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

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

#361

Post by 123pie123 » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 2:15 PM UTC

the-alchemist wrote: post #354

123pie123 wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

my kids really like CodeCombat https://codecombat.com/

I also really like CodeCombat. I used to it to try to learn Javascript, and I got kinda hooked. https://www.ozaria.com/ seems to be the company's new product. Have you tried it? This non-profit I was working with was hesitant to have their inner-city youth use a product called "CodeCombat". P.S. Looks like they're trying some Robox integration or something: https://codecombat.com/roblox Haven't tried it, though.

The new product doesn't look too diferent but I'm not an expert

my sons are looking forward to the roblox integration - my eldest son programs roblox anyway via LUA/ roblox studio(i think its called that), so that should be interesting to see the difference

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

#362

Post by cxr » Wed, Apr 05, 2023, 12:05 PM UTC

skeaker wrote: post #228

john-tells-all wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree. My nephew has made 800 Scratch projects, which is mind-blowing. I'd love to offer him a smooth path to other development. However: - Python has graphics, but it's a very steep climb from the simple drag-and-drop of Scratch - Javascript has easy UI elements, but he'd have to learn HTML and other things Scratch is so different from "straight" programming, I'm not sure if it's worth his time to learn JS and then…

A younger relative of mine did a course through code.org a few years ago. I remember it being essentially Javascript but you could toggle to a code blocks view and could drag-and-drop some HTML elements so you wouldn't have to worry about the HTML side. Not sure if the actual courses are any good, but it might be similar to what you're looking for.

Microsoft MakeCode supports a similar editing experience.

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

#363

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Apr 05, 2023, 12:48 PM UTC

lfnoise wrote: post #286

sharp11 wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is utterly fascinating. From his pov, is it a problem, or only from yours?

I'd like him to make a more firm next step. He sometimes brings up some of the difficulties he has expressing things that would be simple in another language. I point this out. He understands that but still prefers to work in Scratch. One factor may be that he has a social network on Scratch.

[deleted]

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

#364

Post by cxr » Wed, Apr 05, 2023, 1:10 PM UTC

ocfnash wrote: post #47

I mentioned this in a reply to a comment below but I think it is worth repeating at top level: there is a great app called Pytch which is a bridge between Scratch and Python (and runs in a web browser). I always recommend it to anyone teaching young kids to program. You can find it here: https://www.pytch.org/app/

I'm a little weirded out by all the reaching in this thread to try to shoehorn Python in where it doesn't fit well.

Scratch is an accessible, browser-based programming environment. The browser already includes first-class support for a text-based programming language. It's not Python.