Scratch

Paddle2See wrote:

dingdong wrote:

my suggestion for 1.4 is to add nothing, why? because if more blocks R added even less can be handled in scratch, scratch needs to have code changes to run faster otherwise it isn't going to get anywhere

I think you have a good point.  I would like to see Scratch become more solid and optimized rather than have more new features.  There are a lot of annoying bugs in Scratch and the Java player.  The frustration level amongst the users seems to be rising.  And with all the new users coming onboard, many of them not speaking English well, it is becoming harder and harder to give them all good support.  It doesn't help if the applications aren't solid.

Well, I am thinking about this for some days now.

Every new block makes Scratch a bit more difficult to use, less easier. Easier... Isn't that what Scratch is all about?

In other programming languages, more features mean less workarounds: it makes it easier. In Scratch it seems to be the opposite...

Even Scratch 1.3.1 is a very buggy release.

coolstuff wrote:

Actually, I'd like to have Scratch have the ability to interact with the rest of the computer by saving files, hyperlinking, accessing the computer's hard drive, etcetera. I'd also like some easier ways for text input and output: who wants to edit twenty-six costumes and write a fairly long script just to allow somebody to write?

Though I do agree with you: the bugs need to be fixed.

Of course, I would like all those things too.  But first, I would like to see the bugs removed.

I agree that scratch needs to become more efficient. I mean, you could reprogram a scratch project into *any* other programming language and the project would run faster. I am not asking for anything that efficient but at least make it so that you don't need a 3.0 ghz pc to play some fairly simple projects.

Scratch is pretty bare bones as far as programming languages go but thats to make sure that it is simple. I wouldn't complain that much if no new blocks were added.

Last edited by archmage (2008-12-30 16:27:04)

That is true. I think  graphics need to be beefed up in presentation mode. Scratch needs  to run faster, and be bug-free, then new blocks should be added.

I still feel that that if soething should be added (aside of debugging) it should be the speed. at the moment, scratch isint the best language to use, but i dont think hat should change as 2 many new programers will get confused. i feel that the priority list that the team should make would be
debugging- that means to spend a couple of months manually debugging, setting up a beta section of the website containing the beta version java player and the beta version of scratch so useres could test it and give feedback (after the team has tested it) and after a couple of months of user test and no buggs being reported finally realease the download to the public.

Speed- personally id like to see something like a "blocks per second" option that could be changed to about a max of 120. This will speed up scratch and make it a much more flexible language.

less spam- personaly id greatly like 2 see a second scratch website, one that is much more strict about the projects being uploaded, and if the users dont like it gets kicked off. I fully understand that this is not currently implemented as it will discourage some begging scratchers, however after (what i think a sort of pass from the current site). This will alow more experianced scratchers the chance to receave better critisism

and finally, new feuters- After the rest have been implemented i think then that the team should look into new feuters.

That's true, when I first went on scratch, it was kinda confusing. So, there should be different types of scratch programs for beginners and stuff............

dingdong wrote:

another thing about this whole bug fixing, the reason scratch is sooooo quiet these days is because scratch has nothing to make it any better than any other super simple programming language, but I think if we can finish the core work and then be able to handle as many sprites as a flash game and have enough code to make it actually a decent bit confusing to know everything maybe we earn more members, mainly if this is equal to flash we better yet convert people from flash

Perhaps you would be interested in Greenfoot which has all the features you describe and has a website similar to scratch's http://greenfootgallery.org/

Convert people from flash? Haha...

Most people who create flash are professional developers. Moving blocks around would probably slow them down.

Flash is also a pretty weak language, but its easy to use and it already used by tons of websites. Actionscript 3.0 is many times more powerful but still, it isn't a very powerful language.

Scratch's purpose, is to teach basic programming concepts. I think what you want is for scratch to become some sort of high power development tool, but this does not fit into scratch's purpose.

Scratch is definitely not quiet, the amount of members has been growing at an increasing rate so I don't know what problem you have with that.

I don't expect for scratch to ever be powerful enough for professional development but it would be nice if it was more powerful. One big issue I have with scratch is when I try to run really long scripts it goes really slow and they also lag when you try to edit them in the editor. To make it go faster I have to split up my code into hundreds of little scripts. This promotes bad programming habits, you get rewarded for having tons of separate little scripts when 1 script with many if blocks should sufice.

I agree, I think all bugs and glitches should be fixed for v1.4, aswell as the paint editor being changed to include more features.