Well, it’s official! The book launched on May 2nd, 2016! And so it’s about time to write it up and make it official! This blog post will also house excerpts from all the book reviews, so this page will be evolving as we go!
I teamed with author Majed Marji (Learn to Program with Scratch) to write a fantastic new book from No Starch Press… Learn to Program with Small Basic: An Introduction to Programming with Games, Art, Science, and Math.
It’s written to about a 13-year old audience, but kids can start reading it at a younger age, and adults will find it as a great way to ease into text-based computer programming! It’s designed so that anybody can read it on their own, but it’s packed full of useful problems and challenges to be an asset for teachers and students. That includes the code from all the programs you learn in the book (both incomplete versions, to challenge the students, and the final versions of the code to compare and learn from), as well as both for all the challenges and practice assignments. And it also includes a list of test-like questions and online resources for every chapter as well! And finally, it features a thread of random humor (to keep students on their toes) and some valuable connections into the Small Basic online community engagements.
This book will be released next month, but you can purchase an Early Access version of the Ebook and pre-order a printed book.
Learn to Program with Small Basic (Amazon)
An Introduction to Programming with Games, Art, Science, and Math
by Dr. Majed Marji and Ed Price
May 2016, 304 pp.
ISBN: 978-1-59327-702-4
Full Color
Small Basic is a free, beginner-friendly programming language created by Microsoft to inspire kids to learn to program. Based on 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 brings code to life and introduces you to the empowering world of programming. You’ll master the basics with simple activities like displaying messages and drawing colorful pictures, and work your way up to programming playable games! You’ll learn how to:
- Store and manipulate data with variables
- Process user input to make interactive programs
- Use if/else statements to make decisions
- Create loops to automate repetitive code
- Break up long programs into bite-sized subroutines
Inside, you’ll find hands-on projects that will challenge and inspire you. You’ll command a turtle to draw shapes, program magical moving text, solve all kinds of math problems, help a knight slay a fearsome dragon, and more! Each chapter ends with extra practice examples so you can take your programming skills to the next level!
About the Authors
Dr. Majed Marji is a Senior Development Engineer at General Motors. He holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering (Wayne State), an MBA in Strategic Management (Davenport), and he is an adjunct faculty member at Wayne State University in Michigan. He is the author of Learn to Program with Scratch. Majed is currently working on Powertrain, electronic throttle control, and torque safety. He develops, debugs, and tests software using C/C++ and Matlab/Simulink. He has taught engineering communication, microprocessors, algorithms, and control systems at different universities.
Ed Price is a Senior Program Manager in Engineering at Microsoft. He holds an AA in computer art and animation from DigiPen Institute of Technology, a Bachelor of Science in Business Management, an MBA in Technology Management, and has been a professor at Bellevue College. He runs customer feedback programs for Azure Development and Platform services, as well as Visual Studio and Small Basic. His previous Microsoft teams he was an engineer for include Power BI, SQL Server, SharePoint, Hardware (mice, keyboards, webcams), and Microsoft Surface. He holds 5 patent awards for multi-touch designs on Microsoft Surface. For a list of his publications, see Ed Price – Bibliography. Ed has worked with teenagers for volunteer organizations for 13 years, and before Microsoft, he worked at Disneyland for 3 years, worked on videogames for Nintendo, IBM, Jaleco, and Square/Enix, and he ran two animation studios, creating CG cartoons.
Check out the Learn to Program with Small Basic video
Table of Contents
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
Click here to go to the Learn to Program with Small Basic page on Amazon.
Book Reviews
“Learn to Program with Small Basic is clearly designed with multiple audiences in mind. It could be picked up off the shelf by an 8-14 year old with a new interest in computer programming. It can be a guide for an adult just starting out on their journey. It can provide the framework for a homeschooling course. It can be the backbone for a teacher’s course or a club. In all of these situations, Learn to Program with Small Basic takes its readers from the most basic of computer science questions (“What is a Computer?”) and accompanies them on a journey of discovery in computer programming… It is the structure within those chapters and Marji and Price’s engaging writing style that really sets this book apart. It is clearly written with an eye towards a middle school audience. The text is easy to read and filled with little jokes and gags that are guaranteed to make the coolest 13-year-old roll her eyes (that’s a good thing)… my favorite part of the book by far is that each chapter provides the reader with challenges that utilize the new content introduced in the chapter and draw on what has been previously learned… I am certain that Learn to Program with Small Basic will be a trusted companion as I expand this portion of my course, and I am thrilled that such a resource is available.”
—Martin Fish, Middle School Teacher, Mason Middle School, Ohio
“Skillfully introduces programming through the Small Basic language. This book is not only good for middle and high school students, but is a great starting point for adults. The lessons are focused on teaching programming concepts rather than just making projects. Even if you aren’t a beginner, this book is great to have as a reference.”
“I’m happy to see Learn to Program with Small Basic come alive and be available for everyone who wants to take their first step into programming. The book does a great job of introducing beginners to programming concepts while keeping the content fun and engaging.”
—Vijaye Raji, Creator of Small Basic, from the Foreword
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This has been a fantastic journey that’s coming to a close for me. I’ve had a ton of fun, and I want to thank my co-author Majed Marji and my friends at No Starch Press for going on this journey with us!
Small and Basically yours,
– Ninja Ed