Interview with a Small Basic Guru - Steve Todman (litdev)

We've interviewed litdev once here before. You can find that interview here:

LitDev, Scottish MCC & Forum Moderation Ninja (Sinclair Spectrum, Small Basic, Fortran, C++, C#)

 

But I also wanted to highlight an interview from Wiki Ninja, MCC, and T-SQL Guru, Naomi N.

 

You can see the full interview here:

Interview with Steve Todman (litdev) - many times Small Basic TechNet Guru Contributions Gold Winner

  

Here are some highlights...

Steve Todman (litdev) has won several gold medals in TecNet Guru Contributions in the Small Basic category.

LitDev's Community Stats:

  • Recognition Points: 21,582
  • Small Basic Guru Medals: 3 (source)
  • Forum Answers: 953
  • Helpful Forum Posts: 1,278
  • Total Forum Posts: 2,938
  • TechNet Wiki Articles: 11 (all very high quality)
  • Wiki Edits: 87
  • Wiki Comments: 53
  • Blog Posts (on this blog): 9
  • 4+ Star Ratings on Blog Posts: 22

LitDev's Top Small Basic Wiki Articles:

LitDev's Website:

litdev.hostoi.com

 

What got you interested in writing TechNet Wiki articles?

The main reason was to create extended explanations for common questions made on a forum I contribute to, having been prompted by Ed Price.  This forum is for the Small Basic programming language which is a simplified language for children and others starting out programming.

I wanted to create a set of structured articles that go beyond the basics of syntax and introduce some ideas about good programming style, graphics, writing games, practical hints and tips and explanations of why some approaches may be better than others.
I can then use them as references to point forum questions to.

 

What do you do with TechNet Wiki, and how does that fit into the rest of your job?

My main use of the TechNet Wiki so far has been to write articles encouraging new programmers into the creative fun developing software through the Small Basic project.  I sometimes browse other articles; perhaps other Small Basic related articles or featured articles.

From a work perspective computer science is just a tool and I try to limit its impact - it's the physics that interests me not the IT.  But outside of work I do try to keep up-to-date and learn new things in the CS world and I am a bit of a hobbyist programmer.  MSDN and TechNet are great resources for inspiring me to have fun learning new things.

   

What are your favorite Wiki articles you’ve contributed?

I've only created 10 articles so far, but I think the one that has had the most impact was one on writing graphical games (see Small Basic: Dynamic Graphics).  Not surprisingly most young new programmers want to write slick graphically interesting games.  Small Basic makes this about as painless as it could be, and the programming basics are usually picked up very quickly.  The next hurdle is programming with a good structure for graphic intensive event driven programs (games) which I tried to cover in this and a few other articles.

 

Thank you to LitDev for leading our Small Basic Forum Moderation, hosting the monthly Small Basic Challenges, and helping out in the Small Basic Community Council!

You can find the full interview here (thanks again to Naomi N for hosting the interview):

Interview with Steve Todman (litdev) - many times Small Basic TechNet Guru Contributions Gold Winner 

 

I recommend you check out LitDev's articles! They are very valuable for learning more about Small Basic!

   - Ninja Ed