concept Script Area in category scratch

This is an excerpt from Manning's book Hello Scratch!: Learn to program by making arcade games. Login to get full access to this book.

Figure 1.1 shows the five main areas of Scratch: the Block Menu runs down the middle of the screen. The Script Area is the big, grey box on the right side of the screen. The Sprite Zone is the area in the bottom left corner of the screen. The Stage is the big, white box containing the cat. And the Grey Toolbar runs along the top of the screen.

Figure 1.1. The Scratch workspace is made up of five areas.

As you read this chapter, look back at this figure if you don’t know where to go. Now let’s get started moving some blocks from the Block Menu to the Script Area.

Try putting a Move 10 Steps block in the Script Area and then clicking the green flag above the Stage. What happens? Nothing, right? The cat can’t move because the script doesn’t have an on switch. All scripts—yes, every individual script in your game—need a way to start.

In the top right corner of the Script Area is a tiny picture of the sprite you’re currently programming (the cat) and two letters (X and Y) next to a number, as in figure 3.5.

Figure 3.5. The top right corner of the Script Area shows the sprite and its X and Y coordinate position. X: 0 and Y: 0 is the center of the Stage.