Scratch

rubiks_cube_guy238 wrote:

go to x: (-240) y: (0)
clear
pen down
repeat (480)
     go to x: ( (x position) + (1) ) y: ( ([sin] of (x position) ) * (100) )
pen up

What this sounds like is that you're itching to move on to a text-based programming language!  I mean, if you're going to type all that, why bother translating it into Scratch blocks?

Actually I'm surprised nXIII didn't put in a plug for Panther.     You could type more or less the same thing as in your example, in a somewhat different notation (namely Smalltalk), and turn the whole thing into a Panther custom block.

But this doesn't seem like a likely direction for BYOB development.  Our whole enterprise is to see how much power we can get out of drag-and-drop, rather than inching over into text.

You guys should, if anything, be bugging us about first class sprites, first class costumes, etc.

Last edited by bharvey (2010-09-21 21:02:15)

Alright, first class sprites and costumes.

Photon.

EDIT: I want to see how many of you understand that

Last edited by shadow_7283 (2010-09-21 21:14:10)

shadow_7283 wrote:

Photon.

EDIT: I want to see how many of you understand that

Stumped me.

What about first-class sounds?

MathWizz wrote:

I'd like to help with what I can!

Noted.  Thanks.  As above, stay tuned for a basic framework before we start soliciting contributions.

bharvey wrote:

fullmoon wrote:

What about first-class sounds?

I did say "etc." even though people aren't quoting that part. 

Cool. I just want to say that the Javascript thing is a fantastic idea and if it happens, I want to help any way I can.

Jens wrote:

...
So, yeah, let's start thinking about rewriting BYOB in case Scratch 2.0 doesn't cut it. At times I am more pessimistic about this, because there was this strange consensus at the Scratch conference to take the emphasis away from programming, but I'm hoping that this is just a rhethorical "marketing" scheme    and that Scratch 2.0 will be all I ever wanted it to be!
....

Is this being talked about anywhere?  It looks like this shift has been going for some time.

In March 2007 the About Scratch page said

Scratch is designed to enhance the technological fluency of young people, helping them learn to express themselves creatively with new technologies. As they create Scratch projects, young people learn important mathematical and computational ideas, and they gain a deeper understanding of the process of design

The current About Scratch page says

As young people create and share Scratch projects, they learn important mathematical and computational ideas, while also learning to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively

The goal of "enhancing the technological fluency of young people" has been dropped.

If this is the trend then I don’t think you have to worry that a separate BYOB community would split the Scratch community but would instead provide an appropriate place for programmers who want to explore programming and learn from each other.   Scratch would give people a place to be creative with resources that minimize programming.

I also wonder if this opens the door for receiving grant money.   If Scratch received funding on the basis that they were going to "enhance the technological fluency of young people" and if they have now dropped that as a priority, then does this open the door for other organizations to seek funds to fill that void?

Digimath wrote:

The goal of "enhancing the technological fluency of young people" has been dropped.

That's not the troubling part.  "Technological fluency" has come to mean "knowing the menu shortcuts in Microsoft Word" and I imagine they didn't want people to be confused.  But now that you call it to our attention I'm sad to see "important mathematical and computational ideas" gone.  Surely this doesn't reflect the actual preferences of the Scratch Team, who are the same people they always were, but perhaps an assessment that people might be scared away who will end up learning the important ideas once they start Scratching.

If this is the trend then I don’t think you have to worry that a separate BYOB community would split the Scratch community but would instead provide an appropriate place for programmers who want to explore programming and learn from each other.

Only if we can replicate the huge effort the S.T. put into the web site!  And only if we want to make it harder for the multimedia kids to take the extra step into being programming kids.

If we have to split off definitively we will -- BYOB isn't going to die if only because we need it for our course at Berkeley!     But it will be much. much better all around if we can remain under the one big tent.

BYOB 3.0.6 posted.

Jens wrote:

this release fixes two bugs:


1) SCRIPT VARS in LAUNCH contexts

        Script variables in custom block definitions used not to be settable in threads forked by the LAUNCH block. As a consequence some former projects which used block variables in conjunction with LAUNCH did no longer work correctly in recent releases, where block variables have been auto-migrated into script vars. Instead of storing individual values they always reported zero. Thanks, Stefano, for finding and reporting this bug!

        This release fixes this bug. You don't need to make any changes to your existing projects.


2) Relabelling variable getters

        Variable blobs can now also be relabelled (assigned to a different variable) if they are situated within a variadic input of another block. This used to throw an exception. Also, trying to relabel a variable blob which cannot reach any variable no longer throws an exception. Thanks, Brian, for finding this out!


        Oh, and since you guys are all picky about "renaming" blocks    I changed the context menu entry for assigning a variable blob to another variable, and also for assigning a custom block to another definition ("morphing" it) from "rename" to "relabel", and at Brian's suggestion I changed the menu entry for "this block" to "- this block", so to better reflect that this is a subcase of duplicating it.

Enjoy!

P.S. Jens actually sent me this yesterday, but my 540-student class was having a midterm so I never got a chance to post it, and then this morning I forgot!  Mea culpa.

shadow_7283 wrote:

540?!?!?!
Mayhem.

Yeah, this semester we've had a huge jump in enrollment.  Pushing the limits of the lecture hall, but not a record.  One semester in the dot-com '80s, about 700 students showed up the first day.

The second day, the fire marshall showed up.     We made 100 students wait for the next semester.

Hmm... I still don't think it's the same as SNAP. It sounds more natural, and it refers to the blocks (they snap together). Plus...

It's a snap!

Hi

After having made the translation of Scratch ( fr.po and all materials ) I would like to translate BYOB ins french as well.


I just see these two pages:
http://byob.berkeley.edu/
http://byob.berkeley.edu/translation.html

I don't really understand these advices :
[...

    * BYOB.pot — a template of all strings that can currently be localized, the BYOB-specific strings are right at the top.
    * de.po — a sample German translation file

Ok !!!
I open the both files with Textedit ( I'm running Mac Os Leopard ).
If I save it, no problem , BYOB works OK

You should be able to beef up existing Scratch pootle files by just copying and pasting the BYOB section of the .pot file into them, and adding the new translations.

Why do you say that, I don't understand. I have an account on the pootle server, but it is impossible to find out a special fr.po file for BYOB.
If we compare the both files BYOB.pot and de.po, it is easy to read that there is quite no difference.

Please note, that all .po files must be UT8 encoded, and that certain BYOB-specific blocks (CALL, RUN, etc) have to maintain the order of their arguments to work correctly.

So I have saved a de.po file under fr.po.
I have modified the first string

msgid "Language-Name"
msgstr "Francais"

When I open BYOB , I can see that BYOB understand there is a new language, and it is possible to choose this new language *Francais*.
But ! But !
If I modify the others strings as I used to do it with Scratch, If I save the new file, the new changes don't take effect.

This means we're now actively seeking translators! (If anyone comes up with a better German translation, please do not hesitate to send me an edited version). –Jens

Thanks for your help

Last edited by icecool44 (2010-09-27 10:14:36)

bharvey wrote:

icecool44 wrote:

After having made the translation of Scratch ( fr.po and all materials ) I would like to translate BYOB ins french as well.

Thanks!  By all means!

Hi bharvey
Let's start modifications ( it is a joke ) with

For example:
msgid "x position"
msgstr "x-Positoin"

msgid "y position"
msgstr "y-Positoin"

I started by editing the file de.po ; I change
No result!

I tried with the file it.po; I change
Only the block "y position"  has been modified to "y-Positoin"

Why is it possible with E....n and not with J..s

I work with Text Edit

Thanks a lot

Hi jens

Ok
I just read your answer.
Thank you.
But I have started to modify the de.po ( the German translation you have done).

I have made a fr_CA.po for BYOB. I have followed this procedure :
1°) Open the de.po file with TextEdit. ( the icon of the file is not modified : a grey rectangle with green exec ).
2°) Open the Scratch fr_CA.po. I have copied all the informations about Blocks and ...
3°) I often refresh BYOB with the modified fr_CA.po file .
Now it works. The changes take effect.

BUT
I had some difficulties with the special letters like : ç , à , ...

For example :
msgid "change %g effect by %n"
msgstr "ajouter %n à l’effet %g" ( translation for Scratch )

But for BYOB I must translate so :
msgid "change %g effect by %n"
msgstr "ajouter %n à l'effet %g"

If I write this :
msgid "color %C is touching %C?"
msgstr "çouleur %C touçhe %C?"

The instruction on the bloc is : çouleur ... touçhe ...
That's OK.

But : if I translate so
# Language name as you'd like it to appear in the Languages menu
# (Required)
msgid "Language-Name"
msgstr "Français (Canada)"

The result is  : Fran√ßais (Canada)

# Language name as you'd like it to appear in the Languages menu
# (Required)
msgid "Language-Name"
msgstr "Français (Canada)"

The result is  : Fran,àö√üais (Canada)

Therefore you can understand that I have difficulty  with ç in the Set Language menu only .

As soon as possible I'll post a new topic in the french forum to let fr.po et fr_CA.po for download.
Thanks for your answer

Last edited by icecool44 (2010-09-28 02:06:36)