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LOGO Still Lives -- New Java-Based Version Released

Posted by timothy on from the turtles-aren't-just-for-soup-any-more dept.

farrellj writes "Many people were introduced to computer programming using a virtual turtle, or if you were lucky a robotic turtle. Created in the '60s by a bunch of people at MIT, including one of the formost experts on computer aided learning Seymour Papert, it gave a good grounding in programming in a day when BASIC and PASCAL were the only other easily available languages...I use to teach LOGO at a computer lab in Ottawa, but have lost touch with LOGO for many years. Today, a email appeared in my mailbox announcing a new release of LOGO called StarLOGO from MIT...wow...it is done in JAVA, and looks pretty snazzy. It runs on just about any platform, and I think that it again may be a great way to get young kids interested in programming. It took me about 2 minutes to get it running...just untar it, and run a shell script, and I had the enivronment up and running. In a couple more minutes, I was writing programs that created graphical displays that would look great at raves. So I guess it's for kids of all ages!"

4 of 161 comments (clear)

  1. Samples of your art?? by alpha1125 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "In a couple more minutes, I was writing programs that created graphical displays that would look great at raves. So I guess it's for kids of all ages!"

    May we see some of your art work (screenshots, or source)?

    --
    Money cannot buy happiness, but can buy something soo darn close, that you can't really tell the difference
  2. Although I used LOGO by zwoelfk · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Although LOGO was one of the first things I was introduced to, and may have genuinely led me to become a programmer, my daughter is now older than I was at that time and has a much more sophisticated knowledge about computer use.

    I'm not sure that the same teaching tools are really applicable when the background of the student is so different. At seven, she can surf the net, install her new game, and write an email while bitching about WinXP. I don't she'll as impressed by moving a little triangle around as I was.

    But it's cool anyway. I'll play with it, even if she doesn't.

  3. Re:my experience w/LOGO. by p3d0 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    It depends how it's taught. Logo is a better language in some respects than PASCAL and certainly than BASIC. You can learn functional programming from it.

    But there's always going to be 12-year-olds who think they know everything and consider learning new programming languages a waste of time.

    --
    Patrick Doyle
    I mod down every jackass who puts his moderation policy in his sig. Oh, wait a sec....
  4. Re:my experience w/LOGO. by Ian+Bicking · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Logo is more appropriate for teaching mathematics and algorithms than programming -- that has always been it's motivation. As such, I think it is considerably better than Basic or Pascal -- it's higher level, and has a much easier learning curve.

    I think Logo should really be seen as a pre-algebra and geometry tool. It's algebra that a child is likely to understand -- somewhat imperative, and easy to experiment with. It's an easy introduction to variables and function composition, possible to do at an age when most children would be totally lost by algebra (moreso when you consider how many teenagers never really get algebra -- maybe most teenagers, as I'm afraid many of my friends' eyes glaze over if they are asked to remember any alegbra as an adult).