What's New in Scratch 2.0
scratch.mit.edu
What's New in Scratch 2.0
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Re: What's New in Scratch 2.0
#2I used Scratch to teach my son how to program at 9; and now, at 11, he's doing JS/HTML/CSS at a beginner level.
We used the scratch programming for teens [1] book.
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Re: What's New in Scratch 2.0
#3One important thing that's new in Scratch 2.0 under the hood is the transition from the .SB file format (a rather complex SmallTalk object store) to a ZIP based bundle containing all required media along with JSON encoded scripts. The upshot of this is that consuming Scratch files in other apps should be a lot easier.
That said, one downside of Scratch 2.0 (at least in my view) is the migration to a Flash based editor/playback engine. And I don't entirely blame MIT for this, because Scratch 2.0 has been under development for quite a long time. Five years ago, Flash maybe seemed more appropriate than it is now.
Re: What's New in Scratch 2.0
#4One important thing that's new in Scratch 2.0 under the hood is the transition from the .SB file format (a rather complex SmallTalk object store) to a ZIP based bundle containing all required media along with JSON encoded scripts. The upshot of this is that consuming Scratch files in other apps should be a lot easier. That said, one downside of Scratch 2.0 (at least in my view) is the migration to a Flash based edito…
Flash sucks, but I'll take it over the old Java applet any day.
Re: What's New in Scratch 2.0
#5This is huge! Vector graphics and cloning are things I've wanted for years. It's also great to see it alk in the browser.
Re: What's New in Scratch 2.0
#6I'd love it if anyone could give a good head to head on Scratch 2.0 vs. Snap! 4.0[1] (the new name for BYOB, Berkley's Scratch spin-off). I realize that Snap is aimed more teaching high school/college CS, but they're seeming to converge a bit.
I don't have a CS class this year, so I haven't set aside enough time to dig into the latest versions of Snap or Scratch. If anyone has any insight to share, it'd be greatly appreciated.
Re: What's New in Scratch 2.0
#7I'd love it if anyone could give a good head to head on Scratch 2.0 vs. Snap! 4.0[1] (the new name for BYOB, Berkley's Scratch spin-off). I realize that Snap is aimed more teaching high school/college CS, but they're seeming to converge a bit. I don't have a CS class this year, so I haven't set aside enough time to dig into the latest versions of Snap or Scratch. If anyone has any insight to share, it'd be greatly ap…
From a purely technical perspective, the biggest difference is that the Berkeley team (Snap) re-implemented in JavaScript, and MIT (Scratch 2.0) in Flash. The former also uses XML as a format, the latter JSON (in 2.0).
Like you say, Snap's main difference is it makes some more advanced CS concepts more overt, primarily for use as a teaching tool for older students. To this end, it doesn't have the deep social integration that Scratch does: remixing and sharing are a big part of Scratch.
But that isn't to say that Scratch isn't suitable for high school or college level courses - Harvard's been using Scratch in the first week of it's intro CS class for several years now, with great success. The advantage of Snap is that transitioning from it to pure coding can be less of a leap, due to support for things like recursion, procedures, and continuations.
The Lifelong Kindergarten's remit at MIT means that they tend to place emphasis on a certain age range. In addition to Snap there's also an offshoot of Scratch targeted at very young children (Scratch Jr, which I think is developed by Tufts).
Re: What's New in Scratch 2.0
#8What does this mean for the Raspberry Pi? Will Raspbian's default browser be able to handle it?
Re: What's New in Scratch 2.0
#9I'd love it if anyone could give a good head to head on Scratch 2.0 vs. Snap! 4.0[1] (the new name for BYOB, Berkley's Scratch spin-off). I realize that Snap is aimed more teaching high school/college CS, but they're seeming to converge a bit. I don't have a CS class this year, so I haven't set aside enough time to dig into the latest versions of Snap or Scratch. If anyone has any insight to share, it'd be greatly ap…
From a purely technical perspective, the biggest difference is that the Berkeley team (Snap) re-implemented in JavaScript, and MIT (Scratch 2.0) in Flash. The former also uses XML as a format, the latter JSON (in 2.0). Like you say, Snap's main difference is it makes some more advanced CS concepts more overt, primarily for use as a teaching tool for older students. To this end, it doesn't have the deep social integra…
So Smalltalk is gone?! :(
Re: What's New in Scratch 2.0
#10My son is finally make his space shooter the way he envisioned because of the new clone sprite action. Exciting times ahead, here is a pic of him getting down last night:
