SmileBASIC 4 Discussion「プチコン4」

Unless of course you're using a Switch Lite, in which case please don't detach its joycons.

Unless of course you're using a Switch Lite, in which case please don't use a Switch Lite.

It's certainly doable. I've written my 43 games and counting with the normal Switch in handheld mode. The Lite's a teensy bit smaller, screen-wise, but if you have eyes that aren't as old and frail as mine are, you can probably get by without having to squint every few minutes ;) Most importantly, you CAN still plug in a USB keyboard, and then use F2 to bump up the text size in the editor. Sorted. Quit moaning, and carry on coding.

It's certainly doable. I've written my 43 games and counting with the normal Switch in handheld mode. The Lite's a teensy bit smaller, screen-wise, but if you have eyes that aren't as old and frail as mine are, you can probably get by without having to squint every few minutes ;) Most importantly, you CAN still plug in a USB keyboard, and then use F2 to bump up the text size in the editor. Sorted. Quit moaning, and carry on coding.

the last sentence is a mood.

"I don't spread Coronavirus. I only spread exciting, playable games!"

It's certainly doable. I've written my 43 games and counting with the normal Switch in handheld mode. The Lite's a teensy bit smaller, screen-wise, but if you have eyes that aren't as old and frail as mine are, you can probably get by without having to squint every few minutes ;)

And I think we all got used to writing code on the DS family of tiny screens. So the Switch Light is cake compared to that.

It's certainly doable. I've written my 43 games and counting with the normal Switch in handheld mode. The Lite's a teensy bit smaller, screen-wise, but if you have eyes that aren't as old and frail as mine are, you can probably get by without having to squint every few minutes ;)

And I think we all got used to writing code on the DS family of tiny screens. So the Switch Light is cake compared to that.

This. Switch Lite is quite cheap and is basically the same as a Switch besides the built-in Joy-Cons (which don't have to be charged!!!), why not use it?

Absolutely. The one biggest issue with Lite is trying to use the inbuilt image editor (F10 - GAHAKU) Everything is just a teensy teeny wee bit too small! I struggle with it on normal Switch, so I can only imagine how bad it'd be on Lite. But you can get around that easily. It's not the end of the world. There are plenty of alternative image editors available, or you can even make your own.

Absolutely. The one biggest issue with Lite is trying to use the inbuilt image editor (F10 - GAHAKU) Everything is just a teensy teeny wee bit too small! I struggle with it on normal Switch, so I can only imagine how bad it'd be on Lite. But you can get around that easily. It's not the end of the world. There are plenty of alternative image editors available, or you can even make your own.

GAHAKU was definitely designed to be used for a mouse. Which is unfortunate, because USB mouse support is pretty bad and there's an entire segment of users that can't really use a mouse. The stick mouse is... it works.

なんて心躍る発見でしょう！ Nante kokoro odoru hakkendeshou! ^{(What a heart dance!)} SB4 DEMO AVAILABLE on e-shop! Wow! I don't know If I missed it, or if it was discussed here already... Today I logged onto the Japanese e-shop because of the LEVEL-5 1,000 Yen sale and thought to look one more time at the SMILE BASIC 4 store page. I watched the trailer again, and then I saw it. There was a little tab where the "download demo" would be in the English e-shop. I tapped on it, and Some form of SMILE BASIC 4 was downloaded onto my switch. It appears to have some limitations, but you can write your own code, and run the program. I only messed with it for a few minutes before coming here to post about it.

Yeah we knew about this already, did it get updated to 4.3

No, it says that it is still 4.2.0 there is no English support in the application assistance or text boxes that I skipped though. Since I am late to the party, what are the restrictions of the demo version? I assume that I can't upload or download files, and there appears to be only one default program. Are there limits to how big a file you can save? I mean this is huge to me, because even a simplified free version is enough to potentially start writing a beginner level curriculum for people who have little to no programming experience. In this case, while more expensive than a 3DS a switch, the entry to the base software is free. (With a Japanese e-shop account, free but a small chore.) Having the parents see that their children are programing (albeit simple starter programs as my knowledge is not that vast, and I still am not certain to the limitations of the demo.) this would increase the number of potential sales, and help more kids get involved in programming like I was in elementary school. I kind of have an idea how and where to start, based partly off other curriculum and other people's efforts. And seeing as I am essentially trapped at home currently for the next month or so, I will have the free time to work on this.

The demo restrictions are:

• Can't save programs (though it's possible to get around this with SAVEV, since only SAVE is disabled)
• Can't create or change projects
• Can only download once every 8 hours
• Can't upload at all
• Only 32 MB of free space for everything

The demo restrictions are:

• Can't save programs (though it's possible to get around this with SAVEV, since only SAVE is disabled)
• Can't create or change projects
• Can only download once every 8 hours
• Can't upload at all
• Only 32 MB of free space for everything

The server restrictions are the same as buying SB4 without a server ticket.

thanks for the quick responses. What is the SAVEV exception? I don't plan to have large amounts of typing per lesson, so the 32MB restriction is not going to be an issue, given that I will mostly stay away from custom sprites and such.

thanks for the quick responses. What is the SAVEV exception? I don't plan to have large amounts of typing per lesson, so the 32MB restriction is not going to be an issue, given that I will mostly stay away from custom sprites and such.

SB4 changed from one save function to three: SAVE for program slots, SAVEV for variables (TXT and DAT files), and SAVEG for graphic pages. Loading functions were changed in the same way. The SAVE function was disabled in the SB4 demo, but not the other two, so you can write a short program that copies a program slot to a string and uses SAVEV to save it. Since programs are just TXT files, you can use this to save programs.

Does anybody know how to use SB3 Maps in SB4? Because its putting me on a massive hiatus.

Does anybody know how to use SB3 Maps in SB4? Because its putting me on a massive hiatus.

This depends how the maps were created in SB3, but you probably need to rewrite the map loader at minimum, maybe convert the map data files.

The DAT files will be in the same format as they were in SB3. The map loader code you use will probably only need minimal rewriting.

How does one suppress LOAD, LOADG and LOADV dialogs in SB4? The built-in English help doesn't mention this at all and I can't read Japanese to look at the website...