Learn to Program with Small Basic An Introduction to Programming with Games, Art, Science, and Math

Small Basic is a free, beginner-friendly programming language created by Microsoft. Inspired by BASIC, which introduced programming to millions of first-time PC owners in the 1970s and 1980s, Small Basic is a modern language that makes coding simple and fun.

Learn to Program with Small Basic introduces you to the empowering world of programming. You’ll master the basics with simple activities like displaying messages and drawing colorful pictures, and then work your way up to programming games! Learn how to:
–Program your computer to greet you by name
–Make a game of rock-paper-scissors using If/Else statements
–Create an interactive treasure map using arrays
–Draw intricate geometric patterns with just a few lines of code
–Simplify complex programs by breaking them into bite-sized subroutines

You’ll also learn to command a turtle to draw shapes, create magical moving text, solve math problems quickly, help a knight slay a dragon, and more!

Each chapter ends with creative coding challenges so you can take your skills to the next level. Learn to Program with Small Basic is the perfect place to start your computer science journey.

Majed Marji is a senior development engineer at General Motors and an adjunct faculty member at Wayne State University in Michigan. He is the author of Learn to Program with Scratch.
Ed Price is a senior program manager in engineering at Microsoft. He holds an MBA in Technology Management and has been a professor at Bellevue College. He runs customer feedback programs for Azure Development, Visual Studio, and Small Basic.

Chapter 1: Introducing Small Basic
Chapter 2: Getting Started
Chapter 3: Drawing Basics
Chapter 4: Using Variables
Chapter 5: Drawing Shapes with Turtle Graphics
Chapter 6: Getting User Input
Chapter 7: Empowering Programs with Math
Chapter 8: Making Decisions with If Statements
Chapter 9: Using Decisions to Make Games
Chapter 10: Solving Problems with Subroutines
Chapter 11: Event-Driven Programming
Chapter 12: Building Graphical User Interfaces
Chapter 13: Repeating For Loops
Chapter 14: Creating Conditional While Loops
Chapter 15: Grouping Data in One-Dimensional Arrays
Chapter 16: Storing Data with Associative Arrays
Chapter 17: Expanding to Higher-Dimension Arrays
Chapter 18: Advanced Text Magic
Chapter 19: Receiving File Input and Output