Microsoft Small Basic

[Les Bell]

(04-24-2015 02:52 PM)Namir Wrote:  2. All variables and arrays are global.
3. There is no support for functions.
4. There is support for Sub procedure but they cannot have arguments. This will cause the need for convoluted coding to simulate Sub with pseudo-local variables and parameters.

Ouch! Those three points, alone, pretty much cripple what could have been quite a nice introductory language. As it is, all the functionality attached to objects like animated graphics and .mp3 files will be enough to get beginning programmers excited and enthusiastic and then gradually draw them into a morass of unstructured and unmaintainable code. Given that every contemporary textbook on language implementation provides elegant patterns for dealing with scope rules, types, functions, etc. I wonder why the language is so anaemic? (Especially when there are many more full-featured languages, such as Processing, in the same niche.)