Snap! (programming language): Difference between revisions

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Latest revision as of 13:54, 7 July 2025

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| logo = [[File:Snap!.svg|200px]]

| logo size = 90PX

| logo caption = Snap''!'' Logo

| paradigm = [[Object-oriented programming|object-oriented]], [[educational programming language|educational]], [[Event-driven programming|event-driven]]

| year = {{start date and age|2011}}

| designer = [[Brian Harvey (lecturer)|Brian Harvey]] and [https://github.com/jmoenig/ Jens Mönig]

| developer = [https://github.com/jmoenig/ Jens Mönig]

| latest release version = 910.27.172

| latest release date = {{Start date and age|20242025|45|245}} <ref>{{cite web|url=https://github.com/jmoenig/Snap/releases|title=jmoenig/Snap|website=GitHub|access-date=May 175, 20242025}}</ref>

| typing = [[Type system|dynamic]]

| implementations =

| programming language = Morphic.js<ref name="morphic_js">{{cite web |last1=Mönig |first1=Jens |title=morphic.js |url=https://github.com/jmoenig/morphic.js/blob/master/morphic.txt |website=GitHub |accessdate=7 June 2023}}</ref> (written in [[JavaScript]]); {{#tag:ref|BYOB was written in [[Squeak]].|group=Note}}

| dialects =

| influenced by = [[Scratch (programming language)|Scratch]], [[Scheme (programming language)|Scheme]], [[Logo (programming language)|Logo]], [[Smalltalk]], [[APL (programming language) | APL]]

| influenced = [[Scratch (programming language)|Scratch]], BeetleBlocks, NetsBlox, Dragme IDE, [[Turtlestitch]]

| operating system = [[Cross-platform]]

| license = [[Affero General Public License|AGPL]]

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}}

'''Snap''!''''' (formerly Build Your Own Blocks) is a free block-based [[List of educational programming languages|educational]] graphical programming language and online community. Snap allows students to explore, create, and remix interactive animations, games, stories, and more, while learning about mathematical and computational ideas. While inspired by [[Scratch (programming language)|Scratch]], Snap''!'' has many advanced features. The Snap''!'' editor, and programs created in it, are [[web application]]s that run in the browser (like [[Scratch (programming language)|Scratch 3]]) without requiring [[Installation (computer programs)|installation]].{{#tag:ref|BYOB, Snap''!''{{'}}s predecessor, was a modification of Scratch and could export projects as [[Portable Executable|Windows executables]].|group=Note}} It is built on top of ''Morphic.js'',<ref name="morphic_js">{{cite web |last1=Mönig |first1=Jens |title=morphic.js |url=https://github.com/jmoenig/morphic.js/blob/master/morphic.txt |website=GitHub |accessdate=7 June 2023}}</ref> a [[Morphic (software)|Morphic]] GUI, written by Jens Mönig as 'middle layer' between Snap! itself and 'bare' JavaScript.

==User interface==

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| bgcolor="#BB42C3"| &nbsp; || Sound || Plays audio files and <br />programmable sequenced audio || bgcolor="#5CB712"| &nbsp; || Operators || Mathematical, text, and<br />Boolean operators; lambda

|- valign="top"

| bgcolor="#0E9A6C"| &nbsp; || Pen || Write, draw, or<br />stamp on stage || bgcolor="#C88330"| &nbsp; || Variables || Variables, lists,<br />including lists of lists, lists of blocks, etc

of blocks, etc

|}

[[File:Snap! Default interface.png|thumb|left|420px|''Three resizable columns, containing five regions, in Snap!'s [[Integrated development environment|IDE]] at startup'']]

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The central area can show scripts, costumes/backdrops, or sounds associated with the selected sprite. What that area shows depends on the selected tab.

{{clear}}

==Features==

The most important features that Snap''!'' offers, but Scratch does not, include:

* Expressions using anonymous functions, represented by a block inside a gray ring, having one or more empty slot(s)/argument(s) that are filled by a "higher order function" (the one that is calling the anonymous one). (Their computer-science theoretical basis is [[first class function]]s, which in turn have [[lambda calculus]] as their even more abstract and mathematical foundation)

* Lists that are [[First class object|first class]] (including ''lists of lists/arrays'')

* ''First class'' sprites (or in other words, [[Prototype-based programming|prototype-oriented instance-based classless object programming]])

* "Hyperblocks": functions whose natural ___domain is scalars (text or numbers), extended to accept lists as inputs and apply the underlying function to the scalars in the list or a sublist

* Nestable sprites

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==Mascot==

[[File:Snap! mascot, Alonzo.svg|50px|right]]

Alonzo, the mascot of Snap''!'', bears the name of [[Alonzo Church]], the inventor of a model of computation in which a universal function, represented by lambda, can create any function behavior by calling it on itself in various combinations. The mascot is a modified version of Gobo from [[Scratch (programming language)|Scratch]], with permission of the Scratch teamTeam. Because Alonzo Church's work is called [[lambda calculus]], the mascot's hair is shaped as the Greek letter [[lambda]].<!--There's no picture here because the developers of Snap''!'' got informal permission from the Scratch Team to use this modified Gobo, but they didn't agree to allow any use, even commercial, by anyone, and that's the requirement for uploading a picture to Wikimedia.-->

==Special-purpose blocks (libraries)==

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While the software itself has little restraints, it does have some limitations.

These include as follows:

* No native cloud variables

* 10 [[megabyte]] file cap for uploading (Snap''!'' Cloud only)

* Users have to manually enable Javascript when loading a project that uses inline bits of JS, due to a hack a few years ago.

==History==

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==External links==

* {{Official website|snap.berkeley.edu}}

{{Video game engines |state=collapsed}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Snap! (Programming Language)}}