On 04/05/2016 04:28 AM, Pen-Yuan Hsing wrote:
Thanks for bringing up Snap! I've been wondering if there is a
more-freedom-respecting replacement for Scratch. A few quick questions:
(1) Can Snap! be run completely offline and locally?
I've just tried and yes, you can. You can just clone the sources from here:
https://github.com/jmoenig/Snap--Build-Your-Own-Blocks
and then open snap.html in your browser.
Of course, to package it in distros a program that wraps HTML5 sites
into a simple web browser (I think NW.js does it) should be used.
(2) What are some CS/Education resources that you follow? I'd like to follow
them, too.
https://www.gnu.org/software/free-software-for-education.html
It needs more people actively contributing to it, though. We should
probably recommend adding Snap!.
(3) Regarding the original post about Scratch, what are some specific and
tangible things we can do to speed along HTML5 support? (other than actual
coding, that is)
I think that even if all projects on scratch.mit.edu are ported to HTML5
via Snap!, that won't change much, because the online version of Scratch
offered by the site still uses Flash (and the offline version they offer
uses Adobe AIR, which is not the version packaged in free distros as far
as I understand).
The fact that Snap! is under an incompatible license (AGPLv3 vs GPLv2)
means the two codebases can't likely be integrated.
It's a complicated situation. It would make sense to ask people to
migrate to Snap!, but that is very hard considering many institutions
already use Scratch and Scratch's website and community is much bigger
(13,938,133 projects).
Finishing the HTML5 port is likely the only solution if the purpose is
limiting the amount of proprietary code run by Scratch users. It just
seems weird to me that making sure their program works on mobile devices
isn't a high priority for them, from a purely practical perspective:
using old and obsolete proprietary technology puts Scratch at the risk
of becoming old and obsolete itself, especially now that most people use
tablets and phones exclusively.
I'm putting the Scratch devs in CC, they can surely tell you what to do
better than I can! Hopefully they'll hire someone and/or start a
crowdfunding campaign.