Scratch

Wait. It will only be online and at Brick and Mortar? Never heard of Brick and Mortar. Hope it's actually a store so this doesn't look too funny. Anyways, why not like Barnes & Noble?

Oh. Well, that probably also means Barnes & Noble (correct me if I'm wrong) because the only book store by use is either a trade and take kind of one or very very small (I know it's small at least)

You should be able to get at Barnes and Nobles, Books-a-Million, Borders, etc.

My publisher, Course Technology, is one of the major computer book publishers. The book should be available pretty much anywhere computer books are sold.

Jerry Lee Ford, Jr.
Author, Scratch Programming for Teens

At the bottom of the opening page in the book there is a list of countries in which my publisher has a direct distribution channel through which it sells it's books. This list includes:

Australia, Brazil, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Signapore, Spain, United Kingdom and the United States.

Since Australia is on the list I would be very suprised if it was not sold at all your major bookstores. If not, there is always www.amazon.com, www.bamm.com, www.bn.com, www.bookpool.com as well as all of the Australian based on-line bookstores.

Jerry Lee Ford, Jr.
Author, Scratch Programming for Teens

Last edited by jlf04 (2008-07-03 23:19:35)

This is great, now more people will learn about Scratch, I will order it definitely on Amazon. May I ask: What sparked the idea of writing a book about Scratch Programming  For Teens?

Thats nice, I want to program for a career and I just learned visual basics last year and that was my first year of High School! But i think its wonderful you made the book im going  to order it

And throught what ages is this book for ?(example: 9-14).

Cool! I'll certainly have a look at it 

well you can be any age and read it its just suggested for teens i guess

Okay, I got my copy a few days ago and have read it pretty much cover to cover.  Here is my review:

Review of “Scratch Programming for Teens"  by Jerry Lee Ford.

First, I’d like to offer my thanks to Jerry Ford.  I’m so happy that a book on Scratch is finally available.  It gives me something to point to when people ask me, “So…what is Scratch anyway?"    I can just hand them this book (in addition to pointing them to the website, of course!).

This book is a good overview of the Scratch programming language with a nice progression of projects that would help a new user move rapidly to a moderate level of expertise.  The text is nicely formatted and broken up by many pictures and examples. The writing style would probably appeal most to adults and teens with a good vocabulary.  It is clear, but occasionally uses technical jargon and complex sentence structures.  A couple of examples:

Page 65 - “Control blocks automate the execution of scripts, pause script execution, and send messages to other sprites, allowing sprites to synchronize their execution.  There are also control blocks that let you set up loops to repeatedly execute collections of code blocks as well as control blocks that let you conditionally execute other code blocks based on whether or not a test conditional evaluates as true."   

Page 122 – “This application’s operation depends on the use of a virtual pen object that Scratch makes available to you via pen code blocks, which you will learn about in Chapter 12, “Drawing Lines and Shapes."    The overall operation of the application is controlled by the script, which automatically begins executing when the green flag button is clicked."

I think this would be a great book for teachers interested in learning Scratch so as to introduce it in to their classrooms.  Older teens and adults looking to learn Scratch, particularly those with programming experience in other languages, will also find this book helpful.

The section on debugging is particularly good, offering many helpful tips that Scratch programmers will find useful.  A common Scratch problem area that was not addressed, however, was Race Condition bugs.  A Race Condition can exist when multiple scripts start at the same time and “race each other"  to completion.  Other running scripts that depend on the results of the racing scripts will give different answers depending on which script completes first.  If the programmer doesn’t plan for this type of condition, through the use of Wait blocks or other means, it can cause a host of problems.  Race Condition bugs often appear in projects that are run on the website Java player since the Java Player runs scripts at different speeds than the Scratch program.  Hopefully later editions of the book will address this lack.

For the Scratch game programmer, this book offers less.  It does not provide any help in the more common algorithmic problem areas experienced by game builders such as: Scrolling, Gravity, Platforms, Levels, and  Solid Walls.  I was particularly disappointed not to find a good sample project using the “Color X Touching Color Y"  Boolean block as it provides some great sensing capabilities but can be confusing to use.  Maybe a second book should be written: “Advanced Scratch Game Construction Techniques" .  How about it Jerry, are you working on a sequel?  I hope so.

Thanks for the excellent review, Paddle2See!

I browsed through the book and I found on page 301 it features the Scratch Resources website that JSO and adriangl have been working on!!!