Scratch

bharvey wrote:

Lucario621 wrote:

I don't really get what the scripts variable script does 

It's an alternative to the "Make a variable" button inside the Block Editor, but (a new feature) can also be used in scripts outside the Block Editor that need temporary storage.  For example, you've probably used the Scratch REPEAT block along with a variable that counts repetitions, using a CHANGE BY block inside the REPEAT.  Well, if that variable doesn't need to be kept around forever, instead of making it a sprite variable or a global variable you can make it local to this script, so you get a new variable each time you run the script.  This avoids clutter in the project.

We're talking about getting rid of the Block Editor's "Make a variable" button, since Script Variables does the same job better, we think.  But it's true that it takes a little getting used to, and the "Make a variable" button has the advantage of being just like the Scratch one.

Cool!

Although I do think you should keep them - because very often you need to use variables in multiple scripts.

Lucario621 wrote:

shadow_7283 wrote:

New question; I'm making a custom block that I want to have the drop down list of list names. How can I do this?

Nope - you can't do drop-down lists yet.

Darn. I also need a feature that allows you to put lists in block definitons.

xly wrote:

I've found an interesting workaround ! I create a "mirror" Motion Reporter function (move# 80 ) copying the same Motion Command (move 80),and then this "mirror" function can be used into a list of motion commands (For each Item of ...list (move# 80)(turn# 90)(move# 80)(turn# 90)(move# 80)(turn# 90)(move# 80)(turn# 90)...run with Inputs))

I don't understand.  FOR EACH takes commands to begin with, not reporters.  So I'm not seeing why you need to make reporters out of the motion commands.

Sorry if I'm being dense....

Also - I forget (or don't know  )

What's the difference between a boolean and a predicate?

shadow_7283 wrote:

When I try to rename a variable, I get another error. Am I doing something wrong?

Hi, Shadow.  I'm not sure how to answer this without more details.  What kind of error -- a red border around your block, or a popup dialog with a Smalltalk error?  And, does it happen when you do the rename, or are you using reporter ovals that still have the old name?  Maybe just post a screenshot?

About the disappearing speech balloons, I agree, it's really annoying, and Jens is going to fix it promptly, aren't you, Jens? 

About dropdowns in custom blocks, yeah, that's clearly a good idea, but really hard to specify completely.  First of all, what goes in the menu?  Fixed text? (1, any, last)
All sprites?  All accessible variables?  Some combination?  Then,  can you drop a reporter onto it?  Right now the answer is yes for red list blocks, but no for orange variable setters.  We need to spend some time really coming to understand these questions (and maybe clean up the existing special cases) and then figure out a usable user interface, before we can add custom dropdowns to BYOB.

And lurking behind that hard issue is an even harder one.  Our guiding principle: Everything should be first class!  In particular, sprites should be first class.  So a dropdown that lists the sprites shouldn't report the /name/ of the sprite (as text); it should report the actual sprite! So I think we have to clarify how first class sprites will work (imagine a MAKE SPRITE block that takes a costume -- also first class -- as input, for example) /before/ we put in sprite-related dropdowns, so that we don't encourage people to write programs assuming that the dropdown reports the sprite's name and then be stuck supporting that old code when we want to switch to reporting the actual sprite.

So, that's not a "no," but it's a "not soon."  By August?  I can't guess.

bharvey wrote:

It's the "Make a variable" button /in the Block Editor/ that we're talking about eliminating, not the one in the Variables palette.

Oh - than that makes complete sense! Ok 

bharvey wrote:

P.S. I'm really glad you liked the tutorial!  I'm starting planning #2 (higher order functions and lists).

Yay! 

shadow_7283 wrote:

I also need a feature that allows you to put lists in block definitons.

Hi again.  I'm not sure I understand this fully.  Do you mean you want a block that takes a list as input?  We have that.  If you go to the long input dialog, one of the type choices is List; the result is a slot that looks like a tiny list: grey border around red item boxes.  You can drop any list onto that slot, including the red ovals next to the check boxes for the Scratch-style named lists, and also including lists made by list reporters such as LIST or COPY OF (or the custom list blocks in tools.sb).

OTOH if what you're asking for is a "Make a List" button inside the Block Editor, just make a script variable and say SET <var> TO [LIST .....].

shadow_7283 wrote:

bharvey wrote:

shadow_7283 wrote:

I also need a feature that allows you to put lists in block definitons.

Hi again.  I'm not sure I understand this fully.  Do you mean you want a block that takes a list as input?  We have that.  If you go to the long input dialog, one of the type choices is List; the result is a slot that looks like a tiny list: grey border around red item boxes.  You can drop any list onto that slot, including the red ovals next to the check boxes for the Scratch-style named lists, and also including lists made by list reporters such as LIST or COPY OF (or the custom list blocks in tools.sb).

OTOH if what you're asking for is a "Make a List" button inside the Block Editor, just make a script variable and say SET <var> TO [LIST .....].

Kinda to the second one. I am trying to create a reporter block in the lists section called (item of list [drop down box that's not supported    ] that contains []). That way you can avoid searching an entire list for an item. Not that it is hard to do, but it is sorta irritating and slows the program down. Originally I was just going to report the values in a variable, but I realized that it would just create more problems than it fixed, especially if multiple items fit your requirmebts. So really want I want to do is create a temporary list to store these values, and let the user decide whether to report it as a variable, choose the first item of the list, etc. Can you help me out? (Sorry for any typos, I'm on an iPod touch).

You mean a block like this?

MathWizz wrote:

You mean a block like this?

Ah, very nice.  Isn't this fun?  Now, for extra credit, write the inverse: a block that takes a deep list (a list of lists, as in your block, to any depth) and an item value, and reports the path (as a list of positive integers) to that item in the list.  So if the list is

[[a b c] [d e [f g h] i] j [k l]]

and the item value is h, it reports [2 3 3]; if the item value is j it reports [3]; etc.  You can report the first path you find; don't worry about multiple copies of the same value.  (Maybe /that/ is the block Shadow wants?)

Here is what should go in a file (possible named BYOB) in /usr/bin on a Linux system to get the BYOB.image file to run. I put the image file in /usr/lib/Scratch and then copied the scratch file in /usr/bin to a file named BYOB and changed the image name. If you create the file from scratch (no pun intended) you will have to set execute permissions on the BYOB file you create. Scratch will have to installed to make this work by the way.

#!/bin/sh
# Squeakvm wrapper to load Scratch image.
#------------------------------------------------------------

/usr/bin/scratch_squeak_vm \
-plugins /usr/lib/scratch/Plugins \
-vm-sound-pulse \
/usr/lib/scratch/BYOB.image "${@}"

Jens wrote:

Jonathanpb wrote:

Just a thought - maybe the icon for BYOB could be a Gobo? After all, the start sprite is a Gobo... 

Excellent suggestion, Jonathanpb! We'll try to do it for one of the next releases.

I have a related suggestion... 

Can the default Gobo have more than one costume? The Scratch cat has two, and there are several Gobo costumes that come with Scratch... 

tobydanger wrote:

Scratch will have to installed to make this work by the way.

Thanks!  This will be really useful for us at Berkeley, if we can run our BYOB-based course in a Linux lab.  Do you know if there's a Scratch build for Fedora?  Last I looked all I could find was Debian, and our sysadmins seem to have settled on Linux (except for the labs that run Solaris, but that's another issue...)