Small Visual Basic

✅ Easy, fast, free, fun, and powerful programming language for kids and beginners.

✅ Combines the best of Small Basic, Visual Basic 6, VB.NET, Python, WinForms, and WPF.

✅ Your natural path from beginner coding to professional development.

✅ Start coding immediately with 180+ ready-to-use samples. Try it now!

📥 Download sVB from VS Marketplace

👧 Start with "Sahla"

Sahla is a programming language written entirely in sVB:

• Has a shortcut installed with sVB on your desktop.
• Designed for very young children (6 years old and above) to be an easy, fun doorway to sVB.
• Uses natural language syntax, with direct commands and no dots, commas, or parentheses.
• Supports variables, basic arithmetic operations, if statements, and loops.
• Provides commands for input, output, and sound, with built-in animal sounds for creating fun samples.

• Includes basic turtle commands to create simple geometric shapes.
• Comes with 24 sample programs.
• Supports Arabic, English, and Serbian dialects.
• Can be easily localized by translating its keywords within the source code provided in the sVB samples folder.
• As easy as Scratch, thanks to natural commands with auto‑completion, animal sounds, and turtle graphics, making the start even easier and more engaging.

♟️ Play Chess Too!

• A shortcut for Chess is installed on your desktop.
• Written entirely in sVB (see source code in the samples folder).
• Supports playing against an auto player, and also includes a 2-player mode.
• Helps train kids in logical and strategic thinking, which is essential for programming.
• Teachers can use the 2-player mode to organize chess tournaments for kids.

✍️ Let's speak sVB!

Small Visual Basic (sVB) is a dynamic version of BASIC with syntax close to natural English.
It provides:

• Auto-completion of keywords, method and variable names.
• Explicit block endings (EndIf, Next, EndSub) to avoid confusion.
• Automatic code formatting for readability.
• Automatic type conversion (no need for casting).
• Example Code:

' Ask the user for his name
TextWindow.WriteLine("What's your name?")
Name = TextWindow.ReadText()
TextWindow.Write("Hello " + Name + ". ")

' Ask him for his birth year
TextWindow.WriteLine("What's your birth year?")
BirthYear = TextWindow.ReadNumber()

' Calculate his age
Today = Date.Now
Age = Today.Year - BirthYear
TextWindow.WriteLine("You are " + Age + " years old.")

' Check if he is a kid, a teenager or a grownup
If Age < 14 Then
   TextWindow.WriteLine("You are a kid.")
ElseIf Age < 18 Then
   TextWindow.WriteLine("You are a teenager.")
Else
   TextWindow.WriteLine("You are a grownup.")
EndIf

🎮 Fun With Turtle Graphics

Draw colorful shapes, polygons, spirals, stars, flowers, and geometric patterns.

' Draw a golden circle with the turtle
GW.PenWidth = 10
GW.PenColor = Colors.Gold
Turtle.Size = 32
Turtle.X = 250
Turtle.Y = 300
For I = 1 To 360
   Turtle.Move(2)
   Turtle.Turn(1)
Next

🎨 Create Games and Visual Applications with the Graphics Window

Move sprites, handle keyboard/mouse events, create animations, and build arcade games.
Examples include Chess, animations, and drawing programs.

🖥️ Design Real Windows Applications

• Drag-and-Drop Form Designer
• Create professional applications visually with buttons, menus, text boxes, timers, date pickers, and lists.

• Double-click the button ob the designer to handle its click event.

• Darg and drop images and rotate them by mouse.

• Easy control animations on the form to cteate fun samples.

• Suppoerts easy and advanced XAML styles, like you see in the calculator and listbox sample.
• Can create amazing gmaes like Starship, Cars and Ball games (See the games folder ins sVB samples)

• Supports multi-form projects and modular applications.
• Can even create sVB code libraries with their own forms, like the Dialogs library (see its source code in the samples folder).

📐 Create Powerful Educational Applications

• Solve quadratic equations, decompose quadratic functions, calculate e and π, and many more (see the Math Samples folder).
• List right triangles with integral side lengths and draw them (see "Right-Angled Triangles" in the Drawing Samples).
• Use turtle graphics to introduce geometry basics to students (see the Turtle Samples folder and refer to the sVB Kid Programmer book series for more examples).
• Use the turtle and graphics window to show the magic of sine and cosine functions (see the Turtle and Drawing folders in sVB samples).
• Solve interesting puzzles (see the Puzzles folder).
• Use the sVB Evaluator to plot math functions (see "Draw Functions" sample in the Drawing folder).

• Drawing Samples contain advanced math drawings such as the Mandelbrot Set, Guilloche Pattern, Sierpiński Triangle, and Archimedean Spiral.
• Use the LitDev library to draw 3D objects (see "3DRubicCube" in the Drawing Samples) and to simulate physics (see "Falling Balls" in the Games Samples).

📚 Learning Resources

• 180+ Ready-to-Run Samples: Games, puzzles, graphics, animations, Windows Forms, and more.
• Comprehensive PDF Reference Book: Covers IDE, syntax, forms designer, and full API.
• Amazon Book Series: "Small Visual Basic Kid Programmer".
• Full Small Basic Compatibility: Run Small Basic code with minimal adjustments.

🖥️ Key Features

1. Interactive Code Debugger:

Step through code, set breakpoints, and inspect live variables.

2. Rich Animation & Game Engines:

Create 2D/3D games, animations, and graphics. Includes sound, keyboard/mouse events, and LitDev library integration.

3. Advanced Language Capabilities:

• Functions with parameters and local variables.

• Inline array initialization.

• Localized documentation (SmallVisualBasicLibrary.xx.xml).

• Math plotting with sVB Evaluator.

• Multi-form projects and custom libraries.

• Unit testing with UnitTest library.

• Multi-threading via Thread.SubToRun.

4. Enhanced Classic Environments:

Improved TextWindow, GraphicsWindow, and Turtle with modern performance.

5. Natural Path to Professional Development:

Sahla → sVB → VB.NET → C# → .NET

🆚 Why Choose sVB Over Python?

🌍 Open Source

The sVB source code is written in VB.NET (WPF targeting .NET Framework 4.5) and hosted on GitHub.