The Russian localized version of Small Basic went live today, as v0.5.1.  No other change has been made and all the remaining functionality is the same as v0.5 (including English, French and Spanish).  So, if you want Russian, go ahead and download Small Basic from the same location (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/devlabs/cc950524.aspx).  As always, please refresh your browser, and clean up the cache if need be to get the new version. 

If you're running English version of the Operating System, you can run:

    %programfiles%\microsoft\small basic\sb.exe /l:ru-ru

to launch the Russian localized version.

Have an English Operating System, but want to run the Spanish version of Small Basic?  Yes, you can do that with your current installation - and you don't even have to install anything extra. 

In your Start Menu (or in your Run prompt), type

  %programfiles%\microsoft\small basic\sb.exe /l:es-es

and hit Enter. This will launch the Spanish version of Small Basic. 

  %programfiles%\microsoft\small basic\sb.exe /l:fr-fr

will launch the French version of Small Basic.

As of v0.5, we support only those two languages, but expect more languages support soon.

Color Picker by Suduadib is an example that shows the usage of arrays in Small Basic.  You can import this program using the id: SGS247.

Program listing is available at: http://program.smallbasic.com/?SGS247

The Small Basic API reference is now available at: http://doc.smallbasic.com/.  With v0.5, you can view the API reference in your choice of English, Spanish or French.

With version 0.5, Small Basic implements native support for arrays. This is a significant change from how arrays were used in v0.4 and so I want to write about the syntax and the functionality of the new arrays.

Any variable can be used as an array – no special declaration or setup is necessary. Arrays are indexed using square brackets.

Arrays can be indexed with either numbers or text. And you can use different types of indexers in the same array.

Arrays can be copied over via simple assignment. Modifying one array doesn’t affect the other array.

The values in an array are internally maintained as a string with semicolon separated values:

This prints:

You can remove elements in an array by setting them to an empty text.

And finally, arrays can be multi-dimensional too

This prints:

Theoretically, you can have as many dimensions as you want. However, the way they are implemented internally, a two dimensional array is 2 times slower than a single dimension array, and a three dimensional array is 4 times slower than a single dimensional array and so on. So, I’d recommend not overdoing multidimensional arrays.

You can now download the Spanish version of "Introduction to programming" guide from: http://download.microsoft.com/download/C/E/6/CE66B602-19F7-4FA6-A4D2-E06F8382A7B9/Introduccion a Small Basic.pdf

Diviértete.

Read more about it: http://blogs.msdn.com/smallbasic/archive/2009/06/16/the-newest-leanest-and-the-meanest-is-here.aspx

Download: http://download.microsoft.com/download/C/A/F/CAF9E062-94D3-4003-80D9-44CDF7EC7BD9/SmallBasic.msi

The next installment of the Small Basic Community Previews is now available for download.  Version v0.5 can be downloaded at:  http://download.microsoft.com/download/C/A/F/CAF9E062-94D3-4003-80D9-44CDF7EC7BD9/SmallBasic.msi

This version adds more of the community requested features and bug-fixes, the full list of it is below:

• Arrays:

  Small Basic now has native support for arrays.  Array keys are not limited to numbers, and the arrays themselves can be multidimensional.  An example is:

people[1]["Name"]["First"] = "Carl"
people[1]["Name"]["Last"] = "Fredrickson"
people[1]["Age"] = 78

• Uninitialized Variables:

  The Compiler now catches and reports as error, any variable that isn't initialized but is being used in the program.  This makes it much easier to catch misspelt variables.




• Spanish localization:

  The UI and the API reference have been translated to Spanish, and is now available alongside English and French.  The Guide will follow in a couple days.
  
  

• Environment Features:

  * Find feature: Ctrl+F brings up the new Find dialog, F3 finds the next match
  * Line and column indicator: At the bottom right of the editor is a line and column indicator
  * Save As command + toolbar button
  * Format Program command: Available from the context menu in the editor, this command reformats the entire program with the right indentation.
  * Mouse click and scroll support for Intellisense list box




• Under the hood:

  * A new attribute "HideFromIntellisense" which hides deprecated operations and properties from the Intellisense list




• Others:

  * Tons of bug fixes
  * Smaller footprint (installer is now just 3.7MB)
  * Setup now auto-detects presence of .Net framework 3.5 SP1