5 ms·

The UI for this reminds me a lot of Scratch from MIT.

trun 14y ago
Indeed. I wrote a similar framework in Actionscript / Flex a few years ago, actually with a lot of input from the Scratch team. I've been thinking about porting it to JS recently. Glad to see someone beat me to it :) Edit: Here's my old Actionscript library in case anyone is interested. https://github.com/trun/flashblocks https://github.com/trun/flashblocks
- nilliams 14y ago
  Yep, actually someone else (Dethe Elza) already beat you to a JS version: http://waterbearlang.com/garden.html?plugin=canvas http://waterbearlang.com/garden.html?plugin=canvas It was presented at JSConf last year: http://blip.tv/jsconf/jsconf2011-dethe-elza-5942746 http://blip.tv/jsconf/jsconf2011-dethe-elza-5942746
  - dethe 14y ago
    On the other hand, if you want to help contribute to Waterbear, it is an open community. The code is on github: github.com/waterbearlang/waterbear and the mailing list is here: http://lists.waterbearlang.com/listinfo.cgi/discuss-waterbearlang.com http://lists.waterbearlang.com/listinfo.cgi/discuss-waterbea... Waterbear isn't a language like Scratch, it's a toolkit to create a Scratch-like visual programming interface to any language you like. There is active development on wrappers for Javascript, Java robotics, and Arduino.
evolve2k 14y ago
Agree, here's the link http://scratch.mit.edu http://scratch.mit.edu. Screenshot on the home page shows the blocks look very similar indeed.
DeepDuh 14y ago
Ah scratch. Some years ago I wanted to show what cool stuff you can do with computers to a 10y old boy. Found scratch and actually got hooked myself for a bit ^^. Ended up with this (slightly embarassing thing): http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/DeepDuh/941811 http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/DeepDuh/941811. After programming a bit, the limitations become apparent big time. Google's idea to implement this as a Javascript parser is probably a good idea, this way some kids may make the bridge to the actual program. Also, it's probably way way better performing. If you like visual programming, have a look at subtext. IMO this is the best idea for a visual programmig style, I hope it gets traction http://www.subtextual.org/ http://www.subtextual.org/.
- wccrawford 14y ago
  My niece was telling me about Scratch and how she knew what was wrong with other people's code and how she'd fix it. I am so freaking proud.
  - DeepDuh 14y ago
    You should be. I hope we will have some kids to show things like this some day ;).
- rezaprima 14y ago
  have you tried BYOB [1]? It's "an advanced offshoot of Scratch" [1] http://byob.berkeley.edu/ http://byob.berkeley.edu/
  - DeepDuh 14y ago
    That website is glorious :). Yeah, I think this might go a bit far. Scratch's community sadly isn't so big, further fragmentation won't help that much I think. And the platform doesn't make a very solid impression to me. That's why I like google's idea, I hope they pour some money into this.
    - YAFZ 14y ago
      > Scratch's community sadly isn't so big This might change your idea: http://day.scratch.mit.edu/ http://day.scratch.mit.edu/
    - richwhite 14y ago
      Scratch not so big ? ... http://scratch.mit.edu http://scratch.mit.edu has over 2.5 million projects posted to it and over 1 million registered users !
      - DeepDuh 14y ago
        Yep it seems like it has grown quite a bit since I've looked at it last time. I still think a platform like this should be bigger - as in a substantial fraction of school children big. Every child should try playing with something like scratch, just to see whether (s)he might like it and go into programming. When I was a child I went straight from some learning program for children with some graphical macro editor (poor man's hypercard) to VB6 and it led me to what I am now. That's why I think it's really important what toys we give to our children.
mtgx 14y ago
Google also had App Inventor similar to that. I don't understand why they are building this. Didn't they just kill App Inventor because they wanted to "focus" or something? So why this now?
- adoyle 14y ago
  App Inventor is here now: http://www.appinventor.mit.edu/ http://www.appinventor.mit.edu/
YAFZ 14y ago
You should've seen the enthusiasm of children during the International Scratch Day: http://day.scratch.mit.edu/ http://day.scratch.mit.edu/ (Well, at least the ones I taught introductory programming using Scratch https://fatherinastrangeland.wordpress.com/2012/05/27/how-can-a-group-of-kids-multiply-their-creativity-by-learning-to-code/ https://fatherinastrangeland.wordpress.com/2012/05/27/how-ca... )
bromagosa 14y ago
Have you seen this port of Scratch by the folks at Berkeley?http://snap.berkeley.edu/snapsource/snap.html http://snap.berkeley.edu/snapsource/snap.html It's not finished yet, but it sure beats MIT's attempt to port Scratch from Squeak Smalltalk to Adobe Flash...

trun 14y ago

Indeed. I wrote a similar framework in Actionscript / Flex a few years ago, actually with a lot of input from the Scratch team. I've been thinking about porting it to JS recently. Glad to see someone beat me to it :) Edit: Here's my old Actionscript library in case anyone is interested. https://github.com/trun/flashblocks https://github.com/trun/flashblocks

nilliams 14y ago
Yep, actually someone else (Dethe Elza) already beat you to a JS version: http://waterbearlang.com/garden.html?plugin=canvas http://waterbearlang.com/garden.html?plugin=canvas It was presented at JSConf last year: http://blip.tv/jsconf/jsconf2011-dethe-elza-5942746 http://blip.tv/jsconf/jsconf2011-dethe-elza-5942746
- dethe 14y ago
  On the other hand, if you want to help contribute to Waterbear, it is an open community. The code is on github: github.com/waterbearlang/waterbear and the mailing list is here: http://lists.waterbearlang.com/listinfo.cgi/discuss-waterbearlang.com http://lists.waterbearlang.com/listinfo.cgi/discuss-waterbea... Waterbear isn't a language like Scratch, it's a toolkit to create a Scratch-like visual programming interface to any language you like. There is active development on wrappers for Javascript, Java robotics, and Arduino.

evolve2k 14y ago

Agree, here's the link http://scratch.mit.edu http://scratch.mit.edu. Screenshot on the home page shows the blocks look very similar indeed.

DeepDuh 14y ago

Ah scratch. Some years ago I wanted to show what cool stuff you can do with computers to a 10y old boy. Found scratch and actually got hooked myself for a bit ^^. Ended up with this (slightly embarassing thing): http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/DeepDuh/941811 http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/DeepDuh/941811. After programming a bit, the limitations become apparent big time. Google's idea to implement this as a Javascript parser is probably a good idea, this way some kids may make the bridge to the actual program. Also, it's probably way way better performing. If you like visual programming, have a look at subtext. IMO this is the best idea for a visual programmig style, I hope it gets traction http://www.subtextual.org/ http://www.subtextual.org/.

wccrawford 14y ago
My niece was telling me about Scratch and how she knew what was wrong with other people's code and how she'd fix it. I am so freaking proud.
- DeepDuh 14y ago
  You should be. I hope we will have some kids to show things like this some day ;).
rezaprima 14y ago
have you tried BYOB [1]? It's "an advanced offshoot of Scratch" [1] http://byob.berkeley.edu/ http://byob.berkeley.edu/
- DeepDuh 14y ago
  That website is glorious :). Yeah, I think this might go a bit far. Scratch's community sadly isn't so big, further fragmentation won't help that much I think. And the platform doesn't make a very solid impression to me. That's why I like google's idea, I hope they pour some money into this.
  - YAFZ 14y ago
    > Scratch's community sadly isn't so big This might change your idea: http://day.scratch.mit.edu/ http://day.scratch.mit.edu/
  - richwhite 14y ago
    Scratch not so big ? ... http://scratch.mit.edu http://scratch.mit.edu has over 2.5 million projects posted to it and over 1 million registered users !
    - DeepDuh 14y ago
      Yep it seems like it has grown quite a bit since I've looked at it last time. I still think a platform like this should be bigger - as in a substantial fraction of school children big. Every child should try playing with something like scratch, just to see whether (s)he might like it and go into programming. When I was a child I went straight from some learning program for children with some graphical macro editor (poor man's hypercard) to VB6 and it led me to what I am now. That's why I think it's really important what toys we give to our children.

mtgx 14y ago

Google also had App Inventor similar to that. I don't understand why they are building this. Didn't they just kill App Inventor because they wanted to "focus" or something? So why this now?

adoyle 14y ago
App Inventor is here now: http://www.appinventor.mit.edu/ http://www.appinventor.mit.edu/

YAFZ 14y ago

You should've seen the enthusiasm of children during the International Scratch Day: http://day.scratch.mit.edu/ http://day.scratch.mit.edu/ (Well, at least the ones I taught introductory programming using Scratch https://fatherinastrangeland.wordpress.com/2012/05/27/how-can-a-group-of-kids-multiply-their-creativity-by-learning-to-code/ https://fatherinastrangeland.wordpress.com/2012/05/27/how-ca... )

bromagosa 14y ago

Have you seen this port of Scratch by the folks at Berkeley?http://snap.berkeley.edu/snapsource/snap.html http://snap.berkeley.edu/snapsource/snap.html It's not finished yet, but it sure beats MIT's attempt to port Scratch from Squeak Smalltalk to Adobe Flash...