Lists and Files for Scratch
I have been experimenting with lists and files in Scratch and built a little prototype. I have documented my proposal and the prototpye in a short pdf (well it’s not really short, but it’s mostly screenshots) which can be accessed from here:
http://chirp.scratchr.org/dl/Lists and Files for Scratch.pdf.
The prototype itself along with this documentation, some demo projects and a compiler (!) can be obtained from this link:
http://chirp.scratchr.org/dl/Lists and Files for Scratch.zip.
This fully functional prototype is deployed as a stand-alone application. I might eventually merge it with Chirp if future versions of Scratch will not feature someting similar.
May 22nd, 2008 at 2:21 am
Useful for saving games without needing a password!
July 13th, 2008 at 2:52 am
[…] There is talk of a ‘mock’ compiler. I’m not exactly sure what this does or what the results are like but it is being prototyped, you can read about it here: Chirp Standalone blog. […]
July 29th, 2008 at 1:53 am
even better than normal lists
August 3rd, 2008 at 4:36 pm
Do you still come to this blog? If so, When will you make another version of Chirp that can export projects to EXE? It would be a very good idea.
August 3rd, 2008 at 10:33 pm
Hi Zam478, yes I’m still actively maintaining this blog and Chirp. I’m planning a new version when the new Scratch (Source Code) version will be released this summer
August 15th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Hey Jens, remember me, probably not, but anyway; when I downloaded you compiler last time it came up w/ a black then vanished, can chirp only compile games made with your chirp version of scratch, and it does save them as .exe files right???
August 16th, 2008 at 5:00 am
Hi Donut-slayer. Sorry about the problems you’re encountering with the compiler. Actually it is supposed to be able to compile “regular” Scratch projects created with Scratch. The trick is that projects will start right away with the green flag pressed. Maybe that’s the reason for your problem…
September 14th, 2008 at 4:46 am
hello jens! umm oh yea what’s the differince between 1.3 lists and your lists?
September 14th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
Hi henley. Thanks for you interest in my little prototype. The differences between my lists prototype and the list implementation in Scratch are more internal. I was also somewhat involved in the Scratch list implementation and like that one much better!
The seven main differences are
1) String values
Scratch lets you store strings in variables and list entries now, which my prototype didn’t
2) List watchers
In Scratch lists have a visual respresentation widget (a “watcher”)
3) number of blocks
The new Scratch version has reduced the number of blocks needed for variables and lists by showing only one set of blocks and letting the user select the var/list via a drop-down menu. In my prototype, however, I was experimenting with many more lists ops than are now in Scratch (e.g. sorting, reversing, concatenating, parsing, filing)
4) dimensioning
In my lists prototype you didn’t have to dimension lists, i.e. you could access a certain index right away. This was somewhat in the way of providing a visual representation of lists (the “watcher”)
5) file format
Scratch now lets you export/import lists as plain text files, which makes is much easier to reuse such lists in outside applications than my binary file format (which was faster, though)
6) performance
The lists in my prototype generally performed *much* better, even if they ware pretty large (say tens of thousands of entries), whereas Scratch lists tend to loose their appeal at about a hundred entries. There are, however, remedies to that shortcoming, which I will probably include in the new Chirp version that will come out once the official Source Code for Scratch 1.3. gets published by MIT.
7) Compiler
Scratch currently has no compiler. I’ll probably include one (which will also support lists) in the new Chirp version.
Again thanks for you interest!
November 14th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
sorry jens, I found a glitch if you put “%cow into %” as a command, it will show an error, its like 1 page long so i wont write it but type the exact same thing in! weird
December 19th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
are you going to make a compiler for scratch 1.3.1 projects? also, can you give me a code to put a save/read block for scratch 1.3.1’s lists please?
December 20th, 2008 at 1:38 am
Hi dsdude10, the latest version of Scratch2Exe now supports all file formats supported by Scratch 1.3.1, i.e. also earlier ones (1.1, 1.2 etc.). Enjoy!
December 30th, 2008 at 9:36 am
Can you add a save/read block for scratch 1.3’s lists? back when scratch 1.2.1 was the latest version, i started making a project in your lists and files that used your save/read block and now, i would like to make it in scratch 1.3 but there is no save/read block.
Thanks,
dsdude10
January 2nd, 2009 at 3:41 am
Hi dsdude10, thanks for the request to re-introduce file access. I’ll be sure to reconsider it for the next Chirp release.
April 10th, 2009 at 7:20 pm
Are you still working on it? I’m working on an RPG game in scratch and I don’t want to add a passcode as the only way that you can continue your game.
Thanks,
dsdude10
April 14th, 2009 at 5:44 am
Hi dsdude10, I’m planning to include file access in a new version of Chirp, which probably will come out sometime after the next Scratch (1.4) release
April 21st, 2009 at 5:31 am
Whoa, when’s that coming out? (1.4)
April 21st, 2009 at 5:39 am
Hi dsdude10, “Lists and Files for Scratch” was a prototype I did for Scratch 1.2 (!). Lists are now part of Scratch (1.3). Scratch 1.4 was originally scheduled to be released before Scratch Day 2009 (May 16th) but has been postponed, because we’re adding some more features to it.
May 27th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
This is way better than the Scratch 1.3+ lists but It is way too complicated.
Dieses ist die Weise, die als die Listen des Kratzers 1.3+ besser ist, aber es ist zu schwierig.