Scratch is the world’s largest coding community for children • Hacker News Board

Re: Scratch is the world’s largest coding community for children

#51

Post by jawns » Thu, Mar 30, 2023, 3:25 PM UTC

yalogin wrote: post #50

Folks here who used scratch with their kids, what is the next step after scratch? How did you introduce a language/platform to your kid? I have introduced python and my kid is able to pick it up, but am unable to come up with projects that sustain interest. It feels dry without UI and one shouldn't be doing web dev with python too. So what is the progression for python and kids?

For our kids, the progression has been:

- Scratch Jr.

- Scratch

- Replit

Scratch helps them understand programming concepts such as variables, lists, conditionals, and events, but still in an intuitive visual programming interface.

Replit gives the kids access to real programming languages (JS, Python, etc.) but with lots of support, and the same "remix other people's projects" culture.

Indeed, our kids have found that there are a LOT of Replit users in their early teens (12-15), and they all help each other out.

Re: Scratch is the world’s largest coding community for children

#52

Post by Retr0id » Thu, Mar 30, 2023, 3:25 PM UTC

They're selling it short - it's the largest coding community full stop.

"As of 15 February, 2023, community statistics on the language's official website show more than 123 million projects shared by over 103 million users, over 804 million total projects"[1]

Compare to GitHub:

"As of January 2023, GitHub reported having over 100 million developers and more than 372 million repositories"[2]

Of course, the average Scratch user is very different from the average GitHub user, and the average Scratch project is very different from the average GitHub repo - but the numbers don't lie (probably).

[1] https://scratch.mit.edu/statistics/

[2] https://github.blog/2023-01-25-100-million-developers-and-co...

Edit: Somewhat tangentially, bear in mind that Scratch publicly launched in 2007. The first generation of Scratch learners are now adults with jobs in-industry, who appear from time to time on the front page of HN ;)

Re: Scratch is the world’s largest coding community for children

#53

Post by mstade » Thu, Mar 30, 2023, 3:25 PM UTC

teucris wrote: post #45

cyrialize wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other platforms similar to Scratch actually teach Python! They start off with drag and drop coding and then Python. The Python is actually pretty fun, you write code to make animals move around and get stars.

Which platforms are you referring to?

I think maybe Lego mindstorms does this.

Re: Scratch is the world’s largest coding community for children

#54

Post by kleer001 » Thu, Mar 30, 2023, 3:26 PM UTC

jazzido wrote: post #15

NayamAmarshe wrote: post #11

Anybody remember Logo? That turtle graphics program? That's what they taught us at school. Programming for kids surely has changed a lot since then.

Scratch is part of the same lineage [0]. Seymour Papert (creator of Logo) was one of the doctoral advisors of Mitch Resnick, who leads the group at MIT that maintains Scratch. [0] https://el.media.mit.edu/logo-foundation/what_is_logo/histor...

THAT is fantastic and heartwarming. I wish they put that front and center on a History of Scratch page.

Re: Scratch is the world’s largest coding community for children

#55

Post by Brajeshwar » Thu, Mar 30, 2023, 3:26 PM UTC

If your kids tinker with Scratch, try out TurboWarp[1], a Scratch mod that compiles projects to JavaScript.

Other alternatives to tinker with are Blocky[2] and Snap[3].

1. https://turbowarp.org

2. https://developers.google.com/blockly/

3. https://snap.berkeley.edu

Re: Scratch is the world’s largest coding community for children

#56

Post by michelb » Thu, Mar 30, 2023, 3:27 PM UTC

My nephew loved Scratch, he went on to https://www.hedycode.com/ in school and is now continuing in Python. Great stuff.

Re: Scratch is the world’s largest coding community for children

#57

Post by kleer001 » Thu, Mar 30, 2023, 3:27 PM UTC

stuckinhell wrote: post #24

Doubtful, I believe that actually goes to Roblox or Minecraft.

Maybe it terms of total users, but I don't think every Roblox or Minecraft user is actually coding. Most of them are assuredly just players.

Re: Scratch is the world’s largest coding community for children

#58

Post by disembiggen » Thu, Mar 30, 2023, 3:27 PM UTC

photochemsyn wrote: post #30

I'd imagine learning at least a little Python alongside Scratch would be more optimal than Scratch alone. It's like bilingual education, it has great benefits although individuals may gravitate towards a preferred option. Perhaps it's a bit like comparing Minecraft to Factorio: https://www.idtech.com/blog/scratch-vs-python Looking around, it also seems possible to set up your own Scratch server, which is comparable t…

the thing I've found teaching is that the place scratch really shines is teaching kids who are a bit too young to "get" Python. I think it's related to their language/visual intuition but a seven year old will be able to pick up quite complex things in Scratch visually without being able to grasp fairly basic things in Python. Give them a couple of years in the oven with or without Scratch and they'll be much more confident and ready in picking up Python, but scratch can teach them a lot in the mean time.

Re: Scratch is the world’s largest coding community for children

#59

Post by eshnil » Thu, Mar 30, 2023, 3:30 PM UTC

photochemsyn wrote: post #30

I'd imagine learning at least a little Python alongside Scratch would be more optimal than Scratch alone. It's like bilingual education, it has great benefits although individuals may gravitate towards a preferred option. Perhaps it's a bit like comparing Minecraft to Factorio: https://www.idtech.com/blog/scratch-vs-python Looking around, it also seems possible to set up your own Scratch server, which is comparable t…

Snap language by SAP (snap.berkeley.edu) would be a better stepping stone rather than directly going to industrial languages. It's got first-class functions, first-class lists, object-oriented programming, APL-style vector operations which are very handy for media processing, machine learning etc, continuations, ability to make HTTP calls etc - while keeping the same playful environment as scratch.

Features like this enable serious study of computer science possible with Snap: https://emu-online.de/ComputerScienceWithSnap_2.pdf

There's even a variation for 3D geometries: beetleblocks.com

Scratch is immensely popular but with lack of reporter blocks and lack of first-class lists, it encourages many bad programming habits (global state, no datas tructures like stack/queue/tree/graph etc. The one advantage it has over SnapLang is that it has better performance for building intensive games etc.

Re: Scratch is the world’s largest coding community for children

#60

Post by em-bee » Thu, Mar 30, 2023, 3:31 PM UTC

photochemsyn wrote: post #30

I'd imagine learning at least a little Python alongside Scratch would be more optimal than Scratch alone. It's like bilingual education, it has great benefits although individuals may gravitate towards a preferred option. Perhaps it's a bit like comparing Minecraft to Factorio: https://www.idtech.com/blog/scratch-vs-python Looking around, it also seems possible to set up your own Scratch server, which is comparable t…

etoys for squeak, which is somewhat similar to scratch (and supposedly influenced its development) has the ability to switch between blocks and the smalltalk code that the blocks generate. so you can basically look under the hood (and also change the smalltalk code)