Installing Scratch on Debian or Ubuntu
Introduction
Scratch is a developer application with the young in mind it is a programming language that makes it easy to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art -- and share your creations on the web. As young people create and share Scratch projects, they learn important mathematical and computational ideas and concepts, learning to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively.
In this article we will explain how to install "Scratch" even though you may not own or be part of the "Raspberry Pi" community you can still enjoy, participate and more importantly collaborate.
Assumptions
"Scratch" is not restricted to the just "Raspberry Pi" it is in fact available to many operating systems Mac and Windows included, it is an example of development across platforms where the platforms can be Mac, Windows, Raspberry Pi(Strictly speaking the Raspberry Pi is not an Operating System) and Linux. For the purpose of this article we will assume that you wish to install the Scratch application onto a a Ubuntu or Debian build operating system. Although if you visit the following site you will detailed instructions to install Scratch onto almost any current Operating System.
Scratch
Downloading Scratch
Scratch as far as I am aware, is not currently available in either the Debian or Ubuntu repositories, this however may change as the Raspberry Pi and Scratch gains acceptance with more people that adopt it's programming philosophy in the fullness of time. However even though Scratch is not within either of the vast program application stores it can still be installed.
Scratch Installation
To install Scratch for the first time you will need to visit the Website which is the home to the Scratch application and that of its download area.
Scratch download
In it's current format and at the time of writing this article "Scratch" is in it's stable Version number "1.4". In the main there are some three different installation options available for the Mac, Windows and of course Debian 32bit. We for the purpose of this article will concentrate on Debian 32bit.
Scratch 1.4-i386.deb
Select the download link you choose for a Debian installation and save to a folder in your own Home/Downloads area. It's not strictly necessary to save the file to folder as you can install using the Ubuntu Software Centre, however to install this way takes ages and better in our view to install from the command line here's how.
First startup a new terminal and change the directory using cd to the location of the file you downloaded
The later command completes any dependencies required to finish the installation. You can now run the Scratch application, if your new to Scratch we suggest you look and install some of the suggested examples available when you open an existing project, just select the example button on the left. We also recommend you visit a site called
