Any one who would want to get into programming will stay in it only when he/she feels its easy and fun to do. It would not be fun for a first time programmer to start with Visual Basic or java.

Small basic aims at "bringing fun back to programming" - Courtesy Microsoft

Why can’t we learn to speak computer language like to speak English or French? Will we not do so if it was simple? Microsoft aims "Small basic" to be fun for first time dev