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One of my favorite features of Scratch is that it's impossible to create syntax errors. The blocks either fit together, or they don't. I think this makes it eas
by Retr0id 3y ago
One of my favorite features of Scratch is that it's impossible to create syntax errors. The blocks either fit together, or they don't. I think this makes it easier for kids to pick it up and start playing without specific instruction or tutoring.
After following the first couple of steps of the rectangle tutorial, I started clicking around and doing my own thing. I ended up with "call math paint.forward()", giving me a syntax error. Obviously that line is garbage, but I can't figure out how the math instruction is supposed to work. I'm sure if I followed some more of your tutorials I'd have it explained to me, but I think discoverability is important too.
- sinuhe69 3y agoThey don’t make syntax error, but they also don’t complaint if something is out of place. Says, you manipulated the blocks and one was popped out, the program will still run but don’t work correctly. When there are a number of blocks, it could be quite hard to spot because the blocks can overlap each other. Then there is also a problem with forgetting arguments for a block. Still runs but don’t work. Visual programming is definitely better for kids, but I think it requires a more strict approach and a better debugging ability than Scratch.
- creer 3y agoYeah certainly Scratch is a bit light on debugging support. Or was 6-8 yrs ago.
- JCharante 3y agoAnother nice thing about Scratch, well actually blocks, is that you can fairly easily adopt it to a new language. We used blocks to allow IoT customers to configure their device to react to events & push events to other devices and this all transformed into a JSON config that was uploaded.