Talk:Turtle Art

Any reason why the link isn't to the version in the OLPC git tree? [1] --Walter 21:48, 19 June 2007 (EDT)

The git tree itself is for development, not for stable .xo snapshots; I don't know the original location for .xo's used in the build process, so I used my own; but we need direct links to .xo bundles from the wiki in addition to the git tree for the latest code. Sj talk 23:03, 19 June 2007 (EDT)

User feedback

Turtle Art was popular among adults at a (MIT) bbq 2007-08-19. Some observations:

• In a demo setting, without much time to explore, people were puzzled how to begin. The Blocks pulldown was too low profile. Perhaps the program might start with it already pulled down?
• Combinations of arc with f/b/l/r made nice shapes and were popular.
• Everyone's first inclination was to click on the components, rather than dragging them. Which currently creates the component underneath the pulldown, with just the numbers visibly sticking out the side. So next they tried to grab the numbers, thus pulling them off the component. It was messy. I suggest clicked components be dropped clear of the pulldown rather than underneath it.
• When connecting components, positioning them was troublesome. They were often 'almost but not quite' connected. Which sometimes created "so why isnt it working?". Having a snap region might make connecting easier and simpler.
• There was some uncertainty over how to reset the turtle. Especially when it had been walked out of sight off the screen.

MitchellNCharity 01:06, 19 August 2007 (EDT)

No parameters, no lists: not Logo

A turtle doth not a Logo make. Most of the coolness of Logo is in the ease of recursive expression borrowed from Lisp. The lack of recursion is not even treated as a bug but as an enhancement. --IanOsgood 19:01, 12 November 2007 (EST)

Actually, procedures and recursion are supported, but without parameters. All you currently have are global variables. This could be remedied in a couple of ways:

1. Have some other stack heads/invokers that take parameters. Not sure how you could generalize this to arbitrary numbers of parameters; maybe a "parameter chain" block?
2. Go the Forth route: add a separate parameter stack (as in data structure stack). There is prior art by Wouter van Oortmerssen in stack-based visual programming language design.

--IanOsgood 17:28, 14 November 2007 (EST)