Discussion thread of resources useful to the project

[tanhengyeow]

Introduction

This issue curates a list of useful resources for the project. More categories of resources can be added over time as the project grows. An in-depth discussion pertaining to the resources can be held here too.

Scratch Extension related sources

Scratch 3.0 Extensions Official Documentation - Describes the official specification for making a Scratch Extension.

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How to set up your development environment for making extensions - Detailed post describing the Scratch ecosystem, which is made up of different packages (gui, vm, blocks, and render), and how to set up the development environment to build extensions.

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Scratch Extensions Wiki Page - Wiki page describing Scratch Extensions in general.

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Scratch Blocks + Block Types You Can Develop and Samples- Wiki page and medium post describing the types of blocks and its different categories.

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Discussion of unofficial Scratch Extensions - Post discussing how to load and run unofficial Scratch Extensions.

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Creating extensions for Scratch 3.0 - Detailed post describing how to create an extension and register it in Scratch.

Note: The usage of Scratch.extensions.register(new <BlockName>()); is needed as the extension is loaded externally as an unofficial extension (not one of the extensions listed here).

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Blog post detailing the process of building a Scratch 3.0 extension - In this post, it also mentioned a website (https://sheeptester.github.io/scratch-gui/) to test an unofficial extension, which we can also use.

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How to Develop Your Own Block for Scratch 3.0 - Medium article on how to develop a Scratch 3.0 extension.

Note: The article describes code assuming we are developing on top of Scratch's codebase, which is why code can be referenced from the local directory e.g:

const ArgumentType = require('../../extension-support/argument-type');
const BlockType = require('../../extension-support/block-type');
const Cast = require('../../util/cast');
const log = require('../../util/log');

The extension is registered in src/lib/libraries/extensions/index.jsx, which is also mentioned in this post.

Right now, we should explore the usage of Scratch.extensions.register(new <BlockName>()); instead as we do not plan to build directly on top of Scratch's codebase.

Other projects

Machine Learning for Kids supporting Scratch 3.0 - Issues, PRs and discussion on the process of supporting Scratch 3.0 in the project.

[tanhengyeow]

Someone created a Chart Engine for Scratch for users to easily include charts in their projects. It consists of a Scratch program that draws charts using the current Scratch blocks.

We could use this resource as inspiration and programmatically create charts via our custom blocks.