There's also https://woofjs.com/ from my friend Steve Krouse which has Scratch-like JS!
Show HN: Blocklike.js Educational Library – So kids can level up from Scratch
11–20 of 34 posts
Re: Show HN: Blocklike.js Educational Library – So kids can level up from Scratch
#12this reminds me of a project with similar goals (of providing learner coders with a "level-up" from Scratch) https://github.com/stevekrouse/WoofJS
woof.js is great.
It feels similar to how Khan Academy do their intro to JS which in turn is very like Processing.js and other Canvas based libs. This gives it a clear progression path which is an advantage.
BlockLike has a slightly different feel/direction mainly because it is DOM based. You can dive into CSS with it for example.
Generally, with JS, one should learn early that for every simple task there are multiple libs ;)
Re: Show HN: Blocklike.js Educational Library – So kids can level up from Scratch
#13There’s also what seems to be a better scratch than scratch: https://snap.berkeley.edu
There's also GP Blocks, which is a better Scratch written in itself:
For more background information about GP Blocks from the team that brought Smalltalk, Squeak, Etoys, Scratch 2.0 and Snap! read the following paper:
Re: Show HN: Blocklike.js Educational Library – So kids can level up from Scratch
#14I am divided on using Javascript as a first language to teach to children [Or second or first-and-a-half after Scratch]
It's extremely useful, and does contain lots of good parts. But it's at times inconsistent,requires learning its quirks and may cause more frustration than other languages.
I would also worry a little about pushing the students down a road of mostly frontend web development. Not that they can't escape by learning something else, but still.
I guess it would take studies to compare the outcome of various languages and curriculi? A lot of apps and games nowadays are data driven, to optimize for onboarding, engagement and so on. I would like to see more of that in education.
Re: Show HN: Blocklike.js Educational Library – So kids can level up from Scratch
#15cosmohandmade.etsy.com
Re: Show HN: Blocklike.js Educational Library – So kids can level up from Scratch
#16It's hard to tell the home page is more than the gray field; and then "get started" skips to the end, where I'm encouraged to click on the codepen link and get a completely obtuse page. I recommend fixing that first view so there's more to see right when the page opens.
Re: Show HN: Blocklike.js Educational Library – So kids can level up from Scratch
#17We talked to a lot of teachers, and it's a real problem going from block based programming to syntax heavy scripting - there's a chasm there which from a teaching standpoint is sometimes tricky to breach and keep students engaged with.
We've gone for a different approach with Construct 3 which is so far resonating well in education, by mixing our block based programming system with Javascript itself helping to smooth the transition:
https://s1.construct.net/images/v721/refresh/features/learn-...
The above example is a mix of block based and Javascript, but it can go all the way to making games with pure Javascript in script files - we're hoping to cover the transition in education from between Scratch and other tools such as Unity. There's a big gap there.
Re: Show HN: Blocklike.js Educational Library – So kids can level up from Scratch
#18We talked to a lot of teachers, and it's a real problem going from block based programming to syntax heavy scripting - there's a chasm there which from a teaching standpoint is sometimes tricky to breach and keep students engaged with. We've gone for a different approach with Construct 3 which is so far resonating well in education, by mixing our block based programming system with Javascript itself helping to smooth…
>[…] We're hoping to cover the transition in education from between Scratch and other tools such as Unity
This would be amazing. Every child want to make games, especially with a 'proper' engine like Unity (or maybe Godot, but I don't think that has as much street cred yet).
Going from either drag and drop in scratch, or very basic python to using a full game engine requires a lot, but if that can be crossed then I think there is a very clear motivation for students to start learning in the first place.
Re: Show HN: Blocklike.js Educational Library – So kids can level up from Scratch
#19We talked to a lot of teachers, and it's a real problem going from block based programming to syntax heavy scripting - there's a chasm there which from a teaching standpoint is sometimes tricky to breach and keep students engaged with. We've gone for a different approach with Construct 3 which is so far resonating well in education, by mixing our block based programming system with Javascript itself helping to smooth…
>[…] We're hoping to cover the transition in education from between Scratch and other tools such as Unity This would be amazing. Every child want to make games, especially with a 'proper' engine like Unity (or maybe Godot, but I don't think that has as much street cred yet). Going from either drag and drop in scratch, or very basic python to using a full game engine requires a lot, but if that can be crossed then I t…
That's what we're trying to do and we're making good progress!
As our engine Construct 3 is written in HTML5 itself, Javascript was the natural language choice to integrate with our block system.
All languages have their up and downsides but we love Javascript and think it's suitable because it's used in many industries (not just making games) and is likely to have a growing demand going forwards. I think this is a much easier sell to education than other tools such as Gamemaker who use their own propitiatory language.
Re: Show HN: Blocklike.js Educational Library – So kids can level up from Scratch
#20Very interesting way of trying to bridge the gap from "blocks" to code. Part of my introduction to coding was using the Starcraft and Warcraft 3 map editors. At a base level, much of the scripting in the editor is very much block-like: choose an event, add actions, and apply conditions. It wasn't block-based programming but it was point and click nonetheless. However there were essentially "blank blocks", actions which were just an input for arbitrary scripts. If I'm remembering correctly, I think WC3 editor might have used Lua (not 100% sure), but I learned a lot by going beyond what was possible with just tools the editor gave you by using these seemingly limitless windows into the world of programming that it offered.
Though as I recall a lot of the really advanced and customized Starcraft maps actually used, I believe, some kind of overflow bug to add all kinds of arbitrary data that you couldn't normally. Off topic now, but interesting fact nonetheless, when Blizzard remastered Starcraft they essentially re-implemented the bug so old maps would still work.