Scratch 1.4

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Scratch 1.4
Variants	1.4, 1.4 beta
Release Date	1.4 beta — 5/19/2009 1.4 — 7/2/2009 1.4.0.6 — 7/10/2012
Programming language	Squeak
Download	Official installers: Win • Mac • Deb 1.4 Source code: 1.4
Forum topic
Predecessor	1.3
Successor	2.0

Scratch 1.4 was a version of Scratch which was the last version in the Scratch 1.x series. It was officially released on July 2, 2009 and was succeeded four years later by Scratch 2.0. It can be downloaded here.

Note:

macOS 10.15 and later versions do not support Scratch 1.4's editor because it is a 32-bit app. All 32-bit apps had support dropped in macOS 10.15.

System Requirements

For Scratch to run properly, the following minimum system requirements were needed:

• Windows 2000 or later or Mac OS X (macOS) 10.4 (Tiger) to macOS 10.14.6 (Mojave) or Ubuntu 12.04 or later
• at least 120MB free hard drive space
• 800 x 480 or larger with 16-bit color or greater

Features

Scratch 1.4 had the most new features of any 1.x release.

Blocks

• LEGO WeDo motors could be controlled with the Motor blocks
• Sensing: Asking and answering was added; the palette was reordered; a reporter could be dropped into any sprite dropdown input; a line was added between Loud? and () Sensor Value
• Operators: New string blocks (Join () (), Letter () of (), and Length of ()) were added, and so the name was changed from "Numbers"; () < (), () = (), and () > () accept strings
• Lists: () Contains () was added
• One only needs to click blocks once to run them

UI

The user interface was significantly changed in Scratch 1.4. Changes included:

• The green flag and stop sign were redrawn smaller, and were put in a different position
• Mouse-pointer readout moved onto one line
• The buttons for making sprites were moved and labelled
• Small stage mode was added, and the buttons to switch between regular, small stage, and presentation mode were moved to the top right
• All the buttons in the toolbar were replaced with menus: File, Edit, Share, and Help. Icons were added for selecting a language and saving and sharing projects.
• In the beta, Mesh could be accessed by shift-clicking the Share menu (see Mesh#Modifying Scratch for how to get it in the release)
• A feature was added allowing users to create costumes using a camera
• Grips removed from the scrollbars
• The logo was redrawn

Paint Editor

Main article: Paint Editor (1.4)

• Only one type of color picker was shown at a time
  • An icon of the other color picker was shown on the right; clicking would switch
• Tools were on top-left
• "Clear" button was next to "import"
• Rotation center and zoom buttons moved beneath the color picker. Rotation center was center-aligned; the zoom tool was right-aligned

Variants

A beta version of Scratch 1.4 was shown at Scratch Day 2009. It featured Mesh and some UI differences. These included:

• Menus had a square next to the top item
• The "beta" tag from 1.2 beta was put back.
• In the paint editor:
  • Standard color-picker had only 3 shades
  • Full color-picker took up entire area (clicking a color went back to standard picker)
  • The zoom tool was centered

A public release candidate was shared in June 2009, which was very similar to the final version (other than the last three differences).

On June 10, 2014, Scratch 1.4 was added to Raspberry Pi. It included a GPIO extension block to use with the Raspberry Pi's GPIO pins.

In 2012, versions 1.4.0.1 through 1.4.0.7 were released. These were the Linux versions of 1.4, for distributions that supported Debian installers (Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, etc.) as well as RPM-based ones (Fedora, Red Hat, etc.) Each version featured only incremental bug fixes. They are not available on Windows or Mac OS X.

Gallery

• 

  The Mesh items in the share menu in 1.4 beta. Notice also the square next to the top item.

• 

  The new Motor blocks

• 

  The new asking feature

• 

  The updated paint editor

• 

  The dialog for taking a picture with a webcam

• 

  The redrawn Scratch Logo

• 

  The new small stage mode

• 

  The Scratch 1.4 interface shown on the official Playful Invention Company

• 

  An image of the 1.4 editor with a project open.

See Also

• Scratch 1.4 Network Installation
• Official download page