Scratch

Ace-of-Spades wrote:

Harakou wrote:

Ace-of-Spades wrote:

Wait, you mean it gets highlighted black?

No, I mean that written code with correct syntax gets colored according to the type of command, but incorrect syntax doesn't get colored and is therefore black. Get it?

But this won't be based in Python or related to it. How would they get it working like it made out of whatever it's going to be?

I'm just suggesting syntax highlighting as a feature, and used Python as an example of a text editor that does that.

ScratchReallyROCKS wrote:

Harakou wrote:

coolstuff wrote:

Absolutely! I think the syntax should be super-easy to understand, without any hashes, quotation marks, semicolons, or commas. I think maybe auto-correction of common typos and syntax errors (it's pretty easy to tell what you're trying to type with such a small library of commands) may be the best solution to get the errors out of the way from the start.

The mission of Scratch is to keep the programming simple. A lot of programming languages have these difficult to remember, inconsistent syntaxes which nobody really understands - as long as Scratch eliminates that and makes it simple to code, I think it's a great learning tool.

Yes! And why not syntax highlighting as well, like in the Python Idle interface? It'd make code easier to read and more obvious when you got something wrong, because the incorrect syntax would be in plain black text.

Or, even better, what if when you type a command into it, it would color it with the color of the block it corresponds to.

I hate typing on an iPod.

  Spectacular idea! I really like the way this is going - the community is a lot more creative now than when I first suggested this 

Harakou wrote:

And same. Mobile Safari doesn't display the text input box on the forums well, so I'm typing completely blind right now.

Excuse this off-topicness, but I've found that rotating it to Portrait and then back to Landscape allows you to scroll down (use two fingers inside the textbox), meaning you can type normally 

Harakou wrote:

And same. Mobile Safari doesn't display the text input box on the forums well, so I'm typing completely blind right now.

I would suggest using it vertically, it works so much better.

EDIT: coolstuff beat me to it!

Last edited by ScratchReallyROCKS (2010-08-26 12:37:32)

fg123 wrote:

http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/673/scratchmodel.png

I meant a new text representation. Not one that looks like blocks. I was thinking more along the lines of:

when green flag clicked
forever {
   move 10 steps
}

I like both of them - fg123's looks a lot more like "Scratch" but ScratchReallyROCKS's is a lot more conventional. If I were to choose between them, I'd prefer ScratchReallyROCKS's because it could be quite tedious to loop with fg123's.

fg123 wrote:

http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/9338 … model2.png

I like it! But I don't think variables should be defined in the script, because they aren't in block based Scratch, and there could be an inconsistency.

And of course, the ability to switch between text and block mode should be a setting. I think having both modes easily acessable by default will only confuse some new scratchers that accidentally stumble upon it. (Keep in mind I don't mean a hidden feature like mesh that you need to activate in the browser, just something with an option so you know what you're getting into.)

coolstuff wrote:

Harakou wrote:

And of course, the ability to switch between text and block mode should be a setting. I think having both modes easily acessable by default will only confuse some new scratchers that accidentally stumble upon it. (Keep in mind I don't mean a hidden feature like mesh that you need to activate in the browser, just something with an option so you know what you're getting into.)

Absolutely! I had in mind another tab, like "Sounds" and "Costumes." There would be an additional tab for "Code." Enabling the option should or could be like Single Stepping, I think.

Yes, I personally prefer a tab as well. But would it just be another tab on top, or should it be two tabs on the bottom, one for blocks and the other for code? (Like SRR's mockup) I think the latter makes sense because blocks/code is like a subdivision of scripts.

coolstuff wrote:

Harakou wrote:

coolstuff wrote:

Absolutely! I had in mind another tab, like "Sounds" and "Costumes." There would be an additional tab for "Code." Enabling the option should or could be like Single Stepping, I think.

Yes, I personally prefer a tab as well. But would it just be another tab on top, or should it be two tabs on the bottom, one for blocks and the other for code? (Like SRR's mockup) I think the latter makes sense because blocks/code is like a subdivision of scripts.

Yeah, the latter does seem to make a little more sense. Somebody should suggest this…

What do you mean somebody should suggest it? I already did.

Harakou wrote:

ScratchReallyROCKS wrote:

coolstuff wrote:

Yeah, the latter does seem to make a little more sense. Somebody should suggest this…

What do you mean somebody should suggest it? I already did.

On the suggestions page?

Yeah, there's a link to it on the first post in the thread.

coolstuff wrote:

ScratchReallyROCKS wrote:

Harakou wrote:

On the suggestions page?

Yeah, there's a link to it on the first post in the thread.

Oh, goodness! I didn't even notice that 

I'll cast my vote straightaway.

Thanks! 

Harakou wrote:

I like it! But I don't think variables should be defined in the script, because they aren't in block based Scratch, and there could be an inconsistency.

And of course, the ability to switch between text and block mode should be a setting. I think having both modes easily acessable by default will only confuse some new scratchers that accidentally stumble upon it. (Keep in mind I don't mean a hidden feature like mesh that you need to activate in the browser, just something with an option so you know what you're getting into.)

That's exactly the same thought I had when I stumbled upon this idea. I've noticed the scratch team has been very consistent about making scratch very kid-friendly so at most I think they would make this a hidden feature like mesh. I personally like the idea, but new users may find it and become very confused. Scratch is curently simple, made to be simple, ment to be simple, and will most likely stay simple. SO I very much doubt this will ever go on scratch.

Although, there is still hope. 

Somehow if we conviced Brian Harvey and Jens Moing to somehow implement this into BYOB, it would be much better. BYOB is ment to be advanced and a "more matured" version of scratch. I find that this feature woud belong much better in BYOB. Of course this all depends on whether the developers would be considerate on implementing this to BYOB.

Nice thinking, and really informative mock up fg123! 

ScratchReallyROCKS wrote:

DistantVisit wrote:

Somehow if we conviced Brian Harvey and Jens Moing to somehow implement this into BYOB, it would be much better. BYOB is ment to be advanced and a "more matured" version of scratch. I find that this feature woud belong much better in BYOB. Of course this all depends on whether the developers would be considerate on implementing this to BYOB.

Nice thinking, and really informative mock up fg123! 

Yes, we all know what BYOB is meant to be. 

You have a very good point, this does seem like more of a BYOBish thing, especially if you could define procedures in the script, and it would turn into a block when you exit text mode.

But the problem is, when you have scripts like this:

http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/4525/long.gif

it slows Scratch down an amazing amount. With text representation though, it wouldn't have to worry about drawing and compiling scripts constantly. Of course, that isn't saying why it should be in Scratch. I guess the reason for that is basically that, when people make huge, complicated things, they want to share it with other people. It's natural. But, when people download it, if their computer is slower, then it might grind to a halt because of the huge scripting. Then, once it miraculously loads it, it would take forever to scroll or switch sprites. I've had it happen before. So, they could just switch to text view, and only worry about it being slow when they start scripts or switch back to block view, when it does all the compiling.

YES YES YES YES YES

And you can copy and paste text too.