How Snap! can be more like Scratch

[blueowl25reforged]

A little introduction here. I've been using Scratch since 2017, and I loved it. Up until 2021 (a shocking year), my account got IP banned for a (maybe) good reason. I reached out to ST and they said that I would be unbanned in October. But then, my Ex-Friend used a VPN to bypass the IP ban, because I also reached out to Scratch Team to IP ban her for telling me to bully someone. I was going to apologize. After she used the VPN, Scratch Team refused to unban me, and we emailed and contacted. Nothing helped. That's why I have the "Reforged" in my username.

Anyways, now that we're in 2022, a better era, I'd just want to point out that this is too hard to use like a Scratch user like me. I'm working on a PvZ clone called "Graves vs. Gardens". The controls for the site are weird, and there is no selection tool for Bitmap. There is no library or anything, excluding the offline version. On the Bedroom2 backdrop, it says "Scratch Rocks". Okay, so you made an effort, but you didn't? Try to make it say "Snap Rocks" or something.

I do like the addition of the Drag-and-Drop feature. There are more cool blocks to use, cool things to make, you can COLOR YOUR BLOCKS. Yes, color your blocks. At least I'm not limited to Indigo or Light Red. Plus, the URL feature is perfect for anti-vandalization.

Now, back to the problems. There is no commenting feature like the Forums is your only hope at this point. Also, you can maybe make the file sizes bigger than 10 Megabytes. What in the flying pickle?

Also, the worst offender, it's not even a .sb file; It's an XML FILE?! What the heck! It just says something around the lines of 9840nb70hjrvf36hf or something. I can't turn it into an EXE file, not even an HTML program. Now, here's what you can do to fix the next update for Snap! 8.0...or Snap! 7.4...or just Snap! 7.3.1 with like, two more blocks of code...

Make it look sleek
I know this is the LEAST important thing here. It looks a little outdated, like back in 2009. However, I like that specific Scratch 1.4 style. This is why it isn't important.

Bitmap Selection
This is in Scratch 1.4 to 3.0. I love this feature because old users can go back to it. But I'd personally prefer Vector.

Snap Rocks, not Scratch!
This is starting to get more important. Now, for the background Bedroom2, you can replace it with Snap Rocks, Snap Rules, or just put a picture of Alonzo. I don't care, you can do it anyway.

1 Gigabyte?
Listen, why are we capped at 10 Megabytes? You can expand it to 50 Megabytes, 100 Megabytes, or at maximum, 1 Gigabyte. Also, you guys are Berkeley! This feature is a must. And I mean a must.

Honorable Mention: The Library
Let's keep this short. This needs to be used, a sprite/sound/background/code library. You can also add a backpack.

SB? I don't see any SB!
The worst problem of all. Using an XML file instead of either SB, EXE, or even HTML. There is nothing in existence to change it to those file enders. You can't even put them on itch.io. This is why this is the #1 reason why the Snap! can be like Scratch.

Well, at the time I'm writing this, it's 10:45 PM in the night. And now, I'm tired. Can't wait to get some updates on this thing. Goodbye, and Snap On!

blueowl25

[bh]

Sigh. You joined us five whole hours ago and already you know everything we're doing wrong, without (obviously) having read the earlier threads (or even just the FAQ threads) about these topics.

Pfui.

[ego-lay_atman-bay]

@blueowl25reforged

Snap Rocks, not Scratch!
This is starting to get more important. Now, for the background Bedroom2, you can replace it with Snap Rocks, Snap Rules, or just put a picture of Alonzo. I don't care, you can do it anyway.

But scratch does indeed rock.

@blueowl25reforged

1 Gigabyte?
Listen, why are we capped at 10 Megabytes? You can expand it to 50 Megabytes, 100 Megabytes, or at maximum, 1 Gigabyte. Also, you guys are Berkeley! This feature is a must. And I mean a must.

We'd all like it, but the cloud is actually being funded out of jens's pocket, bekeley isn't actually funding snap.

@blueowl25reforged

SB? I don't see any SB!
The worst problem of all. Using an XML file instead of either SB, EXE, or even HTML. There is nothing in existence to change it to those file enders. You can't even put them on itch.io. This is why this is the #1 reason why the Snap! can be like Scratch.

Snap uses the xml format because, well, that's just how the save files are formatted. .sb files are the format scratch uses, which is incompatible with snap. Even if they changed the format to same as scratch, it would still not work seeing as how there are many many things that won't work in scratch.

To share a project on itch.io, you can just easily copy the embed code of your project (go to your project on the community site then click Embed. Copy the html code, and paste it into a new file. Save that as an html file, then just upload that to itch.io.

To convert a project to exe, you'd have to use Snapp! although, it hasn't been updated to snap 7.0 yet, so you can't (yet).

---

Also

Which is better, Snap! or Scratch?

TL;DR: Don't ask that here. We are absolutely not interested in a rivalry with Scratch or the Scratch Team. Scratch has been phenomenally successful, with millions of users (not all active at once, but cumulatively), both in schools and with independent learners. Many, many people who would otherwise know nothing about programming have learned to love it through Scratch, including kids from groups that have traditionally been underrepresented in computing. We love Scratch! And, on a person…

---

Edit: did I just write all that on mibile?

[cymplecy]

Think of Snap! / Scratch like a bicycle/car

You can do things on a bicycle that you can't do in a car but you can go much further in car

Scratch is a lovely, nice introduction to programming for young people

Snap! is for those who wish to learn more stuff

The paint editor is a big issue for most new Scratch -> Snap converts.

The workarounds are to use the Scratch editor and export to Snap! or use a separate external image editor

[cst1229]

I think there is are costume/sound/backdrop libraries on the online version, see the File menu.

[programmer_user]

@blueowl25reforged

SB? I don't see any SB!
The worst problem of all. Using an XML file instead of either SB, EXE, or even HTML. There is nothing in existence to change it to those file enders. You can't even put them on itch.io. This is why this is the #1 reason why the Snap! can be like Scratch.

Put the XML file in a zip, or

@ego-lay_atman-bay

To share a project on itch.io, you can just easily copy the embed code of your project (go to your project on the community site then click Embed. Copy the html code, and paste it into a new file. Save that as an html file, then just upload that to itch.io.

To convert a project to exe, you'd have to use Snapp! although, it hasn't been updated to snap 7.0 yet, so you can't (yet).

?

[earthrulerr]

Snap! Is not supposed to be exactly like Scratch. Snap! was evolved from Scratch 1 and has built up to a masterpiece.

[mr_owlssssnap2]

I completely disagree with this entire post (but not your username, I respect that).

@blueowl25reforged

Also, the worst offender, it's not even a .sb file; It's an XML FILE?!

The XML is also pretty easy to understand when you look at it long enough.

@blueowl25reforged

says something around the lines of 9840nb70hjrvf36hf or something.

Mean while, in a .sb3 file:

@blueowl25reforged

You can also add a backpack.

Lemme go find every answer to every post that wants this

@ego-lay_atman-bay

you can export blocks and then just drag and drop them in the editor (you can also export scripts by shift + right-clicking the script, and when you drag and drop the exported script, the script appears at the mouse)

@funtime_foxy101

There is an "Export" option which will download the project, that way you can Import it into another project. I used that option, and it works fine.

I can go on if you would like

@blueowl25reforged

I know this is the LEAST important thing here. It looks a little outdated, like back in 2009. However, I like that specific Scratch 1.4 style. This is why it isn't important.

I can't find the post, but bh said that they like the old scratch look if you don't like it turn on flat design.

@blueowl25reforged

EXE

Not everybody can use exes. Also why exes?

Maybe research some thing before you post?
As bh said

@bh

Sigh. You joined us five whole hours ago and already you know everything we're doing wrong, without (obviously) having read the earlier threads (or even just the FAQ threads) about these topics.

[blueowl25reforged]

major sadness intensifies

[blueowl25reforged]

@mr_owlssssnap2

I completely disagree

Okay. I respect that.

@mr_owlssssnap2

Also why exes?

Because yes. I need EXEs and/or HTMLs to make games on itch. Wait, what does that say?
itch OK's it?
Oh.

@mr_owlssssnap2

but bh said that they like the old scratch look if you don't like it turn on flat design.

Ok. I understand.

[blueowl25reforged]

@blueowl25reforged

excluding the offline version.

Oof, I didn't know better.

[blueowl25reforged]

I do agree with all of this. Thanks. You're the best Lego Batman I've ever seen!

[joecooldoo]

@mr_owlssssnap2

All that gibberish is actually compressed files (several files as one file).

That's a ZIP file with a file format of SB3. If you save the .sb3 file as a zip instead (project.sb3 --> project.zip) and uncompress the file, you can visit the project.json file and edit the code. It looks something like this:

{"targets":[{"isStage":true,"name":"Stage","variables":{"`jEk@4|i[#Fk?(8x)AV.-my variable":["my variable",0]},"lists":{},"broadcasts":{},"blocks":{},"comments":{},"currentCostume":0,"costumes":[{"assetId":"c346d44e9bad5c8ea513ec237b09190c","name":"backdrop1","bitmapResolution":1,"md5ext":"c346d44e9bad5c8ea513ec237b09190c.svg","dataFormat":"svg","rotationCenterX":289.5,"rotationCenterY":188}],"sounds":[{"assetId":"83a9787d4cb6f3b7632b4ddfebf74367","name":"pop","dataFormat":"wav","format":"","rate":48000,"sampleCount":1123,"md5ext":"83a9787d4cb6f3b7632b4ddfebf74367.wav"}],"volume":100,"layerOrder":0,"tempo":60,"videoTransparency":50,"videoState":"on","textToSpeechLanguage":null},{"isStage":false,"name":"Sprite1","variables":{},"lists":{},"broadcasts":{},"blocks":{},"comments":{},"currentCostume":0,"costumes":[{"assetId":"0809704f4623ae73569c5894e396aab3","name":"Sladescar","bitmapResolution":1,"md5ext":"0809704f4623ae73569c5894e396aab3.svg","dataFormat":"svg","rotationCenterX":57.408375457701965,"rotationCenterY":82.11674584180463}],"sounds":[{"assetId":"2371165ee49767ff907cc9e845ad7b4a","name":"Meow","dataFormat":"wav","format":"","rate":48000,"sampleCount":76681,"md5ext":"2371165ee49767ff907cc9e845ad7b4a.wav"},{"assetId":"a3a88cadb8181dc391e766b4c47ce352","name":"discord_remix","dataFormat":"wav","format":"","rate":48000,"sampleCount":1089670,"md5ext":"a3a88cadb8181dc391e766b4c47ce352.wav"},{"assetId":"8b1892c2eafcc07f25e3f127c2cd4378","name":"MarioKart Wii Main Menu","dataFormat":"wav","format":"","rate":48000,"sampleCount":7106560,"md5ext":"8b1892c2eafcc07f25e3f127c2cd4378.wav"},{"assetId":"5f26d632b3d180ddaf80abfc2d0408b2","name":"New Years Day","dataFormat":"wav","format":"","rate":48000,"sampleCount":2428766,"md5ext":"5f26d632b3d180ddaf80abfc2d0408b2.wav"}],"volume":100,"layerOrder":1,"visible":true,"x":0,"y":0,"size":100,"direction":90,"draggable":false,"rotationStyle":"all around"}],"monitors":[],"extensions":[],"meta":{"semver":"3.0.0","vm":"0.2.0-prerelease.20220315115545","agent":"Mozilla/5.0 (X11; CrOS x86_64 14543.0.0) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/101.0.4918.0 Safari/537.36"}}

[slate_technologies]

@blueowl25reforged

you can maybe make the file sizes bigger than 10 Megabytes

Jens pays for all the server costs and maintenance. Who's paying him? Barely anyone does! Only the university (Correct me if I'm wrong) and the tickets people buy for events like Snap!Con are the sources of money he gets.

So maybe be grateful (If you aren't already)?

@blueowl25reforged

Also, the worst offender, it's not even a .sb file; It's an XML FILE?!

So what about it? No one cares about it.

Also @bh said that we should avoid conversations that compare Snap! with Scratch. You should probably know that by now. WE ARE NOT A POLITICAL COMMUNITY AND WE AREN'T TOXIC EITHER. Trust me, we've had a LONG history of those conversations and man did they not end well.

[ego-lay_atman-bay]

@slate_technologies

the university (Correct me if I'm wrong)

I'm pretty sure berkeley doesn't, he pays for it out of his pocket, so he isn't being payed to work on snap. I do think that snapcon is one of the ways he gets money. Another way is probably by donations, although, I'm not sure if he is getting donations.

[blueowl25reforged]

Making this was a mistake.

[blueowl25reforged]

Welp, sorry about that.

[bh]

Yes. But you're forgiven.

[bh]

No, Jens is actually employed by SAP to work on Snap!, along with Jadga and Bernat. But all of them have to do things other than work directly on Snap!, such as making those MOOCs that SAP hosts. So he's not living in poverty. But he is paying the cloud hosting costs out of pocket. We're trying to fix that.

Nobody pockets Snap!Con money. It helps pay expenses, but there really isn't that much of it.

As for Berkeley, although they have a huge budget, none of it is going to Snap!. They pay Michael, but to teach Berkeley students, not to work on Snap!. Basically their budget is zero-sum; nothing can come out unless something goes in to match it. The development of BJC, done at Berkeley and later also at Education Development Center, was paid for by grants from the National Science Foundation.

Oh, and Joan has a non-Snap!-related day job, and I'm retired and have a pension from Berkeley.

I'm supposed to be looking for private rich foundations to support Snap!. But I suck at fundraising. I'm much better at chatting with teenagers. ;~)

[ego-lay_atman-bay]

Ok, thanks for clearing that up. I guess I'll have to remember this post.

@bh

I'm much better at chatting with teenagers. ;~)

Lol, that is so true (btw, I'm a teenager). For a very long time, I didn't know you were retired. I thought you were middle-aged, until I saw you in a snapcon video.