Scratch

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This is the old *beta* flash player bug thread, and is now closed. To report bugs on the current Flash player, please see this thread: http://scratch.mit.edu/forums/viewtopic.php?id=105896 Thanks!
- ST
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We've released a beta version of the new Flash-based Scratch project player. You can try it out by clicking the link to the right of each project on the project page. Like most new features, it will have glitches! We need your help reporting the glitches so we can fix them.

Important note: Our goal is to make projects work in the Flash-based player just like they do in Scratch 1.4. There may be some unavoidable differences (e.g. the Flash-based player is more efficient, which can affect timing in some projects), but we want to get as close as possible. For cases where the old Java-based player doesn't do the same thing as Scratch 1.4, it's Scratch 1.4 that counts!

When you find a problem with the way a project runs in the flash-player, first check to see if it's a known glitch in the list below.

The current version of the Scratch Flash Player is v37. If the number displayed in the upper left corner of your Flash player is lower, try clearing your web browser's cache.

Known Limitations
1. Opening multiple projects in different tabs can cause sound to hang and skip. (If you experience this, close the other tabs or at least hit the stop button on the player in the other tabs.)
2. Many instruments and drums don't sound as they do in Scratch 1.4. See note below.
3. The broadcast message scratch-startclicked doesn't trigger scripts with a "when green flag clicked" hat block.  Note:  This was never an official feature of Scratch and will not be implemented in the Flash viewer.
4. Viewer seems to stockpile actions when it is not on the viewing screen (ie: looking at another tab or further down the page).  Then, when it comes back into view, all the actions play really fast.  Note:  Flash queues up events and there is no API to "flush the queue" when it gets too long.
5. Projects loaded into the player do not get keyboard focus until you click on the player. This is considered a security feature of Flash.
6. Certain projects draw to the screen and then try to sense the drawn lines all in the same loop.  Because of speed optimizations that have been made to the Flash Viewer, those projects may have to be modified by adding a Wait 0 block before the sensing blocks.  The Wait 0 will force the screen to be updated so that the sensing works properly.

Glitches
1. Sprite rotation with "only face left/right" set sometimes results in misaligned sprite center.  Example here
2. Variables on screen are sometimes placed differently.  Example here
3. Clicking on the Green Flag generates a mouse-down event.  This may not be a bug since 1.4 does the same thing...but the Java player does not.  Example here
4. Sprites that are being dragged do not update their X and Y positions.  Example here
5. Sprites that are being dragged do not do color sensing.
6. Variables displayed on the screen with the "Show Variable" block will appear in front of Say block text bubbles. Example here
7. Sometimes, text in the Say block overflows the text bubble, when the project is viewed in full screen mode.  Example here
8. Dragged sprites appear above the grey banner at the top of the viewer, rather than below it as in the Java player.  Example here
9. Acknowledging the limitations of the Play Note block, we still have very different behavior of the block over the range of values that are audible.  Example here.
10. Patterns made using Pen Punching (Pen Down followed by Pen Up without a movement of the sprite) seem to be less dense when made with pen size 1 than in the Java player or Scratch 1.4.  This lets the background color bleed through, changing the shade.  Example here
11. The flash player gives a True result for x>2 OR x<1 even if x is an alpha character.  This is different behavior from Java or Scratch.  Example here



If it's not already in the list of glitches, copy the bug report template and make a new post. Fill in the blanks and give us as much info about the bug as you can. Remember, to fix a bug, we have to be able to first make it happen on our computers, so be sure to tell us each step we need to reproduce the bug.

Bug Report Template wrote:

Your computer's Operating System: [examples: Windows, Mac, or Ubuntu]
Your web browser's name and version: [examples: Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 3, Chrome]
Flash version: [Right click on the project and look for the number after [About Adobe Flash]
Description of Problem:
Link to project:

Thanks in advance for your help!

Fixed Glitches
1. Fullscreen does not expand window in Safari, Chrome, and Firefox
2. UI elements like watchers and sprites are draggable w/ shadows
3. Stamping does not appear to work correctly
4. Calling [ask...and wait] does not work in fullscreen mode.
5. Switching to fullscreen doesn't reorient the load bar on the stage
6. Load bar displaying path to .sb file on init before loading begins
7. Empty branches in IF-THEN-ELSE blocks cause unexpected results
8. The click-on-a-sprite event doesn't happen until the mouse button is released
9. The text of the Ask block does not appear if the sprite is hidden
10. Sound in projects does not always stop when Red Flag is pressed. Example here
11. Color sensing doesn't work on ghosted sprites.  Example here
12. Insert Last block for Lists does not work.  Example here
13. When a sprite costume uses numeric costume names that can be confused with costume numbers and a variable is used with the Switch to Costume block - the flash viewer will switch to the costume name where Scratch will switch to the costume number. Example here
14. Sound synthesis does not work for some projects
15. Some projects fail to load and produce a 2032 IO error.  Example here.  Note:  It appears that projects showing this error were never uploaded properly and don't display in the Java viewer either.
16. The screen size, as sensed by Touching Edge, is one pixel smaller in all directions than it was in Java or in Scratch 1.4.  Example here
17. Color sensing with the Color x touching Color y is not working for some color combinations.  Example here
18. Running scripts can not be interrupted by a click on a sprite.  Example here
19. A difference in sprite sizing that needs further work to isolate it.  Example here
20. A difference in pen sizing that needs further work to isolate it.  Example here
21. List name is not being placed at the top of list watcher.  Example here
22. The characters Blank and Zero are indistinguishable to the "=" operator.  Example here
23. Another issue with ghosted sprite color-sensing, possibly related to the color white.  Example here
24. Sound clips referenced by a variable number do not play.  Example here
25. The click-on-a-sprite event doesn't happen if the mouse is moving while the sprite is clicked.
26. Sprites with ghost effect = 100 should not respond to mouse clicks, but do. Example: http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/angeliccharizard/1957895
27. Using a project URL with a trailing forward slash works with the Java viewer but results in the 2032 IO error with the Flash viewer.  Example here
28. List watcher displays are getting confused when lists are resized.  Example here
29. Sprites that are set to 100% ghost do not detect when touching the mouse.  Example here
30. The speech bubble on a draggable sprite can be dragged separately.  Example here
31. Speech bubbles can be cloned!  Example here
32. Sound not working in Example here
33. Comparisons of a computed variable to a list using the Contain block fail.  Example here
34. Sometimes sprites are being incorrectly displayed at 100% rather than the size they were set to in the Scratch project.  Example here
35. Line spacing of lists different from Scratch 1.4.  Example here
36. Variables displayed on the screen can shift horizontally to the point where the project doesn't function because of interference.  Example here
37. Variables displayed on the screen can intercept mouse clicks on sprites, even when there is no visible overlap.  Example here
38. The ghost effect can be set to a value greater than 100 and it retains that value which can affect the visibility of the sprite.    Example here
39. Sometimes the Answer block text input field appears preloaded with characters used to start a stack of blocks with the When <key> pressed block.  The window also seems to lose keyboard focus after this as well, requiring a mouse click to use the When <key> pressed block again.  Example here
40. A pen down followed by a pen up without any pen motion between the down and up is not leaving a pen mark.  Example here

Note: Limited instrument and drum library
Unlike Scratch 1.4 and the Java-based player, Flash does not have a MIDI synthesizer available. Thus, for the Flash-based player, we had to create our own synthesizer and instrument/drum library. Currently, we have 15 instruments and 12 drums as opposed to the General MIDI collection of 128 instruments and 35-ish drums. Every instrument should do something in the Flash-based player, but when an instrument is missing (e.g. bassoon), then you get a similar instrument or the default instrument (piano) instead. Similarly, for missing drums. Also, many of the instruments in our home-built library do not sound as nice as the ones in the commercial libraries available to Scratch 1.4 and the Java-based player. At some point we'll extend and improve the instrument library, although to minimize download time, it may always be a subset of full General MIDI library.

Last edited by Lightnin (2012-09-10 12:11:05)