I Learned to program using Microsoft Small Basic. I was 14 and the experience was really good. I learned through the PDF tutorial [1], which now has also been translated to HTML documents [2].
And I think that if I had been 9 years old when I learned, I would have still chosen to use Small Basic rather than Scratch. Block-style coding feels less versatile than text. It may look more attractive to some kids, but I would also suppose that some kids would rather use a text-based language.
Graphic capabilities in Small Basic were still really easy to use (look at the PDF from chapter 6 onwards).
And I think that if I had been 9 years old when I learned, I would have still chosen to use Small Basic rather than Scratch. Block-style coding feels less versatile than text. It may look more attractive to some kids, but I would also suppose that some kids would rather use a text-based language.
Graphic capabilities in Small Basic were still really easy to use (look at the PDF from chapter 6 onwards).
[1] https://download.microsoft.com/download/9/0/6/90616372-C4BF-...
[2] https://smallbasic-publicwebsite.azurewebsites.net/tutorials...