Chirp: Scratch2Exe
Scratch2Exe lets you deploy a Scratch Project as a stand-alone exe-file for Windows, optionally specifying your own custom icon. The resulting exe-file doesn't need Scratch or Chirp to be installed. The embedded code of your Scratch Project in the exe-file will not be visible or editable.
Usage
After installing Scratch2Exe
- Double click on the Scratch2Exe Icon on you Desktop
- Choose a Source Scratch Project
- Choose an Icon File (optional, cancel to use the default icon)
- Wait for a folder to open showing an exe-file by the name of your Scratch Project
How it works
Scratch2Exe is not a real compiler. It packages a runtime version of Chirp together with a Scratch Project into a compressed archive. When you run the exe-file it extracts all of these internal files into a temporary folder on your hard-drive, executes the runtime Chirp environment with the Scratch-Project in presentation mode, and removes these temporary files again after you terminate the program.
Known and expected problems
The exe-file may take a very long time to load. Once it is up and running, however, it should be a lot faster than the Java player.
Even though you will normally not be able to see or edit the Scratch code embedded in the exe-file, the embedded Scratch project is not really protected against unwanted retrieval.
So, what is it good for?
Scratch2Exe can be used by educators to demonstrate the possible solution for a problem set without giving away the details of the solution itself, i.e. to "hide" their code in order to let students come up with their own paths towards a similar result.
