What is Scratch?

Scratch is a dynamic visual programming language–developed by a team of researches at MIT. Scratch is based on another interpreted dynamic visual programming language called Squeak. Being dynamic, it lets code be changed even as programs are running.

What is Scratch used for?

Scratch’s main goal is to teach programming concepts to children and teens while letting them create games, animations, videos, music, and art. Scratch also enables participants to share their creations on their website.

The Interface

The user interface for the Scratch development environment divides the screen into several panes: on the left is the blocks palette, in the middle the current sprite info and scripts area, and on the right the stage and sprite list. The blocks palette has code fragments (called “blocks”) that can be dragged onto the scripts area to make programs. The palette is organized into 8 groups of blocks: movement, looks, sound, pen, control, sensing, numbers, and variables(1).

Scratch Interface

Image Effects Tutorial

Costs:

Free License

Pros

• Free license
• Excellent way of combining multimedia using programming concepts
• Scratch website is a great resource for sharing ideas and projects

Cons

• Becomes addictive

References

1.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scratch_(programming_language)

What is Reason?

Music software that emulates a rack of hardware synthesizers, samplers, signal processors, sequencers and mixers, all of which can be freely interconnected in an arbitrary manner.

What is Reason used for?

Reason can be used either as a complete virtual music studio, or as a collection of virtual instruments to be played live or used with other sequencing software. Although it supports MIDI recording, it doesn’t support audio recording –other than virtual– so it can’t be considered a full digital audio workstation. Other popular uses are for drum programming, sequencing and sampling.

The Interface

User chooses which virtual devices to add to their rack. Basic devices consists of a mixer and a hardware interface that supports up to sixty-four separate outputs. Additional devices such as rhythm sequencers, reverb, delay and synthesizers can be added as shown below.

Reason Tutorial

Cost:

10-Pack Education discount $1,649.00 (Reason 4)

Pros

• All of Reason’s devices have the look and feel of the “real” physical device.
• Great MIDI support and control.

Cons

• Doesn’t support audio recording –ie–can’t record live/real drums, vocals, guitars, etc.
• Software is very expensive

References

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reason_(software)

What is JAVA Greenfoot?

Greenfoot is an interactive Java development environment developed primarily for educational purposes.

What is Greenfoot used for?

• Easy development of two-dimensional graphical applications, such as simulations and interactive games.
• Concepts such as the class/object relationship, methods, parameters, object interaction, and others, are implicitly conveyed through visualizations and guided interactions.

Greenfoot Framework

The Greenfoot framework consists of object interaction (BlueJ) and object visualization (microworlds) used to create a wide range of programs that can be visualized in a two-dimensional grid. The Greenfoot framework has two main responsibilities

• Make it easy to create graphical representations of objects
• Control the execution (start, stop, step) of a simulation loop

To accomplish these things the greenfoot framework supplies a base class GreenfootObject which should be extended by all classes that wish to visualise themselfes. The two most important methods that must be implemented are the getImage() method which should return the image of the object, and the act() method which will be called in each step of the simulation loop.

Scenarios

Scenarios are a set of classes that implements the base classes for a specific application. Below is the turtle graphics scenario.

Beginner Tutorial

Cost:

Free license under General Use and License Terms

Pros

• License: Free General Public LicenseGNU
• Cross platform compatibility
• Learners can program a game in first session
• Excellent tutorials and documentation available

Cons

• MIDI integration is limiting; however, next release will support higher MIDI functionality

Greenfoot Screenshots

http://www.greenfoot.org/about/screenshots.html

References

1. http://www.greenfoot.org/about/

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenfoot

What is Blender?

Blender is a 3D graphics application released as free software under the GNU General Public Licence.

What is Blender used for?

Blender can be used for modeling, texturing, water simulations, animating, rendering, non-linear editing, compositing, and creating interactive 3D applications, including games.

Blender Game Engine

Blender has its own built in Game Engine that allows you to create interactive 3D applications. The Blender Game Engine (BGE) is a powerful high-level programming tool. Its main focus is Game Development, but can be used to create any interactive 3d software for other things, such as interactive 3d architectural tours or educational physics research.

Using the Game Engine

The core of the BGE’s structure are Logic Bricks. The goal of Logic Bricks is to offer an easy to use visual interface for designing interactive applications without any programming language knowledge. There are three types of Logic Bricks:

• Controllers
• Actuators
• Sensors

Blender Interface

Basic Tutorial

Cost:

Free General Public License

Pros

• License: Free GNU
• Can create very high resolution models and renderings
• Depth of features comparable to high-end commercial software
• Cross platform compatibility
• MIDI files can be integrated using Python scripts

Cons

• Difficult to learn due to complex interface and short cut keys.
• Python scripts (For MIDI integration) are complex and require relevant programming background.

References

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blender_3D

http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:Manual/Introduction

What is Mixcraft?

Mixcrat is a multitrack digital audio workstation (DAW) for Windows

What is Mixcraft used for?

Audio recording, MIDI sequencing and recording, loops, and remixes

The Interface

Mixcraft has a multi-track drag-and-drop interface -similar to Garageband -where different pre-recorded sections, or loops, are strung together on separate tracks.

Beginner Tutorial

Cost:

Education discount for 25-49 licenses each: $22

Pros

• Competitively priced for education
• Easy to Learn
• Can use loops virtual instruments, or real instruments to record
• Flexible MIDI outputs

Cons

• Compatible only with PCs
• Needs 2GB of RAM to run efficiently
• Price