Programming Languages: Scratch

 

Jossi's Scratch Project 🐾

Using Scratch was an exciting experience. At first, I was unsure that I had arrived at the correct website because I saw many cartoon images and sounds, so I thought I clicked on a game for children. However, I was excited to begin my assignment after confirming I was on the correct site. It gave me a “Are you smarter than a fifth grader” type of feel. I’m not one for perusing through instructions, but when I watched the overview, it made more sense. I like that you can test each block action and see it on the right pane. I didn't appreciate that I had to reset most of my sprites to their starting positions manually. 

Another thing is that there should be a way to add various sprites within one screen instead of individually having all the sprites and their codes. If all sprites, backgrounds, and sounds were part of the same screen, there could be an identifier that would indicate that block or code was specific to which sprite; for example, the block would read “dog” at the top left, and the user would know that block code pertained to the dog. I overcame these difficulties by organizing myself and thinking about how this would be drawn or placed physically on a board. Doing this made it easier to remember what blocks each sprite or background needed to be part of the story. A new understanding that I enjoyed is that this is great for not only beginners but also for children. This type of visual programming site will help encourage those who appreciate organization, math, and science and taking things apart and putting them together. A point I can compare with machine, assembly, and high-level languages as opposed to Scratch is that I need to specify and write the codes with those languages. I cannot simply choose a block or phrase and act upon it. Also, with Scratch, I can immediately see my results as soon as I click on the block instead of having to complete an entire code before I see them. There are various programming languages, such as C++, Java, and Python. C++ is primarily used for programming games. 

 

On the other hand, Java is used for creating desktop applications such as Microsoft, Discord, or Internet Explorer. Python, as opposed to the other two examples, is used for artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. I’ve found that Python is one of the simpler languages for me to understand. When it comes to languages, I can read and decipher the code outcomes. However, during coding, I’ve found that Python has several functions, such as loop, import, and string, making it easy for me to understand the action I’m trying to take when writing the code. I think Python is the most popular because being that it is used for AI and machine learning; we see more and more each day how AI is the future of technology. 


References: (2024). Mit.edu. https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/942086898


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