My son is finally make his space shooter the way he envisioned because of the new clone sprite action. Exciting times ahead, here is a pic of him getting down last night:<p><a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BJ3OudQCQAALZCc.jpg:large" rel="nofollow">https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BJ3OudQCQAALZCc.jpg:large</a>
One important thing that's new in Scratch 2.0 under the hood is the transition from the .SB file format (a rather complex SmallTalk object store) to a ZIP based bundle containing all required media along with JSON encoded scripts. The upshot of this is that consuming Scratch files in other apps should be a lot easier.<p>That said, one <i>downside</i> of Scratch 2.0 (at least in my view) is the migration to a Flash based editor/playback engine. And I don't entirely blame MIT for this, because Scratch 2.0 has been under development for quite a long time. Five years ago, Flash maybe seemed more appropriate than it is now.
I used Scratch to teach my son how to program at 9; and now, at 11, he's doing JS/HTML/CSS at a beginner level.<p>We used the scratch programming for teens [1] book.<p>-----<p>[1]: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1598635360/" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1598635360/</a>
2.0 may have been a long time in the making, but I just bought the Scratch Adventure book for my kids last week, which uses 1.4, unaware of the pending update. When I went to the site to download Scratch, it was down while preparing for the 2.0 release. I thought it was a pretty ironic introduction to programming, always new shiny objects.
I'd love it if anyone could give a good head to head on Scratch 2.0 vs. Snap! 4.0[1] (the new name for BYOB, Berkley's Scratch spin-off). I realize that Snap is aimed more teaching high school/college CS, but they're seeming to converge a bit.<p>I don't have a CS class this year, so I haven't set aside enough time to dig into the latest versions of Snap or Scratch. If anyone has any insight to share, it'd be greatly appreciated.<p>[1] <a href="http://snap.berkeley.edu" rel="nofollow">http://snap.berkeley.edu</a>
Does anyone have any recommendations on at what minimum age should this be introduced to kids? The website recommends 8-16 years, but then I was doing real programming at the age of ten, so eight may not be the best answer. My son is five right now.<p>Introducing too early seems to have a downside that if my son does not like it (or cannot grasp it), he develops a negative feeling towards it like boredom or else, and then subconsciously does not want to return to it even at the right age.