Scratch

Jens wrote:

Hi wordMan, what exactly is it that doesn't work for you? Please describe your problem a little more in detail, and I'll be glad to point you to some tips!

lots of debug screens come up and some of the stuff are red boxes with a yellow x and after a few seconds it freezes! i even tried redownloading it and it didn't work!

Hi wordMan,

you're missing some files, especially the .sources file, and probably the vm-plugin dll's, too. That's why you're getting the error messages. The best way to install the source code is to unzip the source code archive into a *copy* of your original Scratch-folder, together with the .sources file (which you need to download separately, look for the link in the source code page). To start the source, drag the .image file and drop it onto the scratch application (scratch.exe). This should get you going!

If you're still getting error, please do ask again. I'm sure we'll get you set up alright!

... well, thing is, you usually use the "source code" (actually, it's a complete development environment) to program, i.e. modify it to behave differently. This sometimes leads to errors (same as in Scratch). So, if you got the "source code" set up correctly, so that it launches without any error messages popping up, all errors appearing thereafter will probably be your own ones    .

But I'm not sure if this really is the case with your installation. Does it really start without errors?

wordMan, you need to understand that Squeak Smalltalk (the development environment for Scratch) doesn't work like a conventional programming language, in which you compile, link and run code. Instead everything is *in* the image, and programming means modifying the image. There are many benefits to this kind of programming, but also some downsides. One downside is, that once you've produced a bug and saved the image, just quitting and restarting the development environment will *not* reset anything, but take you right back to the bug. The good thing is, that you can usually fix anything broken within itself, i.e. using the debugger and other tools.

Maybe plunging right into Smalltalk, especially into the Scratch Source Code environment is a bit premature for someone starting out to learn programming. Scratch, after all, is a really complex application. It's probably more rewarding to start learning Smalltalk / Squeak / Java / Flash by going through some tutorials for beginners.