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On the publisher's website Etoys is described as "a media-rich authoring environment and visual programming system". The most recent stable version 5.0, is available for download at Squeakland released under an MIT license with parts licensed under Apache. Developers at squeak.org are working on a new version based on the latest squeak release. The website is also in transition and some features are not functioning at this time. Existing sample projects may still be downloaded but the mailing list is not available and new projects can't be shared publicly. I'll post any updates when available. For now, the information here is based on version 5.0. Update February 8, 2017: The mailing list is operational again.

Etoys is designed for experimentation and I highly recommend users do that. I certainly have. Etoys includes a help system, tool tips, demos and tutorials and there is an in depth pdf documentation file available at the website. Even though it is intended for school age and up, Etoys' minimalist interface hides some sophistication and it's not always easy to understand how to apply advanced features or recover from unexpected consequences. I believe I have also been handicapped by some preconceived notions about how things should work. I have read the manual multiple times and searched for example projects and blog and forum posts. At one point, I tried to understand Snap and Etoys at the same time by implementing examples from the Snap manual with Etoys scripts. I think that gave me some of my clearest insights into Etoys' capabilities.

I think the Etoys tile scripting system is an interesting approach to visual programming and I have organized my thoughts and solutions by topic. The goal here is to help both current and potential users so I have included some description and how-tos. I should also note here that I am not a regular Mac user, I use Etoys in Windows and Linux so please refer to official documentation for any operating system specific information.

Update October 2, 2019  Added a Miscellaneous category and a page for questions and comments.



Etoys the Application: a Brief Summary

Etoys Tile Scripting System

• Variable Types and Thoughts about Scope
• Displaying Number or String Output
• How do I Make a Numerical Array?
• Test Tiles and Boolean Logic
• Why Can't I Pause or Break Out of a Repeat Tile? - How Loops Work in Etoys
• Objects that Contain Collections
• Dynamically Creating Sibling Objects
• Creating a Linked List with Sibling Objects
• Capturing Input
• Handy Scripting Support Tools

Tips and Troubleshooting

• Save and Save Often
• Selection Tools
• Useful Keyboard Shortcuts
• Give your Objects Unique Names
• My Sketch is Pretty. How do I Save it as an Image File?
• My Sketch..Object..Thing disappeared
• Dragged Objects Jump Inside Other Objects and I don't Want This
• There's a Weird Error Box on my Screen
• How Do I Stop This Endless Loop or Other Rampaging Scripts?
• What Happened to my Flap?
• My Script Should Absolutely Work but it Doesn't

Why Etoys and not Scratch?

Squeak and Etoys Resources

Miscellaneous 

• About that Logo

Comments


Last Updated October 2, 2019