Blockly

Blockly development began in summer 2011. The first public release was in May 2012 at Maker Faire. Blockly was originally designed as a replacement for OpenBlocks in App Inventor.{{cite web|url=https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/blockly/starlogo/blockly/eG2kQ5tyGpM/_ETqcdxH1rsJ|title=Google Groups|website=Groups.google.com|access-date=16 January 2018}} Neil Fraser began the project with Quynh Neutron, Ellen Spertus, and Mark Friedman as contributors.

File:Blockly Conditions to celsius.png to Celsius]]

File:Blockly while loop.png

The default graphical user interface (GUI) of the Blockly editor consists of a toolbox, which holds available blocks, and where a user can select blocks, and a workspace, where a user can drag and drop and rearrange blocks. The workspace also includes, by default, zoom icons, and a trashcan to delete blocks.{{cite web|url=http://www.i-programmer.info/news/98-languages/4357-google-blockly-a-graphical-language-with-a-difference.html|title=Google Blockly – A Graphical Language with a Difference|last=Black|first=Lucy|date=12 June 2012|website=I-programmer|access-date=3 July 2019}} The editor can be modified easily to customize and limit the available editing features and blocks.

Blockly includes a set of visual blocks for common operations, and can be customized by adding more blocks. New blocks require a block definition and a generator. The definition describes the block's appearance (user interface) and the generator describes the block's translation to executable code. Definitions and generators can be written in JavaScript, or using a visual set of blocks, the Block Factory, which allows new blocks to be described using extant visual blocks; the intent is to make creating new blocks easier.

Blockly is used in several notable projects, including:

• MIT's Scratch (since version 3.0), visual programming environment for education{{cite web|url=https://developers.googleblog.com/2019/01/scratch-30s-new-programming-blocks.html|title=Scratch 3.0's new programming blocks, built on Blockly|website=Google}}
• MIT's App Inventor, to create applications for Android.{{cite web|url=http://ai2.appinventor.mit.edu/|title=MIT App Inventor 2|website=MIT}}
• MIT's [https://coco.build CoCo], visual collaborative programming website for education.
• Code.org, to teach introductory programing to millions of students in their Hour of Code program{{cite web|url=http://code.org/translate|title=Translate Code.org|website=Code.org}}
• Microsoft's MakeCode, "a free online learn-to-code platform where anyone can build games, code devices, and mod Minecraft" {{cite web | url=https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/project/microsoft-makecode/ | title=Microsoft MakeCode | website=Microsoft }}{{cite web | url=https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/makecode | title=Microsoft MakeCode Computer Science Education | website=Microsoft }}
• RoboBlockly, a web-based robot simulation environment for learning coding and math
• PICAXE, to control their educational microchips{{cite web|url=https://picaxe.com/software/picaxe/blockly-for-picaxe/|title=PICAXE Blockly|author=|date=|website=PICAXE|access-date=5 July 2020}}
• SAM Labs, in STEAM learn-to-code "education solutions"{{clarify|date=July 2022}}

• Web-based using Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)
• Completely client-side JavaScript
• Support of major web browsers including: Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera, Edge
• Support for many programmatic constructs including variables, functions, arrays
• Minimal type checking supported, designed for dynamically typed languages
• Easy to extend with custom blocks
• Clean code generation{{cite web|url=https://blockly-demo.appspot.com/static/demos/code/index.html|title=Blockly Demo: Code|website=Blockly-demo.appspot.com|access-date=16 January 2018}}
• Step-by-step code execution for tracing and debugging code{{cite web|url=https://google.github.io/blockly-samples/examples/interpreter-demo/step-execution.html|title=Blockly Demo: JS-Interpreter|website=Blockly Samples|access-date=24 February 2023}}
• Localised into 100+ languages{{cite web|url = https://translatewiki.net/wiki/Special:MessageGroupStats/out-blockly-core#sortable:3=desc|title=Localisation statistics for the Blockly core module|website=Translatewiki.net|access-date=16 January 2018}}
• Support for left-to-right and right-to-left languages{{cite web|url=https://google.github.io/blockly-samples/examples/rtl-demo/|title=Blockly Demo: RTL|website=Blockly Samples|access-date=24 February 2023}}

{{Reflist}}

{{Commons category|Blockly}}

• {{Official website|developers.google.com/blockly}}

{{Google FOSS}}

Category:Visual programming languages

Category:Google software

Category:Free software programmed in JavaScript

Category:JavaScript libraries