FD 100 | Hacker News Reader

FD 100

susam.in

66 pointstodsacerdoti13 comments

Turtle Logo on the front page -- perfect time to ask my question:

What's a good starter Logo for a precocious 5-year-old?

The things that are important to me are high quality graphics (both of the turtle and the line), an animated turtle, and keyboard-only control (he can't use a mouse very well).

ACSLogo for Mac OS ( http://www.alancsmith.co.uk/logo/ ) nails the graphics really well, but the trouble is that you can't define procedures from the command line -- you have to go into a special window to add a procedure. It also doesn't have the "up-arrow for last command."

Any suggestions?

It's not exactly Logo, but I heard very good things about Snap! [1] from UC Berkeley as a teaching language. Some people think it's better than Scratch [2].

[1]: https://snap.berkeley.edu

[2]: https://cseducators.stackexchange.com/questions/112/what-can...

I'm going to be a self promoter——since you are on the Mac, I would be remiss not to mention my own project, SeaTurtle: https://www.oaksnow.com/seaturtle/

Although it's not fully keyboard controlled, one of your criteria, it does have animated graphics, included Animated GIF export of your creations, so your child can share the output with friends.

Will try it, thanks!

Python's turtle module is an option worth considering. You get a good turtle graphics system but also the whole Python ecosystem.

https://docs.python.org/3/library/turtle.html

"FD 100" was my introduction to programming too! This short post just brought it all back!

I've remembered for years that there was some for loop syntax that I'd used as a kid. I knew it wasn't "for" so seeing "REPEAT 360 [FD 1 RT 1]" was quite a revelation for me just now! (Thanks Susam if you're reading this!) That's exactly what I was writing back then. I think my first instinct at the time was "REPEAT 4 [FD 100 RT 90]" and from there went on to draw pentagons, hexagons, and then at some point had a eureka moment and tried "REPEAT 360".. mind blown!

I was using an Amstrad PCW 8512 [1] and would love to hear from anyone else who had a similar experience.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amstrad_PCW#PCW_8256_and_8512

I had an 8256. I read some code in a magazine showing how to draw fractals recursively (they were Koch snowflakes actually) and I had a lot of fun making more complex fractals using that basic recipe. The PCWs had a monochrome screen that was quite hi-res, certainly compared to what I was used to, which worked well for turtle graphics.

I remember reading about Seymour Papert's Logo back in the 80's and getting blown away by how elegant and luxurious the language felt. But, the need to start Logo environment first in order to run a program kept me away from it so I kept working with BASIC and Assembly. That kind of friction matters a lot.

Logo wasn't the first language I started with (that would be BASIC), but it is one I have many fond memories of from childhood. I used Logo later on to program microcontrollers used with Lego to build simple robots and machines. One of my proudest moments was building a functional prototype of a washing machine with selectable wash cycles. It allowed me to begin understanding many of the things which we find in the world that rely on small embedded electronics to function.

I wish there were programs like this for children these days in school. I know Scratch derived from Lego Logo and there's still things like Lego Mindstorm, but I don't think there are many common programs at least in the US to teach children programming and prototyping using these simple mechanisms.

Same here. I started with LOGO at school and it was a great teaching language and gave me a good basis (e.g. we did a ton of recursive stuff) and a passion for creating things with code.

Why do so many sites refuse to have a link to their home page? I notice this with blogs in particular - I don't think needing to edit the URL is an acceptable UX.

FD was my first programming instuction too, but sadly, I had a bad teacher.

She didn't even teach me the REPEAT instruction for a loop until the very last lecture.

for those like myself unfamiliar with LOGO and confused by the term "turtle graphics": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtle_graphics

Reply on news.ycombinator.com