Scratch

Hey you want a challange then make a |send __________ to URL block|

Look at new thread.
http://scratch.mit.edu/forums/viewtopic.php?id=37031

Last edited by johnnydean1 (2010-06-01 08:01:34)

sparks wrote:

no, we're finishing the german translation, packaging the project folder, fixing the .exe image and adding a few other touches.

5pm is a hopeful time, it might not be done by then, we'll see.

Why are you finishing the packaging boxes* or packaging the project folder ? you should make it best.

*[Commercial link removed by Community Moderator]

Last edited by Wolfie1996 (2010-06-02 03:10:54)

SeptimusHeap wrote:

Look at this! They call THIS a block!

Are you insulting us?! It's actually a very good block if you ask me.

henley wrote:

SeptimusHeap wrote:

fuzzwuzz wrote:

good idea! so far jaguar has 22 new blocks. ill put it in now!

Look at this! They call THIS a block!

  Wow... Public embarrassment FAIL.

You just don't do that to people. If you think that what they are doing is unintelligent, then why get involved? Why make fun of people who do nothing wrong? Oh yeah! JEALOUSY. SELF-ESTEEM-ISSUES. GRUDGES. JUST-PLAIN-ISSUES.

Good luck earning THAT karma back.

[small]sorry[/small]

ScratchReallyROCKS wrote:

I have an idea for a block! a [string]or[string] and a [string]and[string]

Then you could do things like      if <(variable)=<[hello]or[world]> >
                                                     say [stuff]

instead of     if < <(variable)=[hello]>or<(variable)=[world]> >

You should be able to work that out and code it in the make a block feature shouldn't you? The panther team as supplied the ability to do it, so have fun trying. Hope it helps you understand smalltalk more aswell. 

ScratchReallyROCKS wrote:

I have an idea for a block! a [string]or[string] and a [string]and[string]

Then you could do things like      if <(variable)=<[hello]or[world]> >
                                                     say [stuff]

instead of     if < <(variable)=[hello]>or<(variable)=[world]> >

May I suggest that the wording of this proposed block is confusing?  I know that in English people do talk that way, but in a computer program if you see <this>=<that>, you don't expect it to mean <this>=<part-of-that>!  The more usual way to describe that situation would be <this> IS IN <that>, where "that" is a list.  Scratch has this the other way around: <that> CONTAINS <this>, which always annoys me a little because, like you, I think of it in the other order.

I don't know which forum this was originally posted to, so I'm replying here, where I saw it reposted!

And I don't understand the use of the <string> AND <string> block proposed.

markyparky56 wrote:

Sep has simply critizied people, and he had a right to, if they used someones block or an idea without credit then he has the right to do so. But you do not have the right to shout at him for hating other peoples mods.

He has apologized and should be forgiven, but his message that started this thread can't fairly be characterized as "simply criticiz[ing] people."  I have to agree (and I guess he does, too, or he wouldn't have apologized!) that it definitely had the tone of someone looking for a way to score points, rather than to criticize constructively.  MasterOfDeception's message was a little hyperbolic, but, you know, he's a kid!     (At least I assume so...)  At least he was voicing honest outrage rather than one-upmanship.  I don't think it helps the situation for you to react defensively.

Imho there is way too much possessiveness and sectarian ill-will in the Scratch-modder community, and I do not mean just, or even especially, the Panther crew.  All of us put together haven't contributed a tenth as much as the brilliance and humanitarian spirit of the Scratch Team; let's see a little humility.  And more of that humanitarian spirit.

Sorry for hectoring.

EDIT:  See also John Maloney's message on the subject; he's more tactful than I am. 

EDIT 2:  Sorry, I don't know why it was your post rather than Sep's that got me riled up enough to reply at such length!  (I was upset about his, too, but thought "I don't want to sound as if I think I'm their parent."    )  But when you talk about "blocks and ideas," I think you're being naive about the level of the ideas in question.  I haven't studied every Scratch mod in detail, but of the new block ideas I've seen, I would say that only Panther's first class colors isn't perfectly obvious.  (Well, yeah, first class procedures, too, but Jens and I have taken pains to make clear that we didn't invent that.)

Most of the other blocks are instead in the category of "thought up long ago by the Scratch Team and rejected," either because they thought the added expressive power wasn't worth the palette clutter, or because it didn't fit their goal of making everything that happens visible on the stage, or because they haven't yet come up with what they consider a good way to present the idea to novice programmers, or something.  (E.g., first class lists!)

(I should make it clear that I was not part of the Scratch design meetings I'm describing.  What I'm saying is based on my all too frequent experience of bringing some brilliant idea to Mitchel or John and hearing them explain why they hadn't done it!    )

That doesn't mean these mods are bad ideas.  It just means that they're straightforward ideas, that probably occur to half the people who write any substantial programs in Scratch.

By the way, even the big famous inventions don't fall from the sky into inventors' heads.  "Thomas Edison invented the light bulb" because, although many research labs were working on it, it happened to be an employee of Edison (not even Edison himself!) who happened upon just the right combination of filament metal and bulb-filling gas to make a sustainable incandescent light.  "Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone" because he got to the patent office just hours before Elisha Gray--and some people say even that isn't really true--and in fact after getting the patent Bell ended up actually manufacturing Gray's technically superior design.  And both of them came five years after Antonio Meucci, whom you've never heard of because he made the tactical mistake of being born in Italy instead of the US, where the big money was to be made.  (Sorry for running on; I teach a course on stuff like this.)  Oh, in honor of the British modders, I should add James Watt "inventing" the steam engine.

I believe that most people mod Scratch (1) to learn Smalltalk, or, more generally, to learn; and (2) to gain respect in the Scratch community.  In pursuit of #2, people sometimes engage in the sort of home-team hyperbole that also characterizes high school football games.  (I'm thinking of US football, but I bet it's true for rest-of-world football teams as well.    )  Which is all good fun, except that every so often some sports team fan forgets that it's supposed to be fun and really hurts a booster of the other team.  So of course that happens here, too, except that since the interactions are computer-mediated, the hurt is verbal and emotional.

Last edited by bharvey (2010-06-03 02:26:29)

I feel really bad...

SeptimusHeap wrote:

I feel really bad...

Don't take it too personally; I've been building up to that rant for quite a while.    You made a mistake in the heat of the moment and promptly apologized when called on it.  These things happen, as I said in my last paragraph.

EDIT:  P.S.  Just as in high school sports, when you're the league champions, you have to especially bend over backwards to display good sportsmanship!

Last edited by bharvey (2010-06-03 10:49:18)

bharvey wrote:

bharvey wrote:

The more usual way to describe that situation would be <this> IS IN <that>, where "that" is a list.

Or like this:

http://cs.berkeley.edu/~bh/isin.png

(BYOB tools.ypr 1.4)

Good idea, but that's not what I was intending to use it for...

bharvey wrote:

ScratchReallyROCKS wrote:

Good idea, but that's not what I was intending to use it for...

Oh, then I don't understand.  You said <variable> = [ <string1> OR <string2> ] right?

Yes I did. The difference between your block and my block is that mine uses the whole value of the variable, yours uses what the variable contains, not the whole value.

Last edited by ScratchReallyROCKS (2010-06-03 16:27:06)