Scratch
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#1 2013-03-16 20:39:11
- AlexandreBastos
- New Scratcher
- Registered: 2013-03-13
- Posts: 4
New hardware for Scratch
We developed a new educational hardware. It is a table where they can be fitted moving parts (letters, numbers and symbols are different.) Reading is done by light (infra-red). We want to know if there is a company or person that we hire to create a version so that Scratch read our hardware. The communication of educational table with the computer via serial port (COM1, COM2 ...)
I hope I can count on your help.
grateful
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#2 2013-03-16 22:05:22
- technoguyx
- Scratcher
- Registered: 2008-10-18
- Posts: 1000+
Re: New hardware for Scratch
Scratch 1.4's Squeak Smalltalk source is freely available under the GPL v2 license, and it's own Scratch License, basically meaning anyone can modify it (to support your hardware, for instance) and distribute it as long as it complies with the license.
If anything, you'd have to hire anybody that happens to be a Squeak developer (unlikely, as afaik it's meant to be a language to introduce kids to programming, much like Scratch), or somehow get the community to implement support for your hardware; perhaps making this modification of Scratch also an open source project.
Last edited by technoguyx (2013-03-16 22:08:38)
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#3 2013-03-16 22:25:22
- AlexandreBastos
- New Scratcher
- Registered: 2013-03-13
- Posts: 4
Re: New hardware for Scratch
Our proposal is to change the code Scratch under V2-GLP and offer a modified version for use also under V2-GLP license. Do you know any Smalltalk programmer?
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#4 2013-03-16 22:53:59
- technoguyx
- Scratcher
- Registered: 2008-10-18
- Posts: 1000+
Re: New hardware for Scratch
Only some users that visit this forum; but they're hobbyists, not professionals. I guess if someone's interested they'd post here.
Last edited by technoguyx (2013-03-16 22:56:16)
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#5 2013-03-17 05:52:43
Re: New hardware for Scratch
I believe you could easily connect hardware and Scratch using either
- basic knowledge of Squeak and a DLL written in C (making it nicely integrated); or
- a Java/Python/Objective-C intermediary program that reads the ports and sends information to Scratch using the Remote Sensors Protocol.
When making important stuff like this, though, remember that version 2.0 is scheduled for release almost soon.
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