Is there a LOGO interpreter that actually has a turtle?

Question

This is not a repeat of the now infamous "How do I move the turtle in LOGO?"

Recently, I had the following conversation with my five year old daughter:

Daughter: Daddy, do you write programs?

Me: Yes!

Daughter: Daddy, what's a program?

Me: A program is a set of instructions that a computer follows.

Daughter: Daddy, can I write a program too?

Me: Sure!

This got me scrambling to think of a very basic language that a five year old could get some satisfaction from mastering rather quickly. I'm ashamed to admit that the first thing that came to mind was this:

10 INPUT "Tell me a secret" A$
20 PRINT "Wow really? :" A$
30 GOTO 10

That isn't going to hold a five year old's attention for very long and it requires too much of a lecture. However, moving a turtle around and drawing neat pictures might just work.

Sadly, my search for a LOGO interpreter yielded noting but ad ridden sites, flight simulators and a whole bunch of other stuff that I really don't want.

I'm hoping to find a cross platform (Java / Python) LOGO interpreter (dare I call it simulator?) with the following features:

• Can save / replay commands (stored programs)
• Has an actual turtle
• Sound effects are a plus

Have you stumbled across something like this, if so, can you provide a link? I hate to ask a 'shopping' sort of question, but it seemed much better than "Is LOGO appropriate for a five year old?"

Answer 1

Sure there is!

Get yourself latest Ubuntu (you may use Wubi or Virtual Box), then install KTurtle. It looks like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atZKpac07X0&feature=related

Also check out:

http://onemorelevel.com/game/lightbot

http://onemorelevel.com/game/lightbot_2

If you do not want to install anything. The second one is very much a puzzle though. Your daughter might do better with a more verbose LOGO.

Answer 2

You might look at Scratch, a project that takes the same concepts as LOGO and runs with them. It provides a graphical interface for programming that doesn't actually dumb it down, just streamlines it.

It has good built-in graphics and sound capabilities, and a thriving community of submissions and 'remixes'.

Answer 3

Another alternative to look at would be Microsoft Kodu It's a fun way for kids to learn programming concepts without having to learn a complex syntax. They even have a turtle

Answer 4

Although this is not LOGO, you also might want to check out PythonTurtle, which is inspired by LOGO. This looks great--simple, cute, and perfect for learning:

Answer 5

I recall back in school we used to have an actual turtle "robot" that we hooked to the Apple IIe and used LOGO to make it move.

So it exists... but I'm not sure if there's anything for a modern PC.

I admittedly haven't read this article fully, but it may provide a clue for a modern version.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logo_%28programming_language%29

Answer 6

My old Atari 800XL had LOGO with a turtle that looked like a turtle.

Answer 7

TurtleArt rules! The nice thing is that you program by "snapping together puzzle like blocs". Cost me a few nights when i found it - wish there was something like that for real work... There are packages in debian testing.

http://www.turtleart.org/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJu20DIGQvI

Answer 8

I remember using "LogoWriter" WAAAY back in the day. I think the "turtle" was just a triangle though. Technically cross-platform back then as there were Apple IIe, Commodore 64, and IBM PC versions... Maybe you could run it under dosbox? A quick Bing makes it look like it might still be available somewhere.