Ever wanted what programming is like, but don’t want to get confused in a huge myriad of code? A good choice to start for programming beginners are visual-based programming languages. There are a lot of them out there, but most of the time, they’re not free, and their capabilities are somehow limited.
Enter Scratch. Scratch is a small and lightweight visual programming application, written in C++ by the very awesome folks at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). It’s visual, meaning you only have to use logic and creativity to create a simple application, and more importantly, it’s free.
In Scratch, you are presented with a single sprite. This sprite can be manipulated whenever a certain event took place, for example, if the user clicks that sprite, or after an elapsed time of 3 seconds, etc. Once a trigger has been specified, you can now issue commands that the sprite will perform once its triggers are met. You can command the particular sprite to change appearance, move to another position, interact with the user, etc.
The possibilities with Scratch are limitless, given the amount of creative freedom the program offers to aspiring programmers. And since it’s visual-based, it’s easy to understand and use even for those who have no grasp of skill when it comes to coding.
