Scratch
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Definition
As a free and effective visual programming language, Scratch is frequently used by scholars, students, parents, and teachers for the purpose of creating visuals, such as games and animations, in an easy manner. In addition to that, it also provides the non-programmers with a way of entry into the advanced world of programming and computing. The language can also be used in a variety of tasks associated with education and entertainment.
These tasks may include: development of various science and maths projects including but not limited to visualizations and simulations, recording of lectures in combination with presentations consisting of animations. The language is also used in the field of social sciences, interactive art and music, and modern day story telling.
History of Scratch
The literal meaning of “Scratching”, when taken in terms of computing language, is to take a code, which has the ability to benefit and used effectively for a number of purpose, and reuse it. Such codes have the potential to be easily shared and combined. In addition to this, they adapt to unique scenarios in a relatively easy manner.
This particular quality is one of the key elements of Scratch – “remix”. Which enable the users to download and enhance the projects that publically available and have been built by other developers. The credit of such programs is distributed between the developer who created the original program, and the developer who went on for improving its features and functionality.
The name of this language is inspired by the scratching technique of turntablism, which involves the mixing sounds of sounds. The name Scratch represents the ease with which the developers can mix projects.
The Lifelong Kindergarten group of Media Lab of MIT, which was headed by Mitchel Resnick, and Playful Invention Company, which is the consulting company of Media lab in Montreal, worked together to develop the first desktop based version of Scratch, which was released in the year 2003. It aimed at facilitating the young people, aged 8 or more, in learning programming in an effective manner.
In the year 2013, another version named Scratch 2 was released. This version allowed for the definition of custom bocks within projects. In the year 2015, the homepage of Scratch was updated with a new theme. Presently, the home page of the scratch website is based on the new theme, whereas, the other components of the website follow the old theme.
