Scratch This
Just recently the Scratch Conference Europe 2019 took place for the first time in the UK – Cambridge, to be exact. Hosted by the Raspberry Pi Foundation, this conference had the singular goal of showcasing the benefits of the child-friendly programming language via a plethora of talks and workshops from experts.
Just in case you didn’t know, Scratch is a block-based language that enables anyone to write code. It is mainly aimed at children, but is of benefit to everyone. Scratch has advanced so much since I first used it in 2010. Back then it was still a capable platform for coding, but in recent years there have been updates that have brought Raspberry Pi GPIO access, creating sprites from the official Pi camera, use of the Astro Pi project Sense HAT. With Scratch 3 I can now use a micro:bit as a motion controller. I’ve also used the Xbox 360 Kinect Camera with Scratch for an interactive game of tennis.
The power of Scratch lies not with complex code but its simplicity of use. I can make quite a complex game using nothing more than blocks. If something goes wrong then I can take the blocks apart and debug. If I want a cool sprite, I can use a bitmap or vector image. If I need audio I can record and edit sound for the game.
Scratch is not just for kids and perhaps with the recent release of Scratch 3, now is the time for adults to get to grips with learning to code. If we do need any help, I’m sure we can call on the kids for assistance…