Catrobat is a block-based visual programming language and Open Source Software non-profit project. The first release dates back to 2010 and was initiated by Wolfgang Slany from the Technical University Graz in Austria. The multidisciplinary team develops the programming language and free apps for teenagers to create their own games, animations, music videos, or all other kinds of apps directly on a smartphone based on the catrobat framework.
The visual programming language used for coding is very similar to the one used in Scratch except with Catrobat, no laptop or PC is needed. Every aspect of development can be covered solely on a smartphone and therefore over the years the usage of Catrobat and the Apps spread all over the world. Some activities of Catrobat are targeted directly at female and male teenagers to close the gender gap in STEM-Studies. Other activities are especially for less developed countries because native language support is provided directly in Catrobat's apps, without the need to be supported on the operating systems language level.
History
Catrobat started with the name Catroid in 2010 and the name was inspired by Scratch's cat mascot and the android operating system. The first public version of the free app was published in 2013 on Google Play. Currently, there are more than 74 releases of the main coding app as of November 2020. The first version for iOS has been published in 2018. The mobile apps currently have more than 5 million users in 180 countries, are natively available in 50+ languages (including several languages not directly supported by the underlying operating system), and have been developed so far by over 1,300 volunteers from around the world.
License
The Catrobat project is under the Affero General Public License (AGPL) in version 3 and is hosted publicly on GitHub.
Vision
The aim of Catrobat is to introduce young people to the world of coding, using only their smartphones and bypassing traditional education. With a playful approach, young people can be engaged and game development can be promoted with a focus on design and creativity. When used in schools the project often refers to the approach of constructionism.
To make it even more accessible to young people in less developed countries, Catrobat decided to not rely on the operating system language and implemented the possibility to switch to one of over 50 native languages directly in the user interface. The translations are contributed by the community based on Crowdin and the process makes it easy for volunteers to help adapt to new languages or to increase the quality.
Development environment, mobile apps, share platform
Catrobat Framework
The development environment for Catrobat is part of the mobile apps and these can be downloaded for free on Android from the Google Play Store, HarmonyOS AppGallery or Apple's App Store. Google's Android, Apple's iOS, and HarmonyOS AppGallery are currently actively supported. Variants for Windows Mobile and a HTML5-based version were discontinued in 2017 and 2019, respectively.
Mobile Apps
Pocket Code
The first Catrobat app has been Pocket Code (formerly Catroid), a visual programming language environment that allows the creation of games, stories, animations, and many types of other apps directly on smartphones. This app consists of a visual Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and a programming language execution engine for the Catrobat Programming language. The IDE automatically translates the underlying code parsed by the XML file into visual brick elements and vice versa. With the use of simple graphic blocks, teenagers can create their own games, colorful animations, or extensive stories directly on their mobile phone without prior knowledge. The used visual and block-based coding language helps teenagers in their coding with an easy-to-use interface and predefined Lego style bricks. It also allows access to many sensors on the smartphone, for instance, inclination, GPS, or compass direction, and support for image, voice, and face recognition has been added.
Luna&Cat
Luna&Cat is a tailored version of the Pocket Code app to appeal to female teenagers in particular. It has a pre-existing set of characters and backgrounds.