Students seemed a bit confused by the fact the Blocks separate when newline whitespace is used in the Python code.
This relates to a sequence being represented by the blocks connecting together in most block-based environments like Scratch, etc. So students wondered, looking over at the blocks, if the code segments ran separately and not sequentially.
My request is to have the blocks ignore the newline whitespace in the Python code and always connect the blocks together.
However, I am not sure the impact this has on the system as when blocks are dragged out, they are automatically added to the Python code from top most being first and bottom most being last in sequence. My suggestion, if easily implementable, would be to have any block added to the canvas automatically connect to the bottom of the blocks sequence unless specified by connecting to another block in the sequence (between blocks in the sequence). Thinking through this, I also don't know what the system should do as soon as the user touches the blocks. Delete whitespace? Somehow keep track of whitespace? Currently, it removes any extra whitespace when you have more than one line and move the blocks, so maybe that still happens but removes whitespace entirely.
Students seemed a bit confused by the fact the Blocks separate when newline whitespace is used in the Python code.
This relates to a sequence being represented by the blocks connecting together in most block-based environments like Scratch, etc. So students wondered, looking over at the blocks, if the code segments ran separately and not sequentially.
My request is to have the blocks ignore the newline whitespace in the Python code and always connect the blocks together.
However, I am not sure the impact this has on the system as when blocks are dragged out, they are automatically added to the Python code from top most being first and bottom most being last in sequence. My suggestion, if easily implementable, would be to have any block added to the canvas automatically connect to the bottom of the blocks sequence unless specified by connecting to another block in the sequence (between blocks in the sequence). Thinking through this, I also don't know what the system should do as soon as the user touches the blocks. Delete whitespace? Somehow keep track of whitespace? Currently, it removes any extra whitespace when you have more than one line and move the blocks, so maybe that still happens but removes whitespace entirely.