Scratch

CraigJohn · 2013-03-13 06:54:04

Hello, my son has been getting into scratch at school, so really would like to encourage him with this - however, I know very little about it!

I run FreeBSD at home, similar in many ways to Linux/UNIX.

I can install squeak very easily, and it already installs "scratch plugins" by default.

However, now I have done this, is it simply a case of running a scratch virtual machine image on squeak? If so, do I need a specific image for a specific scratch version?

If so, please could you show me how to download the image files, rather than Windows/Linux installation files.

Then, I would like to create a port for scratch to FreeBSD, so if the above works, this should be straightforward, and then scratch will be available on another OS. FreeBSD ports are simply a set of Makefiles, patches etc and http links to the source code, so it wouldn't involve hosting tar,deb,rpm files on another server.

I'm new to scratch/squeak, so please let me know if I've completely misunderstood something!

Many thanks,

Richard

nathanprocks · 2013-03-13 07:30:13

There is no need to port Scratch because you can already run it in the Squeak VM. You should be able to use Scratch by running scratch.image with Squeak. You can get scratch.image from the Windows, Mac, or Linux downloads.

CraigJohn · 2013-03-13 16:29:14

Many thanks for your help, I got the image file from the zip file, but when I run

squeak Scratch.image

I just get the message "CHECKING squeakvm" and a blank screen.

Looking at the squeak man page, it looks like I need to run inisqueak, but this doesn't exist. Do I have to set up some other files?

Many thanks, Richard

technoguyx · 2013-03-13 17:24:28

If this thread is right, the various *nix Squeak packages should come with the inisqueak script. Are you running the command in the same folder as the Scratch .image file, with no attributes (i.e. not "inisqueak Scratch.image"), as the man page says?

I know all this thanks to Google as I don't use FreeBSD, nor do I use Scratch 1.4 now. I use Ubuntu Linux, however, so I am familiar with an Unix-like environment at least.

nathanprocks wrote:
There is no need to port Scratch because you can already run it in the Squeak VM. You should be able to use Scratch by running scratch.image with Squeak. You can get scratch.image from the Windows, Mac, or Linux downloads.

He means he wants to build a FreeBSD package for easier installation: distributing the Squeak VM with the Scratch image, basically.

nathanprocks · 2013-03-14 01:32:58

technoguyx wrote:
nathanprocks wrote:
There is no need to port Scratch because you can already run it in the Squeak VM. You should be able to use Scratch by running scratch.image with Squeak. You can get scratch.image from the Windows, Mac, or Linux downloads.
He means he wants to build a FreeBSD package for easier installation: distributing the Squeak VM with the Scratch image, basically.

Oh, I understand now.

CraigJohn · 2013-03-14 07:19:02

Thanks for you help, I think it may be the way I'm running scratch/squeak. The version of squeak installed is 4.3 (for the image & changes file) and 4.10.2.2602 (for the source files).

If I run "squeak Squeak.image", all looks fine - I get a nice ui, and all seems to work. So the squeak installation looks fine.

However, if I drag the scratch image (from Windows zip file) onto this squeak screen I get a message "Error: invalid utf8". Is this the right thing to do anyway - is squeak not then running two image files?

If I run "squeak scratch.image" I get the black screen and "CHECKING squeakvm" message. Should I also have a changes file here - doesn't seem to exist in the windows zip file.

As you can see, I'm a scratch/squeak newbie, but I would like to get it running on FreeBSD, it will then run fine on PC-BSD, which is a desktop orientated configuration of FreeBSD.

Thanks, Richard

CraigJohn · 2013-03-15 17:48:27

I got this sorted by unpacking the linux deb file, and putting all the data directories in the appropriate FreeBSD directories.

The scratch shell script needed a bit of modification, but basically everything is now fine - I was confusing the squeak and squeakvm binaries.

So my son is very happy, and thanks for creating some great software!

Richard

technoguyx · 2013-03-15 20:20:16

Glad to hear you got it to work. c: I guess you could rework the .deb's contents into a FreeBSD package now?

CraigJohn · 2013-03-16 06:15:25

Thanks, Yes I should be able to make a port. The main issue is that FreeBSD insists on all 3rd party packages in /usr/local, not /usr. I think /usr/share, etc are hard-coded in the scratch image, so don't know how to get around this. Scratch still works, it just doesn't find things like default projects,costumes etc easily.

Do you know if I can set an environment variable, or call scratch with an option to make it look at /usr/local rather than /usr ?

Thanks, Richard

Scratch

archived forums

#1 2013-03-13 06:54:04

Scratch on FreeBSD

#2 2013-03-13 07:30:13

Re: Scratch on FreeBSD

#3 2013-03-13 16:29:14

Re: Scratch on FreeBSD

#4 2013-03-13 17:24:28

Re: Scratch on FreeBSD

nathanprocks wrote:

#5 2013-03-14 01:32:58

Re: Scratch on FreeBSD

technoguyx wrote:

nathanprocks wrote:

#6 2013-03-14 07:19:02

Re: Scratch on FreeBSD

#7 2013-03-15 17:48:27

Re: Scratch on FreeBSD

#8 2013-03-15 20:20:16

Re: Scratch on FreeBSD

#9 2013-03-16 06:15:25

Re: Scratch on FreeBSD

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