We have already been told about the visual language Scratch, which is great for teaching children the basics of programming. Snap! expands the capabilities of Scratch, allowing young developers to move to a new level of computer knowledge.
How and why did Snap come about!
Originally Snap! was a built-in extension to one of the Scratch versions. Today it is a completely independent programming environment that offers features not found in the parent language.
These features were not originally included in Scratch, so as not to complicate things teaching children to program. The developers rightly considered that the most important thing for a child is to learn the basic principles that allow them to create simple programs. It was precisely because they focused on a limited set of functions that Scratch was so effective for working with the youngest programmers. In turn, Snap! intended for an older audience, conditionally teenagers.
The main differences between Snap! by Scratch
An alternative name for this language is Build Your Own Blocks. This is one of the main advantages of Snap over Scratch. It allows students to combine written command sequences into a new element that can then be added to new threads. In fact, this is an implementation of functions that are called nested in adult languages. As a result, relatively complex programs can be created as if at the snap of a finger, which is what the word “snap” means.
Similarly, Snap! allows you to create other first-class objects - i.e. elements that can be passed as parameters, returned from functions, and assigned to variables. For example, this way you can easily operate lists and even lists of lists, and work with objects (sprites) according to the principles of prototype programming. This programming style is used, for example, in JavaScript, to allow developers to use cloned objects.
Learn to program with Snap! prepares students to become familiar with Python, JavaScript, C, and other popular languages. As in the case of Scratch, everything happens virtually without using code, which greatly lowers the threshold for entering the development world and relieves course participants from the fear that they will not be able to cope with incomprehensible and boring material.
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