[squeakland] Why is Scratch more popular than Etoys?

[karl ramberg]

Interesting question :-)

Some observations on Etoys:
Etoys have much bigger scope and much more features. Features hidden in lots
of layers and obscure places. Etoys has less organized authoring where code
editors and players overlap and can obscure each other. Many of Etoys
powerful features make the learning curve steep and confusing. It is not
obvious why thing are the way they are in Etoys.

I have several times failed at making projects and gotten totally lost. Like
the graphic 'look like' another player is quite unforgiving and it's easy to
lose drawings (because they now look like the other player) when doing
animation and testing.

I think Etoys are great and I have been bug fixing etc for years. I learn
stuff all the time using it and fixing it.*  *I often have to restrain my
self for adding new features 'because it would be cool etc'

It could be that the problems people have with Etoys is that there are to
many possibilities and too many thing to explore. It get's confusing and
they don't know where to start.

Karl

On Sat, Sep 3, 2011 at 4:04 AM, Steve Thomas <sthomas1 at gosargon.com> wrote:

> I have taught both Scratch and Etoys to kids and hands down most kids
> prefer Scratch.  I also prefer Scratch for certain things, but prefer Etoys
> for most learning and teaching.
>
> What can we learn from Scratch (and TurtleArt et al) to improve Etoys?  And
> vice versa what can be done to improve Scratch?
> .
> I have ideas, which I will share later, but I am curious to hear the
> thoughts of others (as mine add nothing to my current understanding and
> repeating them will simply further ingrain incomplete and incorrect
> assumptions and prejudices ;)
>
> Stephen
> P.S. I fully believe kids should learn multiple languages and am not
> looking for the "one ring to rule them all."  Each language/environment has
> its advantages and we need multiple.
>
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