Scratch

Scratch is a programming language developed at MIT for use in teaching small children programming. Unlike most programming languages which use plain-text source code, the code in Scratch consists of graphical blocks that can be dragged around in the development interface (a free download) to form programs that manipulate objects on the screen. Shapes, colors, and icons are used to distinguish the different things which can be inserted into a program.

Since the code isn't plain text, the file formats used in saving programs are more complex than for most other programming languages.

File formats

 * Scratch 1.4 File Format
 * Scratch 2.0 File Format

Links and references

 * Official site
 * Program Download
 * Getting Started document
 * Wikipedia article
 * Boing Boing article