Scratch

I posted this as a reply to one of the threads, but now decided to make it a separate topic.

First of all, thank you MIT for this brilliant idea and a cool product! I was absolutely delighted when I first saw it. The presentation of language constructs as color-coded building blocks of different shapes is revolutionary. The language itself is simple but quite powerful, it combines traditional imperative constructs with the event-driven paradigm and even some advanced coding patterns.

As an IT professional though I'd like to point out some limitations of Scratch or features that would help it become a full-fledged programming language, without becoming too complex.

1) Data Types. Having only numeric variables/expressions is too restrictive. How about adding some basic string processing abilities, or even date/time processing?
2) Collections (Arrays). One dimension would be enough. Ideally, they would be able to grow.
3) Persistency/database. Could be as simple to the user as ticking a checkbox.
4) Communication (e.g. sending and receiving messages/data to/from other clients).

That's all for now. Any feedback will be appreciated.