Distributing Scratch Projects as Exe (sort of…)
I have uploaded a little experimental prototype of a utility that lets you turn a Scratch Project into a “stand-alone” executable for Windows. You can get it from the download page.
Urgent demand for something like this has been expressed for a long time by many members of the Scratch community in the Scratch Forums. I don’t really know what’s behind all this. It seems that many children (and adults) feel that they’re not really programming, as long as they can’t make an exe out of their work. Others seem to be so proud of their creations, that they want to “hide the code” at all costs, lest others find out about their intellectual “secret weapons” and “copy” them. Another user group in seemingly dire need to hide code can be found among educators. There seems to be a didactical necessity for students to recreate a teacher’s example on their own, without knowing how the teacher did it…
I find these motivations - to put it mildly - questionable and technically ridiculous. But then, if being able to make an exe is all that it takes to turn people on to programming in Scratch and make the community grow, then give these people what they want, “panem et circenses”.
The technical details of my “fake” compiler are as of now too trivial to discuss, but what did you expect, being able to translate Scratch projects into assembler?
March 15th, 2008 at 4:03 am
Sorr, but it doesn’t work for me.
March 15th, 2008 at 7:11 am
Thanks! could you please tell me which Windows version you were using?
March 15th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
I’ve tried it on Windows XP Home and Media Center. Also Vista.
March 16th, 2008 at 11:38 pm
Thanks again! I believe I might have found and fixed the problems. Could you please download it again and let me know if it works now?
March 17th, 2008 at 11:13 pm
Sorry, no. Maybe there’s a problem with the NSIS files in the src folder.
March 17th, 2008 at 11:35 pm
Good news: Paddle2See joined forces with me to get it running under Vista. We’ve identified a security-related permission problem and are investigating how to solve it. The NSIS files in the src are the source code of the app. If you find anything in them that might cause the problems we’re seeing on Vista, please let me know.
March 18th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
I see a problem with the source code files. Try compiling them and see the problem if you get it.
March 19th, 2008 at 10:23 am
Now it should work on all Windows systems. Thanks to Paddle2See for helping me debug it!
March 19th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
cool… ish
March 19th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
That was not me.
March 19th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
I saw…itworksitworksitworksitworksitworksitworks
March 19th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
Also, can you try making one work on mac and make .app (Mac Application) files?
March 25th, 2008 at 7:28 pm
awesome! worked for me! GREAT JOB!
April 4th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
is it done?
April 9th, 2008 at 11:01 pm
I didn’t say that.
April 23rd, 2008 at 7:44 am
ihaveamac, I have Media center XP or Windows vista ready!
May 16th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
cool!
August 21st, 2008 at 9:19 am
you should make a mac version.
December 20th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
If Scratch isn’t REAL programming, then what is it?
December 21st, 2008 at 2:08 am
Hi henley,
there are people claiming that Scratch doesn’t teach “serious” programming, because it misses many concepts found in other (standard) programming languages (like classes, inheritance, procedures, complex data types etc). I agree that Scratch lacks these, but I nonetheless consider Scratch to be just as “real” programming as anything else.
January 17th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
Hi, Jens, thanks! One other plus to this, is that for occasions where I use scratch for presentations, etc, I don’t need scratch installed to run it. Therefore, I can do these presentations on any computer, not necessarily mine! P.s. the compiler is open source, right? Is it ok if I modify it so that It supports 1.3 projects?
April 17th, 2009 at 2:48 am
Great this scratch2exe.
It will certainly stimulate more people to make creations with the
scratch program.
If you study piano sometimes you need a stage to get applause or to
be criticized and go further.
Scratch and this program will really stimulate the complex world of programming.