paper, or just something you had to solve for your own day's work today.

Drop us some nifty knowledge, or superb snippets, and become MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY GURU OF THE MONTH!

This is an official Microsoft TechNet recognition, where people such as yourselves can truly get noticed!

HOW TO WIN

1) Please copy over your Microsoft technical solutions and revelations to TechNet Wiki.

2) Add a link to it on THIS WIKI COMPETITION PAGE (so we know you've contributed)

3) Every month, we will highlight your contributions, and select a "Guru of the Month" in each technology.

If you win, we will sing your praises in blogs and forums, similar to the weekly contributor awards. Once "on our radar" and making your mark, you will probably be interviewed for your greatness, and maybe eventually even invited into other inner TechNet/MSDN circles!

Winning this award in your favoured technology will help us learn the active members in each community.

Feel free to ask any questions below.

More about TechNet Guru Awards

Thanks in advance!

   - Ninja Ed

It's time for another set of Small Basic challenges! Thanks to LitDev for hosting this. And...

Have fun!

These challenges are intended for people who are learning to program for the first time or for those returning to programming who want to start using Small Basic.  Some will be easy, some will be hard - but they will all make you think, and more importantly be GREAT FUN!

Please post your solutions / partial solutions / questions / feedback etc. into this forum thread that will remain 'sticky' for the month.  The only rule is that your solution must use standard SmallBasic methods (no extensions).

It would be good if people could post their problems with these challenges (in this thread) so that a discussion can start so that everyone can learn from each other.

Also post feedback (in this thread) on the kind of challenges that you want to see more of in the future.

Curriculum Challenges 3.2

1. Write a program to read in a user's name, then create an array of the letters using Shapes.AddText for each letter.  Then animate the Text shapes in the array to reveal the name on the GraphicsWindow.
2. Write a program using arrays to store 20 balls and move them all in some way on the GraphicsWindow. 
3. Write a program to shuffle a pack of cards and add the shuffled cards to a stack so they can be 'popped' or dealt.

 Graphics Challenge

1. Draw a dial (perhaps a speedometer or some other dial).  It should be able to animate as a value is changed.
2. Write a short turtle program (10 lines or less) to draw interesting patterns.  Here is an example to get you started - try different mathematical combinations.

Turtle.Speed=10For i =1To600Turtle.Move(10)Turtle.Turn(i*11)EndFor

Text Challenges

1. Write a program to write and read Morse Code (dots and dashes) or even use sound in some way.

Maths Challenges

1. Write a program to solve quadratic equations, like x2 - 8x +15 = 0 has solutions x = 3 and x = 5.
2. Extend it if possible to solve cubic and quartic equations.

Game Challenge

1. Write a simple Snake game.

Community Suggestions (by Zock77)

1. Write a program in which the user will draw something with his mouse. Then, when he inputs that he is done, the program will replay in real time what the user drew.

Community Suggestions (by Nonki)

1. Make a tr (UNIX-like translate) command.
2. Draw a Bezier or spline curve.
3. Measure pixel width of a text in GraphicsWindow.

Do you have an idea for a future challenge? Please post it in the forum here!

Thanks again to LitDev and the community! Enjoy!

   - Ninja Ed

So a good Reference Guide is always appreciated!

And that's why Phil Conrod was good enough to write one for us and then to allow us to upload the first five chapters!

You can find the first five chapters on TechNet Wiki:

1. Introducing Small Basic 

2. Overview of Small Basic Programming 

3. Program Object 

4. TextWindow Object 

5. GraphicsWindow Object 

These chapters are adapted from the book The Developer’s Reference Guide To Microsoft Small Basic by Philip Conrod and Lou Tylee.

To purchase this book in its entirety, please see the Computer Science For Kids web site.

Thank you!

   - Ninja Ed

These challenges come our way from litdev.

The challenges are intended for people who are learning to program for the first time or for those returning to programming who want to start using Small Basic.  Some will be easy, some will be hard - but they will all make you think, and more importantly be GREAT FUN!

Please post your solutions / partial solutions / questions / feedback etc. into this thread that will remain 'sticky' for the month.  The only rule is that your solution must use standard Small Basic methods (no extensions).

It would be good if people could post their problems with these challenges so that a discussion can start so that everyone can learn from each other. Post your problems here.

Also post feedback on the kind of challenges that you want to see more of in the future.

Curriculum Challenges 3.3

1. Write a TextWindow program to create some random sums for the user to answer.
2. Write a program to calculate the area of rectangles, triangles or circles, when the user enters their size. 
3. Write a program to round any number for 2 decimal digits (e.g. 3.1419 is 3.14, 7.1 is 7.10 and -20 is -20.00).

Text Challenge

1. Write a program to capitalize the first letter of each word in a text.
2. Write a program to delete any non alpha-numeric character from a text.

Graphics Challenge

1. Write a program to simulate a barrel rolling down a slope (see game challenge).
2. Draw a picture of an alien.

Game Challenge

• Write a simplified version of the Donkey Kong game - jump over barrels to get to the top.

Community Suggestion (by Zock77)

• Pick an extension to base a challenge off of.  Lets start with the Fremy Extension; pick an FC object and show what can be done with it.

Community Suggestions (by Nonki)

1. Make a hexadecimal dump program for UTF-8 encoded text file.
2. Make a subroutine to draw polygon with given vertices.
3. Make a subroutine to fill polygon with given vertices

Do you have an idea for a future challenge? Please post it here!

Thanks again to LitDev and to the entire Small Basic community!

We'll see you... clap clap... in the forum!

   - Ninja Ed

You can be our next Spring Small Basic Guru!!!

In the northern hemisphere at least, Spring is here! (apparently)

And at TechNet Wiki, we're hoping you're all hatching new ideas for this month's TechNet Guru competition!

We're looking for more shoots and leaves of wisdom to sprout forth from the great tree of MSDN/TechNet life.

We're also hoping some of our old Guru winners will be coming back out of hibernation and flexing their grey matter!

So, pick up your pen and MARCH into TechNet History! This could truly be the start of something BEAUTIFUL!

What delightful new arrival will YOU be bringing into this world?

All you have to do is add an article to TechNet Wiki from your own specialist field. Something that fits into one of the categories listed on the submissions page. Copy in your own blog posts, a forum solution, a white paper, or just something you had to solve for your own day's work today.

Drop us some nifty knowledge, or superb snippets, and become MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY GURU OF THE MONTH!

This is an official Microsoft TechNet recognition, where people such as yourselves can truly get noticed!

HOW TO WIN

1) Please copy over your Microsoft technical solutions and revelations to TechNet Wiki.

2) Add a link to it on THIS WIKI COMPETITION PAGE (so we know you've contributed)

3) Every month, we will highlight your contributions, and select a "Guru of the Month" in each technology.

If you win, we will sing your praises in blogs and forums, similar to the weekly contributor awards. Once "on our radar" and making your mark, you will probably be interviewed for your greatness, and maybe eventually even invited into other inner TechNet/MSDN circles!

Winning this award in your favoured technology will help us learn the active members in each community.

Feel free to ask any questions below.

More about TechNet Guru Awards

Thank you!

   - Ninja Ed

Congratulations to Nonki and Joe for their February contributions!

These are the Small Basic results for the TechNet Guru Awards, February 2014 !!!! You can find all the awards here: TechNet Guru Awards - February 2013

Here are our Small Basic award winners...

Small Basic Technical Guru - February 2014

Also worth a mention was another entry this month:

• Small Basic Known Issue: 23257 - GraphicsWindow.GetPixel() Returns Alpha Blending Color in Remote by Nonki Takahashi
  Ed Price: "Another good solution to a known problem! Very helpful!"

If you haven't contributed an article for this month, and you an article in mind, here's your chance! :D

   - Ninja Ed

LitDev and Nonki have been helping us build a strong library of Small Basic content on TechNet Wiki.

Please check out this article from litdev:

Small Basic: Grammar Basics

This article describes the main language elements or 'grammar' used by the Small Basic language and gives some suggestions for further study.  There are several 'getting started' guides, this is just another with a slightly different emphasis.

The Small Basic language has some main grammar features that this article focuses on:

1. Keywords- these control the logic of the program such as loop (repeat something For or While) or conditional (branch where the program goes depending on the value of a variable - If), define a subroutine (Sub) etc - they are colored blue in Small Basic.
2. Variables (black) - these are names given to things we use and store and do things with - think of them like draws that we can put things in and store these things while we do stuff with them.
3. Literals(orange) - Values that are not stored in variables, like a number 3.14 or set of characters in quotes "Hi There!".
4. Objects(gray) - these are special functions that have been provided to do certain things, like add a picture to a display.  There are several of them in Small Basic, like TextWindow, Clock etc.
5. Methods, Parameters and Events (dark red) - these are found for the different objects by typing a dot after the object.  They do the special things - they may also need some data to work with (called parameters) or return some data.
6. Comments(green) - anything after a ' (single quote) is not read by the compiler it is just comments for you to remember what you did or why - make good use of these.

The first program we usually write in any language is the 'Hello World' program that writes this out.

In Small Basic, this is:

TextWindow is an Object
WriteLine is a Method, the brackets show that this method needs some data to work with - in this case, what to write.
"Hello World" is what we want the write and it is put in double quotes - and is called a literal since it is not a variable, but is just a value (not in a draw).
 

For more info, see the Statements sections in the article...

Statements: 

• Assignment
• Object Function
• Keyword

Once again, thanks to litdev for this great article!

   - Ninja Ed

Like this...

TextWindow is an Object
WriteLine is a Method, the brackets show that this method needs some data to work with - in this case, what to write.
"Hello World" is what we want the write and it is put in double quotes - and is called a literal since it is not a variable, but is just a value (not in a draw).

Read more here (article by litdev):

Small Basic: Grammar Basics

   - Ninja Ed

The BASIC language was developed in the early 1960's at Dartmouth College as a device for teaching programming to “ordinary” people. There is a reason it’s called BASIC:

B (Beginner's)
A (All-Purpose)
S (Symbolic)
I (Instruction)
C (Code)

When time-sharing systems were introduced in the 1960’s, BASIC was the language of choice. Many of the first computer simulation games (Star Trek, for example) were written in timeshare BASIC. In the mid-1970's, two college students decided that the new Altair microcomputer needed a BASIC language interpreter. They sold their product on cassette tape for a cost of $350. You may have heard of these entrepreneurs: Bill Gates and Paul Allen!

Every BASIC written since then has been based on that early version. Examples include: GW-Basic, QBasic, QuickBasic, Visual Basic. All the toy computers of the early 80’s (anyone remember TI99/4A, Commodore 64, Timex, Atari 400?) used BASIC for programming. Small Basic continues the tradition of BASIC programming. It uses the simple concepts of the early BASIC language with a modern development environment.

This chapter provides an overview of the BASIC language used in the Small Basic environment. If you’ve ever used another programming language (or some version of BASIC), you will see equivalent structures in the language of Small Basic.

Read the full chapter here:

The Developer’s Reference Guide to Small Basic: 2. Overview of Small Basic Programming

This chapter is adapted from the book The Developer’s Reference Guide To Microsoft Small Basic by Philip Conrod and Lou Tylee.

You can purchase the book here:

• http://www.amazon.com/Developers-Reference-Guide-Microsoft-Small/dp/1937161242
• http://www.computerscienceforkids.com/Pages/CompleteMicrosoftSmallBasicProgrammingReferenceGuide.aspx

You can find more online content here:

Small Basic >Small Basic E-Books >The Developer’s Reference Guide to Small Basic > 2. Overview of Small Basic 

Thanks to Philip Conrod for the great resource!

   - Ninja Ed

First, it started with the Small Basic monthly challenges from LitDev:

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/221d14e0-bd05-4ac2-923f-79da577f8bf1/challenge-of-the-month-march-2014?forum=smallbasic

Amongst those challenges is the Game Challenge:

Game Challenge

• Write a simplified version of the Donkey Kong game - jump over barrels to get to the top.

So, Nonki must not have read the directions. He seemed to have missed the word "simplified" there! =^)

First he made a barrel:

Nonki Takahashi - Saturday, March 08, 2014 7:01 AM

This is my first step for graphics challenge 1: FGM769.

I made a bitmap of a barrel from this output above with GIMP 2.

That led to a physics test on animating the barrel!

Nonki Takahashi - Monday, March 10, 2014 10:18 AM

This is my second step for graphics challenge 1: FGM769-0.
This version simulates a barrel without friction.

That's so cool! But he was just getting started! The first barrel on this next pass seems to be possessed by a ghost! =^)

Nonki Takahashi - Tuesday, March 11, 2014 4:34 PM

This is my latest graphics challenge 1: FGM769-1.

Next, he added in the graphics of the characters...

Nonki Takahashi - Thursday, March 13, 2014 12:02 PM

This is my first step for game challenge: FGM769-2.

You see that image above first (like a game start screen), and then it moves to the gameplay!

Nonki Takahashi - Friday, March 14, 2014 7:05 AM

This is my second step for game challenge: FGM769-3.

Use arrow keys to move Mario.

Ha! You get a Game Over screen if you run out of lives! Refresh the page to start over! Hold down up to "super jump" up! Don't worry, the game wasn't done yet! =^)

Nonki Takahashi - Monday, March 24, 2014 8:00 AM

I uploaded latest version of game challenge: FGM769-5. 

So there you go! You still super jump. I'm getting the Game Over screen a little early, but it's still fun to play around with!

Thanks to Nonki Takahashi for making the game!

   - Ninja Ed

A brand new set of challenges from litdev...

These challenges are intended for people who are learning to program for the first time or for those returning to programming who want to start using SmallBasic.  Some will be easy, some will be hard - but they will all make you think, and more importantly be GREAT FUN!

Please post your solutions / partial solutions / questions / feedback etc. into this thread that will remain 'sticky' for the month.  The only rule is that your solution must use standard SmallBasic methods (no extensions).

It would be good if people could post their problems with these challenges so that a discussion can start so that everyone can learn from each other.

Also post feedback on the kind of challenges that you want to see more of in the future.

Curriculum Challenges 3.4

1. Use the Timer event to provide a countdown with the remaining time displayed in a GraphicsWindow.
2. Use the Mouse events to draw rectangles on the GraphicsWindow, mouse down to start the top left and mouse up to finish with the bottom right corner.
3. Use the key events to make a 'code typewriter' that displays a different letter to the one typed using a simple conversion like reversing alphabet a->z, b->y, c-> x etc.
4. Use the button events to display 11 buttons (0-9 and .) laid out like a number keypad to enter numbers using the mouse.

Text Challenge

• Write a units converter program, where the user can select the units to convert and enter a value for conversion.  Perhaps lengths, weights or currency.

Graphics Challenge

• Write a graphical 'dashboard' with buttons and textboxes as required to control a school bell timing system.  The resulting system should then sound a bell at the required intervals that can be configured by the interface.  The configuration(s) should be saved and loaded to a file.

Physics Challenge

• Write a program to calculate the distance traveled when the user enters an acceleration profile.  For example:

2m/s/s for 5 sec, then 0m/s/s for 3 sec, then -4m/s/s for 1 sec

Answer 63m

Game Challenge

• Write a vertical scrolling game with obstacles that appear from above and move down.  The player must dodge the obstacles by using arrow keys, probably just left and right.

Community Suggestions (by Nonki)

1. Create a program to remove automatically added comments from downloaded Small Basic source program such as following manner.
   
   Before:

   ' The following line could be harmful and has been automatically commented. '   _buf = File.ReadContents(filename)

   After:

      _buf = File.ReadContents(filename)

2. Make a chess clock.
3. Create a program to measure and calculate tempo [quarter note (crotchet)/minute] of Sound.PlayMusic().  In other words, count how many quarter notes (such as "C4") can be played in a minute.

Do you have an idea for a future challenge? Please post it here! 
 

Thanks again to LitDev for hosting this challenge!

   - Ninja Ed

Special thanks to XAML guy for hosting this contest!

The name "April" is derived from the Latin verb "aperire", meaning "to open" in reference to being the season when trees & flowers start to "open".

And I have to say, judging from the quality of contributions in recent months, I can't wait to OPEN and read this month's community gold!

Things are hotting up in TechNet, and the Wiki has become a shining example of what the community has to offer.

If you can find the time to enrich us with your latest revelations, or some fascinating facts, then not only will you build up a profile and name for yourself within the gaze of Microsoft's very own glitterati, but you will be adding pages to the most respected source for Microsoft knowledge base articles. This could not only boost your career, but would benefit generations to come!

So don't be an April fool. Please realise the potential of this platform, realise where we are going, and join us in growing this community, learning more about you, and opening the minds of others!

All you have to do is add an article to TechNet Wiki from your own specialist field. Something that fits into one of the categories listed on the submissions page. Copy in your own blog posts, a forum solution, a white paper, or just something you had to solve for your own day's work today.

Drop us some nifty knowledge, or superb snippets, and become MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY GURU OF THE MONTH!

This is an official Microsoft TechNet recognition, where people such as yourselves can truly get noticed!

HOW TO WIN

1) Please copy over your Microsoft technical solutions and revelations to TechNet Wiki.

2) Add a link to it on THIS WIKI COMPETITION PAGE (so we know you've contributed)

3) Every month, we will highlight your contributions, and select a "Guru of the Month" in each technology.

If you win, we will sing your praises in blogs and forums, similar to the weekly contributor awards. Once "on our radar" and making your mark, you will probably be interviewed for your greatness, and maybe eventually even invited into other inner TechNet/MSDN circles!

Winning this award in your favoured technology will help us learn the active members in each community.

Feel free to ask any questions below.

More about TechNet Guru Awards

Thanks in advance!

   - Ninja Ed