Scratch
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#1 2008-09-11 13:35:57
- Paddle2See
- Scratch Team
- Registered: 2007-10-27
- Posts: 1000+
Scrolling Banner Project
If you've ever wanted to leave an "OUT TO LUNCH" message scrolling across your screen or wish somebody a "HAPPY BIRTHDAY", well now you can do it:
http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/Paddle2See/262941
It demonstrates a crude text input technique and yet another use for lists.
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#2 2008-09-11 14:30:18
- MasterOfMac
- Scratcher
- Registered: 2008-02-01
- Posts: 62
Re: Scrolling Banner Project
That's really cool. I like the color change and slight inner shadow. Plus you can do an infinite string because the way the letters go through the entire list...
*sarcasm*
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#3 2008-09-11 15:44:58
- Paddle2See
- Scratch Team
- Registered: 2007-10-27
- Posts: 1000+
Re: Scrolling Banner Project
MasterOfMac wrote:
That's really cool. I like the color change and slight inner shadow. Plus you can do an infinite string because the way the letters go through the entire list...
Thanks! I'll take credit for the color change and the infinite string of letters...but I have no idea where this shadow effect you saw came from!
And I'm going to be really interested if somebody can redo this with stamping and 1/10 the number of sprites! That would be cool. The project seems to be a bit top-heavy for the effect you get. If it could be trimmed down, it could be used for project intros.
I have a much simpler version (not shared yet) that scrolls a variable...but the effect is not nearly as exciting.
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#4 2008-09-11 16:16:32
- chalkmarrow
- Scratcher
- Registered: 2007-05-18
- Posts: 100+
Re: Scrolling Banner Project
Awesome. Now if only it could connect to an RSS server and pick a random news headline and scroll that across the page, THAT would be a cool remix 
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#5 2008-09-11 17:17:54
- Paddle2See
- Scratch Team
- Registered: 2007-10-27
- Posts: 1000+
Re: Scrolling Banner Project
chalkmarrow wrote:
Awesome. Now if only it could connect to an RSS server and pick a random news headline and scroll that across the page, THAT would be a cool remix
Is that something we can now do with the messaging capabilities in Scratch?
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#6 2008-09-11 17:34:50
- chalkmarrow
- Scratcher
- Registered: 2007-05-18
- Posts: 100+
Re: Scrolling Banner Project
Paddle2See wrote:
chalkmarrow wrote:
Awesome. Now if only it could connect to an RSS server and pick a random news headline and scroll that across the page, THAT would be a cool remix
Is that something we can now do with the messaging capabilities in Scratch?
Yep. Definitely. For example, if you are fond of Processing, like I am, you would simply write a middleware program that incorporates the simple Processing XML library:
http://processing.org/reference/libraries/xml/index.html
which allows you to connect to a website and get the XML elements easily, and mix in the Processing Network library:
http://processing.org/reference/libraries/net/index.html
which allows you to connect to scratch through a TCP connection (as I did in my little Catenary program at http://sites.google.com/site/chalkmarrowfiles , if you want an example).
The middleware can be responsive to a broadcast from scratch, which might actually include a URL, and would send back to scratch a variable value containing a new headline or some other item that you parsed from the XML.
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