this floated up on digg: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070722-new-educational-tool-makes-programming-like-playing-with-lego-bricks.html
"Scratch is available as a free 35 MB download, and runs on both Windows and Mac OS X, with a Linux version currently in the works. The interface is divided up into several panels: lists of available programming operators and variables appear on the left-hand side, scripts, images, and sounds are in the middle, and the program itself is shown on the right. Programming commands are separated into categories such as Motion and Sensing, and the commands themselves can be dragged and dropped into the scripts panel. Small "bumps" and distinctive shapes make it clear which command can connect to another: for example, the standard "IF...THEN...ELSE..." command is in yellow with a forked "E" shape, with a hole for a diamond-shaped conditional, and spaces for additional commands between the three prongs. Users can add new pictures and sounds either from a local hard drive or directly from the web, via drag-and-drop. " On Thu, 12 Jul 2007 11:19:29 +0200, "Julian Oliver" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said: > ..on or around Thu, Jul 12, 2007 at 09:04:55AM +0900, Karl D.D. > Willis said: > > I have used Max/Msp/Jitter for some time but would love to see PD > > grow and grow. When I first looked at PD several years ago, GEM was > > still pretty funky to work with and Jitter was solid. > > > > But Max/Msp/Jitter is not so easy to teach. > > i've taught PD with good results on a few occassions. if you work slow > and cover base concepts in a non-rarefied language people can be up > and running in a few days. some people have difficulty with concepts > such as 'variables' or conditional tests so i found starting with a > primer on the basics of programming - using PD in examples - gives > them enough to design with greater independence and imagination later. > > Derek Holzer teaches PD very often and is now something of an > authority on the topic. perhaps writing to Derek (as Adam suggests) > could be a good start to thinking about building a small course > around it? > > > I have tried myself and another long time user/object maker is > > currently teaching it here in Tokyo and told me it was a lot more > > difficult than it seems. > > > > What is huge here is Processing. They recently launched the first > > book about Processing (in Japanese no less) and had a launch demo/ > > event that was completely packed out. There are now several > > (English) books on Processing available too: > > http://www.amazon.com/Processing-Programming-Handbook-Designers- > > Artists/dp/0262182629/ > > http://www.amazon.com/Processing-Creative-Coding-Computational- > > Foundation/dp/159059617X/ > > > > But yeah, it is simple to learn, it's sauce is open, it's > > documentation is great, you can graduate to programming in Java, it > > plays well with Arduino... But then, it's a bit slow for computer > > vision, it's interface is quirky, you actually have to write real > > 'code' rather than move cool blocks round screen... > > > > i also think Processing is great but it suffers the Java misnomer of > build-once-run-anywhere. it is also very processor intensive: AFAIK it > doesn't yet exploit the richness of modern GPU's, so all actual > processing is CPU side. > > more-so, it's only really good for graphics development. PD or Max/MSP > are really useful for network-wide messaging, real-world to digital > interfacing, number shaping, signal-processing etc. > > that said, i think Processing is a far better context for for teaching > graphics programming and object-orientation in general. > > relatedly, one very fine 'framework' you might like to look into is: > > http://openframeworks.cc/ > > the interface is C++, which isn't perhaps so great for starting out > with programming of course.. > > another is vvvv > > http://vvvv.org/tiki-index.php > > but it is all DirectX/Windows which greatly limits it's usefulness. > > another issue here - one not covered enough - surrounds the ethics of > teaching people software many/most will have to steal to use. on more > than one occassion i've seen a Max/MSP teacher handing out cracked > copies of the program to students. > > this of course is no different from multimedia courses in NZ (and > elsewhere) requiring students to somehow 'aquire' NZ1000.00 worth of > software to complete a degree they've already paid for.. > > julian Madrid, Spain > > -- > http://julianoliver.com http://selectparks.net emails containing HTML > will not be read. > > > _______________________________________________ > Ada_list mailing list [email protected] > http://aotearoadigitalarts.org.nz/ _______________________________________________ Ada_list mailing list [email protected] http://aotearoadigitalarts.org.nz/
