Show HN: Blocklike.js Educational Library – So kids can level up from Scratch

BlockLike.js

BlockLike.js is an educational JavaScript library. It bridges the gap between block-based and text-based programming.

BlockLike.js is designed following Scratch concepts, methods and patterns. The screen is a centered stage. Interaction is with Sprites. Code is executed in a "paced" manner. Scratch block code and BlockLike.js text code are meant to be as literally similar as possible.

BlockLike.js is written in ES6/ES7 flavored JavaScript. It is environment independent. It can be used anywhere modern JavaScript runs.

See BlockLike.org for details, docs, examples and FAQ.

Get Started

The easiest way to start with BlockLike.js is using CodePen.IO. Alternatively, you can create an index.html file and include BlockLike.js with the script tag.

The website has a one-click setup for CodePen and instructions how to load the most recent version off of a CDN.

Development

Install

Make sure to have Node.js installed.

Clone the repo.

In a terminal:

npm install npm start npm run watch

Troubleshoot

If you encounter:

Failed at the canvas@1.6.10 install script 'node-gyp rebuild'.

You'll need Cairo and Pango installed on your dev box. BlockLike uses node-canvas to run tests (dev dependency) and it requires the former.

Mac

brew install pkg-config cairo pango libpng jpeg giflib npm install

Other systems

See node-canvas documentation.

If you encounter:

listen EADDRINUSE 127.0.0.1:9000

Something else is using that port.

Open webpack.config.js and change the port setting for the devServer.

Build

The build script will build the two library versions (normal and min), generate the third one (mascotless) and republish the docs.

Test

All:

Single test:

TEST=stage_looks npm run test:it

Documentation publishing

Authors

Ron Ilan

License

MIT

Fabriqué au Canada : Made in Canada

from Hacker News https://github.com/ronilan/BlockLike