Scratch

REALLY cool! Good work Jens!

Jens, you continue to amaze!  This is fantastic.  Does this mean I don't have to learn any more Python? 

this really does look great! I wonder if the scratch team might want to take this and use it in scratch V2!

This is great Jens! I can't wait for the full version!!!

I explored the Object menu of elementsforscratch090224. I guess that the presence of "Scratch" there does the trick :-)

Hi Stefano,

it turns out that finding a way to show just those few messages one wants in a certain situation among the thousands which are present in the image seems to be one of the hardest design challenges, and probably one of Elements's major current drawbacks. Best would probably be some kind of data-type sensitive filtering/selection method.

Maybe just adding a "search all methods" entry box might also work...

Having conceded this much    you'll find "inform" in class Object and "do" in class Collection....

Thanks for your feedback!

Is there ever going to be a second version? I'd be really up to that!

Hi coolstuff. I'm definitely planning to develop Elements further! Currently I'm fidgeting with improving the UI whenever I have some spare time (which isn't often). One of the biggest problems seems to be the sheer number of available message-blocks, and how to access the "right" ones quickly without needing to type in a search text. So, I'm experimenting with some fairly complex type/class interferecing algorithms, which I hope to gradually make simple enough to use in the next version.

Hi Magnie, I'm sorry you're having problems understanding Elements. But you need not feel bad about this, as Elements is still *very* experimental and not nearly as intuitive to use as Scratch. So, hang on, until - some day - it'll become easier all by itself 

Hi Jens,
I'm now playing with Elements (that I understand really better now that I have studied Squeak a little    ). I would like to "run" the Scratch UI from inside Elements, but I couldn't find a way similar to the one allowed by the Scratch image (when open in Squeak, i.e. by selecting "Scratch" in the "open" command of the World menu).

Thanks in advance for your help

Thanks! Will you make your Elements for Scratch also available for version 1.4? Or maybe for your excellent BYOB?

Jens wrote:

since Elements lets you change anything, this isn't really locked up....

Wonderful! Would you mind sending me a few indications on how to unlock it at my email federici.stefano at domain gmail.com? Thanks in advance!

Hi Stefano,

here's a short intro:

   1. Install BYOB on several different computers with internet access each.
   2. open a BYOB session on each computer.
   3. pick one and select "Share-Host Mesh" in the menu bar.
   4. a dialog box with the host's IP will open - leave it open.
   5. on the other computers select 'Share-Join Mesh" and enter the host's IP
   6. Now all connected Scratch projects receive every broadcast ...
   7. ... and can sense every global variable (using the sensor value block)...
   8. ... and can send sprites to all others (including nested ones).

Hint: You really don't need internet for this, because you can also start several BYOB instances on the same computer which will just result in the local home IP. However, when launching subsequent BYOB instances from the same folder you will see a warning that Squeak cannot write to the BYOB.changes file. You can safely ignore this warning (or use another folder in which you can delete the changes file altogether - all it is needed for is variable names in the Elements Editor).

Does this help?