Palette - implement new "top" category

[thisandagain]

Implement new category as per discussions with the resources team. Pulling from our research with microworlds and our new vertical category menu, the idea is to pull a small number (<= 12) of commonly used blocks into a new block category at the top of the block palette list. These blocks would be duplicates (they would exist in the this category and their existing "home" category.

Strawcat Process

• [x] Determine name and icon for new category (decision: top)
• [x] Generate list of blocks used in the "Scratch Coding Cards" with frequency count
• [x] Generate report of most commonly used blocks in shared projects (/cc @mewtaylor)
• [x] Based on items 2 and 3 determine final list of blocks to be included
• [x] Evaluate (playtest workshop using coding cards?)

[bates64]

Perhaps this should rather be a "favourites" category for blocks used commonly by each user? I have a feeling different kinds of users use different areas of blocks..

[thisandagain]

We considered that but decided against it given that it could make documentation and many classroom use cases difficult (having every student with a different menu would be difficult / untenable).

[griffpatch]

I guess you'd have to not feature variables in the top category of used blocks as these would bloat the category? I assume many first projects would not use variables / lists anyhow.

On 10 August 2017 at 13:15, Andrew Sliwinski notifications@github.com wrote:

We considered that but decided against it given that it could make documentation and many classroom use cases difficult (having every student with a different menu would be difficult / untenable).

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[mrjacobbloom]

The backpack can be used to store favorite blocks (once it's implemented), so a star/pin option in the palette seems redundant

[thisandagain]

@ericrosenbaum @ntlrsk Here are the top 50 block usage counts for all shared projects from the past 30 days. Many thanks to @mewtaylor for building the infrastructure that makes running a report like this so easy. 😄

Block	Count
whengreenflag	342147
doforever	242981
wait:elapsed:from	222323
gotox:y	190220
show	162577
hide	159287
looklike	155420
dorepeat	145242
doif	145030
setvar:to	128654
doplaysoundandwait	125457
whenireceive	123825
broadcast	121938
playsound	116842
nextcostume	114698
forward	110551
changevar:by	110111
say:duration:elapsed:from	109368
readvariable	105614
whenkeypressed	104759
startscene	102427
touching	100076
heading	94968
randomfrom:to	85943
changegraphiceffect:by	83638
changeyposby	82147
stopscripts	82008
setsizeto	79945
turnright	78759
glidesecs:tox:y:elapsed:from	77041
keypressed	72083
changexposby	68175
doifelse	67499
cometofront	65954
dountil	62767
whenclicked	62692
gotospriteormouse	54632
setgraphiceffect:to	54536
createcloneof	53965
whencloned	51415
xpos	45048
ypos	44180
touchingcolor	43258
procdef	43153
deleteclone	42956
turnleft	41141
not	39661
call	39045
changesizeby	38952

[ntlrsk]

This is so interesting and helpful to see, @thisandagain and thanks to @mewtaylor ! As a follow-up question, I wonder about usage counts for projects that aren't remixes (to be more certain that the blocks were dragged out from the palette). Do you think that would differ (e.g., use of setvar to)?

[thisandagain]

Good question. It does shift, but in some unexpected ways (setvar:to actually moves up). Here is the same query but with all remixes removed:

Block	Count
whengreenflag	230764
doforever	156745
wait:elapsed:from	143345
gotox:y	115339
show	97243
doif	96586
hide	95688
looklike	85183
setvar:to	82357
dorepeat	82312
forward	81529
say:duration:elapsed:from	79101
playsound	74043
whenkeypressed	70449
changevar:by	69965
whenireceive	68861
broadcast	67952
touching	67922
readvariable	62627
doplaysoundandwait	62448
nextcostume	61676
startscene	61359
heading	55431
randomfrom:to	49279
stopscripts	48694
changeyposby	47978
turnright	47597
changegraphiceffect:by	45572
keypressed	44206
whenclicked	42630
glidesecs:tox:y:elapsed:from	42162
changexposby	39958
setsizeto	39688
gotospriteormouse	35968
doifelse	34335
dountil	31445
bounceoffedge	30075
touchingcolor	27763
cometofront	27749
createcloneof	25773
whencloned	23703
xpos	22272
ypos	22111
setgraphiceffect:to	21182
turnleft	21178
doask	20895
say	20529
deleteclone	19014
procdef	18407

[paulkaplan]

I spent a few minutes playing with this and noticed that some blocks seem to be related to others in a way that quickly unravels (thread-sweater-wise). For example, to include "if" you need to include some way of creating booleans (and vice-versa). Here is an example of self-contained grouping, but note it is missing all booleans.

[ericrosenbaum]

I did a quick look through the blocks used in the activity cards, and I thought a bit about keeping things simple, and came up with this list:

When green flag clicked When sprite clicked When key pressed Say Play sound until done Change color effect Repeat

These blocks all work for all sprites: sprites will be guaranteed to have at least one sound, and there's no need to have multiple costumes. They're conceptually simple: no reporters, no booleans, no x/y coordinates, etc. And they do not change the state of the sprite, since there are no moves, turns, or size changes (graphics effect are cleared by the stop button), so you don't have the perennial challenge of "re-initializing" (getting things to go back to where they were at the start). But maybe this should include "move" and "turn" :D.

[thisandagain]

@paulkaplan @ericrosenbaum I'm really liking these lists! Here is a bit of a hybrid proposal between the two as I really think move and turn are essential. Start with @paulkaplan 's list and make the following modifications:

• Add "when key pressed"
• Replace "start sound" with "play sound until done"
• Add "say"
• Add "change color effect"

[thisandagain]

/cc @ntlrsk @morantsur

[ericrosenbaum]

The set resulting from @thisandagain's suggestion looks like this:

V1

This feels a bit long to me. Here's a slightly reduced version (without "when this sprite clicked" and "wait"):

V2

And a more minimal version:

V3

Thoughts @thisandagain @carljbowman @ntlrsk @morantsur et al?

[bates64]

Honestly, I think v1 is the best here - the wait secs block is going to be used a lot regardless of project type, and v3 doesn't provide any motion blocks at all.

[towerofnix]

"Repeat" also isn't as useful/interesting without "wait"; for example "repeat (10): change color effect by (10), wait (1) secs". Wait is also helpful in showing blocks run in a specific order (for example, "change color effect by 10"; "change fisheye effect by 10"; and "change swirl effect by 10", all in a stack, with "wait" blocks between them).

[maxiostro]

Replace it for a Favourite Blocks category

[thisandagain]

Let's proceed with v1 for now.

[ntlrsk]

I think that seems good. I think if on edge bounce may be hard to understand with unless shown how to use it in a forever loop (or large number of repeats), so will be good to keep an eye out for that.

[ericrosenbaum]

I'm closing this because we have now added it, tried it out with kids, and decided to remove it. :)