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#1 2011-05-04 02:05:10
Waterbear: Scratch-inspired blocks for the web
Hi folks,
I wanted to let you know about a project I've been working on to bring scratch-like blocks to web browsers. The project is called Waterbear and I credit Scratch with the inspiration. The implementation is done entirely in HTML/CSS/Javascript. It is still pretty raw, but the web site is up and the code is on Github.
http://waterbearlang.com/ (currently drops you into the demo)
@waterbearlang on Twitter
https://github.com/dethe/waterbear
I presented it for the first time today at JSConf in Portland, OR. There's a writeup at ReadWriteWeb:
http://www.readwriteweb.com/hack/2011/05/waterbear-is-like-scratch-but.php
I'd love to hear what folks in the Scratch community think about Waterbear.
--Dethe
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#2 2011-05-04 05:43:21
- scimonster
- Community Moderator
- Registered: 2010-06-13
- Posts: 1000+
Re: Waterbear: Scratch-inspired blocks for the web
That is quite interesting! I can't find blocks like [say []] though, and are there sprites?
Moderator | Scratch Wiki Administrator | Coders' Shed AdministratorScratch 2.0 is just around the corner! Prepare for the transition by beta testing. Your feedback will help make it the best it can be!
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#4 2011-05-04 08:34:53
- CloneCommando1
- Scratcher
- Registered: 2010-12-02
- Posts: 500+
Re: Waterbear: Scratch-inspired blocks for the web
This would be great! Love the idea! 
RANDOM THOUGHT: If the tomato is a fruit, doesn't that make ketchup a smoothie?
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#5 2011-05-04 12:02:01
Re: Waterbear: Scratch-inspired blocks for the web
Omg! Amazing!
If you are reading this, please read to the end, because if you don't you won't know what's at the end. Don't just skip to the end though otherwise you won't be able to read the middle, which is most important. Now you must be wondering why you just read all that, the reason is you may have not noticed something, read it again and see if you notice it this time
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#6 2011-05-04 12:05:41
Re: Waterbear: Scratch-inspired blocks for the web
ITOPIC THIS MODERATORS PLEASE!
Last edited by Pecola1 (2011-05-04 12:54:14)
If you are reading this, please read to the end, because if you don't you won't know what's at the end. Don't just skip to the end though otherwise you won't be able to read the middle, which is most important. Now you must be wondering why you just read all that, the reason is you may have not noticed something, read it again and see if you notice it this time
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#7 2011-05-04 12:06:50
Re: Waterbear: Scratch-inspired blocks for the web
Pecola1 wrote:
Itopic This Moderators Please!
Thats weird, I did all capital and it changed to only the beginning letters capital.
If you are reading this, please read to the end, because if you don't you won't know what's at the end. Don't just skip to the end though otherwise you won't be able to read the middle, which is most important. Now you must be wondering why you just read all that, the reason is you may have not noticed something, read it again and see if you notice it this time
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#8 2011-05-04 12:20:29
- scimonster
- Community Moderator
- Registered: 2010-06-13
- Posts: 1000+
Re: Waterbear: Scratch-inspired blocks for the web
Pecola1 wrote:
Pecola1 wrote:
Itopic This Moderators Please!
Thats weird, I did all capital and it changed to only the beginning letters capital.
It's the caps filter. You can put [b][/b] at the end and it will stay capitalized. 
Moderator | Scratch Wiki Administrator | Coders' Shed AdministratorScratch 2.0 is just around the corner! Prepare for the transition by beta testing. Your feedback will help make it the best it can be!
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#9 2011-05-05 11:43:25
Re: Waterbear: Scratch-inspired blocks for the web
Wow. It's amazing to think that a webpage can do that...
You did an incredibly good job on this, I can't wait until it's complete!
May I suggest an "alert()" block?
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#10 2011-05-05 12:26:17
- markyparky56
- Scratcher
- Registered: 2008-03-20
- Posts: 1000+
Re: Waterbear: Scratch-inspired blocks for the web
Love the fact that you can see the code for it aswell as the blocks!
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#11 2011-05-05 12:39:41
Re: Waterbear: Scratch-inspired blocks for the web
markyparky56 wrote:
Love the fact that you can see the code for it aswell as the blocks!
Yup, that's a great feature! It helps you learn too, as well as (more importantly) being able to export it to your own site.
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#12 2011-05-05 13:40:11
Re: Waterbear: Scratch-inspired blocks for the web
Thanks all. I'm not trying to build Scratch in the browser (so not all blocks will make it into waterbear) and it doesn't have sprites (yet). This is still an early alpha, but wanted to let the Scratch community know what I was doing. The idea is to expose a tool for making block syntax for any language or library, and to provide a bridge between visual programming with blocks and text-based programming (thus the text view).
Eventually I want to make the Waterbear scripts easy to embed in any website, still a lot to do. I will be adding documentation to http://waterbearlang.com/ showing how to wrap a library or language in Waterbear very soon.
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#13 2011-05-06 12:24:04
Re: Waterbear: Scratch-inspired blocks for the web
delza wrote:
Thanks all. I'm not trying to build Scratch in the browser (so not all blocks will make it into waterbear) and it doesn't have sprites (yet). This is still an early alpha, but wanted to let the Scratch community know what I was doing. The idea is to expose a tool for making block syntax for any language or library, and to provide a bridge between visual programming with blocks and text-based programming (thus the text view).
Eventually I want to make the Waterbear scripts easy to embed in any website, still a lot to do. I will be adding documentation to http://waterbearlang.com/ showing how to wrap a library or language in Waterbear very soon.
Because of the text I can make HTML scripts! Without the sprites you cant do too much, will you make a save and load game feature? Will it save online?
If you are reading this, please read to the end, because if you don't you won't know what's at the end. Don't just skip to the end though otherwise you won't be able to read the middle, which is most important. Now you must be wondering why you just read all that, the reason is you may have not noticed something, read it again and see if you notice it this time
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#15 2011-05-06 15:24:38
Re: Waterbear: Scratch-inspired blocks for the web
dpimental wrote:
All, I can't seem to get the waterbearlang.com site working - using Moz. 4.0.1 - is some documentation I can get my hands on - I know it's very alpha.
You cant actually make a sprite yet, is there an error?
If you are reading this, please read to the end, because if you don't you won't know what's at the end. Don't just skip to the end though otherwise you won't be able to read the middle, which is most important. Now you must be wondering why you just read all that, the reason is you may have not noticed something, read it again and see if you notice it this time
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#17 2011-05-06 15:38:52
Re: Waterbear: Scratch-inspired blocks for the web
dpimental wrote:
I'm not real familiar with Scratch - but once I put the blocks together, how do I run it. Or do I grab the code and run it separately? Excuse my igorance - !
click run in the top right corner.
If you are reading this, please read to the end, because if you don't you won't know what's at the end. Don't just skip to the end though otherwise you won't be able to read the middle, which is most important. Now you must be wondering why you just read all that, the reason is you may have not noticed something, read it again and see if you notice it this time
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#18 2011-05-06 15:47:43
Re: Waterbear: Scratch-inspired blocks for the web
I am using mozilla 4.0.1 and my browser is maximized and it doesn't show all the tabs. Besides Script Blocks and Script Text, it shows restore, save, demos, clear scripts, show stage, run. You have to scroll to the right to see Back to Script, Restore Stage, Run. No matter which "run" I click on, nothing seems to happen?
Am I missing something. Do I need to install something else? I am running Windows 7 (32 bit) and downloaded the zipped version. Other than that, I am running in Firefox 4.0.1.
Any ideas what I missed?
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#19 2011-05-06 16:01:19
Re: Waterbear: Scratch-inspired blocks for the web
I have win 7 too. When you click run, it scrolls you to the 'stage'. Then click the back to scripts button to see the scripts, or you can just scroll back and forth, there aren't any sprites yet so you cant really make a game.
If you are reading this, please read to the end, because if you don't you won't know what's at the end. Don't just skip to the end though otherwise you won't be able to read the middle, which is most important. Now you must be wondering why you just read all that, the reason is you may have not noticed something, read it again and see if you notice it this time
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#20 2011-05-06 16:06:45
Re: Waterbear: Scratch-inspired blocks for the web
I am trying to just show the text "Hello World" at coordinates x (0) and y(0) and it gives me the following error in the error console.
Error: invalid property id
Source File: http://waterbearlang.com/
Line: 4, Column: 33
Source Code:
local.shape = global.paper.text({{2}}, {{3}}, "{{1}}");
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#21 2011-05-06 16:10:14
Re: Waterbear: Scratch-inspired blocks for the web
dpimental wrote:
I am trying to just show the text "Hello World" at coordinates x (0) and y(0) and it gives me the following error in the error console.
Error: invalid property id
Source File: http://waterbearlang.com/
Line: 4, Column: 33
Source Code:
local.shape = global.paper.text({{2}}, {{3}}, "{{1}}");
Sorry, I cant help there.
If you are reading this, please read to the end, because if you don't you won't know what's at the end. Don't just skip to the end though otherwise you won't be able to read the middle, which is most important. Now you must be wondering why you just read all that, the reason is you may have not noticed something, read it again and see if you notice it this time
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#23 2011-05-06 20:27:03
Re: Waterbear: Scratch-inspired blocks for the web
dpimental wrote:
Did you need to install anything additional? What browser and version are you using?
No download. Chrome, and Window 7. I don't know the version of Chrome, the newest.
If you are reading this, please read to the end, because if you don't you won't know what's at the end. Don't just skip to the end though otherwise you won't be able to read the middle, which is most important. Now you must be wondering why you just read all that, the reason is you may have not noticed something, read it again and see if you notice it this time
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#24 2011-05-06 20:28:06
Re: Waterbear: Scratch-inspired blocks for the web
dpimental wrote:
Did you need to install anything additional? What browser and version are you using?
What i it that doesn't work? For me it wont run scripts, mostly because there isn't a sprite yet.
If you are reading this, please read to the end, because if you don't you won't know what's at the end. Don't just skip to the end though otherwise you won't be able to read the middle, which is most important. Now you must be wondering why you just read all that, the reason is you may have not noticed something, read it again and see if you notice it this time
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#25 2011-05-07 15:57:32
Re: Waterbear: Scratch-inspired blocks for the web
So waterbear is still very early and rough. It works in Safari, and I'll be adding support for Firefox and Chrome shortly. There are no sprites yet -- the goal is not to create Scratch in the browser, but to use Scratch-like block syntax for writing code in a variety of languages.
There were some problems with a few blocks which were fixed yesterday, so if you were getting syntax errors, try again.
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