Scratch

What hackers pick instead

• Snap! programming languagePeople recommend Snap! as a low-floor language for kids that still scales up to real computer science concepts. Critics say it is poorly documented and rarely used outside its own environment.9recommend

Every quote

The 40 most detailed of 93 comments. Each links to the original.

1. Scratch looks like it has a steeper learning curve and while it is a good introduction to programming, it gets pretty hard to navigate once project size increases.

   Mixed · Aug 2026 · in “Teaching my kid to code with a modern MUD”

2. Scratch lets the syntax get out of the way, so she can focus on the concepts of what the various puzzle pieces do

   Recommends · Mar 2026 · in “Ask HN: Best stack for building a tiny game with an 11-year-old?”

3. I was introduced to Scratch on a field trip as a 5th grader and went home and tinkered with it

   Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “Has early Scratch experience led to fulfilling careers?”

4. Scratch taught me how to code, and perhaps a bit of real-world engineering indirectly.

   Mixed · Sep 2026 · in “λ Snap – An inviting programming language for kids and adults for CS study”

5. We do love Scratch but account management is almost worse than something to install.

   Mixed · Sep 2026 · in “'That's so AI ' What gen Alpha's biggest insult tells us”

6. I started programming with Scratch and it led to my software-adjacent career today.

   Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “Has early Scratch experience led to fulfilling careers?”

7. pico8, scratch, even the browser's developer toolbar is more accessible than VSCode

   Recommends · Mar 2026 · in “Have a Fucking Website”

8. My kids showed more interest in BASIC GOTO 10 on an emulator than school Scratch.

   Mixed · Sep 2026 · in “Has early Scratch experience led to fulfilling careers?”

9. you can fire up something like Scratch and have things moving almost instantly

   Recommends · Jun 2026 · in “Retro-Tech Parenting”

10. the block-based approach is a great analogue to building things with Lego

    Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “Has early Scratch experience led to fulfilling careers?”

11. I learned to program from block programming, starting out when I was 12.

    Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “λ Snap – An inviting programming language for kids and adults for CS study”

12. They give the feeling of letting things snap together like lego bricks.

    Recommends · Aug 2026 · in “How would you know whether an ancient culture had zero?”

13. Take syntax out of the equation and learn basic variables and looping.

    Recommends · Mar 2026 · in “Ask HN: Best stack for building a tiny game with an 11-year-old?”

14. he can now program Lego technic with Scratch, no iPad or phone needed

    Recommends · Aug 2026 · in “Teaching my kid to code with a modern MUD”

15. It was a nice way to casually introduce them to programming concepts.

    Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “Has early Scratch experience led to fulfilling careers?”

16. I absolutely credit Scratch for my interest in computers and systems

    Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “Has early Scratch experience led to fulfilling careers?”

17. I wish someone showed me something like Scratch when I was younger.

    Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “Has early Scratch experience led to fulfilling careers?”

18. it does have lasting effects on those who immerse themselves in it

    Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “Has early Scratch experience led to fulfilling careers?”

19. it gets you the ideas of coding in a way that more kids will get

    Recommends · May 2026 · in “Usborne 1980s Computer Books”

20. fully editable and runnable in a web environment with zero setup

    Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “λ Snap – An inviting programming language for kids and adults for CS study”

21. I learned a lot and developed my love of computers at that age.

    Recommends · Mar 2026 · in “Roblox Is Minting Teen Millionaires”

22. easier for a little kid to grasp since the sytax is graphical

    Recommends · Feb 2026 · in “The Misuses of the University”

23. I can't imagine exhorting children to learn to code with Scratch (or any other Visual Programming Language) in good faith today.

    Criticizes · Aug 2026 · in “Lost my phone at the office. Claude suggested tracking Bluetooth signal strength”

24. Scratch is a toy language, with a deliberate ceiling that you can't get past because of the language's design.

    Criticizes · Sep 2026 · in “λ Snap – An inviting programming language for kids and adults for CS study”

25. Scratch's problem is ecosystem. It develops UX for children who are still early to the keyboard

    Criticizes · Sep 2026 · in “Has early Scratch experience led to fulfilling careers?”

26. You can't make a block that returns a number in Scratch, let alone another block.

    Criticizes · Sep 2026 · in “λ Snap – An inviting programming language for kids and adults for CS study”

27. Scratch had lists, but they were only allowed to contain text or numbers

    Criticizes · Sep 2026 · in “λ Snap – An inviting programming language for kids and adults for CS study”

28. I don't love graphical programming environments like this and Scratch

    Criticizes · Sep 2026 · in “λ Snap – An inviting programming language for kids and adults for CS study”

29. Training wheels actually make it harder to learn how to ride a bike.

    Criticizes · Sep 2026 · in “Has early Scratch experience led to fulfilling careers?”

30. Even the kid who later chose a programming career hated Scratch.

    Criticizes · Aug 2026 · in “Teaching my kid to code with a modern MUD”

31. Because it's Scratch, but with the artificial limiters removed.

    Criticizes · Aug 2026 · in “Python's pre-declared constants are kinda weird”

32. My kids got bored and annoyed by Scratch very quickly.

    Criticizes · Aug 2026 · in “Teaching my kid to code with a modern MUD”

33. Scratch (and a whole lot of other things) show children that it's not magic—it's just a machine following instructions.

    Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “Has early Scratch experience led to fulfilling careers?”

34. Whenever I ask they have great things to say about Scratch and how it fueled their love for programming.

    Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “Has early Scratch experience led to fulfilling careers?”

35. the zero marginal cost nature of it which allows unbounded trial and error is an amazing learning tool

    Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “Has early Scratch experience led to fulfilling careers?”

36. It should felt like making games in Scratch instead of reinventing serialization in Screeps.

    Recommends · Jan 2026 · in “RTS for Agents”

37. scratch is worthwhile even if that isn't the goal, which i think is awesome in its own right

    Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “Has early Scratch experience led to fulfilling careers?”

38. I have a number of these pieces in a binary I drop first thing on every agent computer

    Recommends · Aug 2026 · in “OpenChamber: An Agentic Development Environment”

39. Outside of Scratch most programming has incredibly obnoxious environments to setup.

    Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “'That's so AI ' What gen Alpha's biggest insult tells us”

40. Scratch is wildly popular with students and widely used throughout the world

    Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “λ Snap – An inviting programming language for kids and adults for CS study”