Scratch
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#1 2007-06-30 15:40:33
Useful Improvements to an exteremely useful project - Scratch!
Hi,
I have learned the existance of Scratch soon after it has been released by attending to Prof. Henry Leitner's Technology,education and innovation seminar from Harvard Extension School. Prof. Leitner introduced the software to us in his visit to Istanbul. I can clearly state that this program is the oppurtunity I have been waiting for many years to develop the educational ideas in my mind. As an English teacher, I began using Scratch effectively. I am so happy that I could hug you all. Greetings to the developers, you are wonderful people!
I honestly believe that this project will continue to improve and become a perfect tool for education and entertaintment. So I would like to suggest some improvements that would be great help for my projects:
+ Improvement: Access to Simple Data Support, reading and writing to an external file.
What it is for: To create quiz applications that can access to a simple database, or file.
+ Improvement: Text variables, for example we can say a=1 (numeric) but we can't say that a="Scratch is lovely!" (I remember we had a$="TEXT" variable in QuickBasic long time ago)
What it is for: Creating more interactive ELT (English Language Teaching) projects by using words, sentences. IF conditionals could check the text variables in attion to numeric values.
+ Improvement: A Screen Area which is not limited to 480x360
What it is for: Larger resoulution projects
+ Improvement: Ability to alter the image sizes of sprites,costumes, etc. not with LARGER or SMALLER button only, but with precise numeric values. For example we should be able to enter the desired pixel size of a sprite. (Like in Flash, or photoshop Image Size feature)
What it is for: More flexibility in importing graphics and allowing perfect integration with other graphics programs.
+ Improvement: Option for Uncompressed and unaltered mp3 sounds.
What it is for: To create off-line educational games which use full quality mp3 files without mono conversion or whatsoever.
I have mentioned some of these ideas to our lecturers. And I have realised some of them while I was creating scratch projects. I am very well aware that it is very difficult to create a software. (I am no programmer, but I guess) I just wish to see Scratch improve.
Thanks for reading,
I wish good luck to you all,
Best Regards,
Aydin Can Bekoglu
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#2 2007-06-30 16:34:09
- kevin_karplus
- Scratcher
- Registered: 2007-04-27
- Posts: 1000+
Re: Useful Improvements to an exteremely useful project - Scratch!
File I/O would be nice, but that would make the web applets difficult or impossible. I think that this may be too big a can of worms for Scratch to get into.
Text values variables would be nice, and can be easily incorporated into scratch---it is already an untyped language, so having text values as well and numeric ones shouldn't be a problem.
Screen size changes would be nice for advanced projects, but dealing with variable screen sizes would probably add too much complexity for the beginning programmers that scratch is intended for.
Images can be resized numerically by the set size block, but if you want precise pixel control, you are best off adjusting the costume in an external program like Photoshop Elements and importing it in the desired size.
Better sound quality is probably not as important for most users as keeping the file size down---particularly for projects to be uploaded to the web. It would be good to use better compression algorithms for the sound and images, so quality is not compromised in the attempt to keep the size reasonable.
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#3 2007-07-01 18:06:29
Re: Useful Improvements to an exteremely useful project - Scratch!
Thank you.
I see. I think I will continue to dream then.
I forgot that Scratch is mainly for publishing in the internet. I use it in my classes and school, that's why I wanted to have see some improvements. Still, I believe many more nice features will be added to the project.
P.S. : You know, one of the nice things of being a Scratch user is that you feel like a beta-tester 
This program added lots of things to my profession.
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