As Scratch programmers, we have the freedom to choose the environment in which we operate. In this chapter, I'll enumerate the installation choices you have.
I'll assume you know how to install and download software on your computer, so instead of offering a step-by-step installation guide, we'll focus on special installation options.
In this chapter, we will:
- Install Scratch on Windows, OS X, and Linux
- Run Scratch from a USB flash drive on Windows and OS X
- Ensure our browsers are configured to view Java web applications
- Review the Scratch license and distribution rights
- Customize Scratch to work in networked environments
Sit down in front of your favorite operating system, and get on with the installation.
From time to time, the Scratch team will release updated versions of Scratch. To download the latest version of Scratch for Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux, go to http://scratch.mit.edu/ and follow the download link. You will be prompted to register first. Fill in all of the form's requested information or none of it, depending on your desired level of privacy.
Click the Continue to Scratch Download button to display the Scratch Download page.
Here, you can download the installer for your operating system, as shown in the previous screenshot. Feel free to skip ahead to your system.
For a normal Windows installation, we can download the Scratch installer, which guides us through the installation steps. When you launch the installer, Windows may complain that the Scratch installer is unsigned. You'll need to accept the message by clicking on the Run button, which implies you trust that the Scratch installer will not do harmful things to your computer.
Note
If you have a version of Scratch installed, the installer removes the old version prior to installing the new version, which will cause you to lose any customized projects you may have saved to the Projects folder.
As you click through the installer, the only decision you have to make is where you want to install the Scratch program files. The default location is C:Program FilesScratch, but you can change it as needed.
The installer will automatically launch Scratch after the installation finishes.
The Scratch team provides a ZIP file that contains all the program files we need to run Scratch, but it doesn't contain a point-and-click installer. The ZIP installation enables people who do not have administrator rights on their computers to install Scratch. We can also use the ZIP file to extract the Scratch program files to a USB flash drive for portable Scratch programming.
To get started, download the Windows ZIP file from the Scratch Download page. After the download completes, extract the files.
When prompted to choose a destination folder, enter the location of the flash drive. In my example, that's the E: drive.
The files will be extracted to the E:Scratch folder. To open Scratch, browse to the E:Scratch folder and double-click on Scratch.exe. Refer to the following screenshot:
PortableApps.com provides a convenient way for users to run many popular open source applications, such as OpenOffice.Org and Firefox from a flash drive. The suite provides a menu of applications when you click on the PortableApps.com icon in the Windows system tray.
While the applications available directly from http://www.PortableApps.com have their own installers, adding Scratch to the menu is as simple as moving the Scratch program files to the PortableApps folder on the flash drive.
To make Scratch appear on the menu, extract the Scratch program files to the PortableApps folder. In my example, I have installed Scratch to E:PortableAppsScratch.
To make the PortableApps menu display the Scratch icon, open the PortableApps menu, and then select Options | Refresh App Icons.
The Mac OS X install follows the standard Macintosh installation procedures. Download the Mac OS dmg image from the Scratch Download page. Open the Scratch installer by double-clicking on the file you have downloaded. To install, drag the Scratch folder onto the Applications folder.
The installer creates a Scratch folder within the Applications folder. To launch Scratch, navigate to the Applications | Scratch folder and double-click on Scratch.app.
At the time of this writing, the Scratch team provided a source install and a binary installer for Debian systems, such as Ubuntu. These versions are considered experimental. Linux users can also run Scratch using the Windows application loader Wine (www.winehq.org). Let's take a look at an Ubuntu 8.10 installation and then a Wine installation.
Download the Ubuntu installer from the Scratch Download page. After the download completes, double-click on the file you have downloaded to open the Package Installer, and then click on Install Package.
Enter your password when prompted, and Scratch will begin the installation. The installer puts a Scratch icon in the Applications | Education menu. Click on it to launch Scratch.
If the application doesn't display, continue with the troubleshooting problem.
When we launch the application from the menu icon, Ubuntu suppresses the error messages; therefore, we need to open a terminal window to get a handle on the problem. Try to launch the application by typing the command scratch.
Chances are you're encountering an error that says the aoss package can't be found.
To install the aoss package, open the Synaptic Package Manager from the System| Administration menu. When you do a search for "aoss" you'll find the package alsa-oss, which is an Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA) wrapper for Open Source Software (OSS) applications. You can read the package description if you'd like, but basically this package helps Scratch play sound.
Mark the package for installation. Then apply the changes to install alsa-oss. Now, Scratch will open when you launch it from the Applications | Education menu.
Or, you can just type sudo apt-get install alsa-oss at the command prompt, providing your password as needed.
As you might expect with an experimental package, we can anticipate some problems. The biggest problem at the time of this writing was with the sound components of Scratch. You can check the current status at http://info.scratch.mit.edu/Linux_installer.
If you don't want to deal with experimental versions of Scratch, try Wine.
If you need a more stable version, the Windows version of Scratch runs fine on Linux using the Windows application loader, Wine. Follow these steps:
- Install the Wine package via Synaptic.
- Download the Windows installer from the Scratch Download page.
- Open a terminal window and run the command:
wine Desktop/ScratchInstaller*- This command assumes you're working from your home directory and you have downloaded the installer to your desktop.
- From here, the Scratch installer looks just like it does on native Windows. Follow the default installation choices.
Double-click the Scratch icon on your Ubuntu desktop to open Scratch.