Microsoft® Small Basic

Graduating to Visual Basic

Estimated time to complete this lesson: 1 hour

In this lesson, you will learn about:

Introduction to Visual Basic

Exporting Small Basic programs to Visual Basic

Running your programs from Visual Basic

Graduating to Visual Basic

Introduction to Visual Basic

This lesson introduces you to a new and more powerful programming environment, called Microsoft® Visual Basic.

So now that you’re a master of Small Basic, let’s see what else is out there for you to continue your fun with programming.

Downloading and Installing Visual Basic

Just like Microsoft Small Basic, you can get Microsoft® Visual Basic Express Edition for free.

You can get the latest version of the free Visual Basic Expression edition at:http://www.microsoft.com/express/Windows

The installation should take about 10-15 minutes.

Exporting programs from Small Basic

Once you have written a program in Small Basic, you can easily export it to run from Visual Basic.

Just click on the Graduate button on the ribbon and Small Basic will launch a wizard that will walk you through the export process.

The wizard should now translate your Small Basic program into Visual Basic and then automatically launch the Visual Basic environment for you.

The Graduate Wizard

Fill in the location where you want your new Visual Basic program, and hit Continue

Running the program from Visual Basic

Once you have exported your Visual Basic program, you will now see a new programming environment.

Your new environment should look similar to this.

Just click on the “Play” button on the toolbar, and your program should run just the same way as it ran from Small Basic

Visual Basic is a very powerful language and environment that enables you to further your programming fun.

Learning more about Visual Basic

There are lots of resources out on the internet for learning Visual Basic.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/beginner/ is a good place to start learning about Visual Basic.

Let’s Summarize…

Congratulations! Now you know how to:

Download and install Microsoft® Visual Basic

Export your Small Basic program to Visual Basic

Run the exported program using Visual Basic