Kids might not understand complex logic, syntax and other relevant information about a Programming Language. However they might be interested in writing a small computer program to change things that they see everyday on a computer. Obviously I was interested in doing that since I was a kid, so if we can provide them a nice Graphical User Interface (GUI) with much attractive GUI elements to write a small program with simple syntax they will be much interested to give it a try. The platform, technology or the language might not matter for them, the only thing matters is what they can do with it. As they learn the basics of a programming language they will catch things very quickly.
Microsoft has introduced a new language called Small Basic which I think will fulfill this requirement. Small Basic will be really valuable for the younger generation to learn basics of a programming language. It will not be just learning a Microsoft Programming Language rather it will be learning the concepts. Method invocation, passing parameters, code completion features and many more can be seen with Small Basic Integrated Development Environment (IDE). Below I have shown how easy it is to write a single line of code to change the Desktop Wallpaper using an image from Flickr.
As you can see on the above picture Small Basic IDE has features to build and run a program, import and publish programs from and to the web and more importantly it can export a given program to a Visual Basic project. I have published the the above program here.
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