Article 1082 of comp.lang.logo: Path: news.media.mit.edu!grapevine.lcs.mit.edu!olivea!decwrl!decwrl!sdd.hp.com!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!att-out!cbfsb!cbnewsg.cb.att.com!dal3 From: dal3@cbnewsg.cb.att.com (dale.e.parson) Newsgroups: comp.lang.logo Subject: January FAQ Part 1 of 2 Keywords: FAQ Message-ID: Date: 19 Jan 94 22:13:55 GMT Sender: news@cbfsb.cb.att.com Organization: AT&T Lines: 1114 January, 94 comp.lang.logo FAQ, Part 1 of 2 Well, I am in the middle of a job & job site change and am hurriedly knocking in a few changes from December. Andre Lehovich promises a more standard format for the FAQ soon so it can go to the standard sites. As before, please send corrections, additions, and any new entries to Dale Parson, dale@mhcnet.att.com. Where there's a gap or apparent chaos, a complete entry for inclusion is preferable to editorial suggestions. We especially need entries for categories 10, 20, 21 & 25. The archive of postings for this groups is at cher.media.mit.edu /pub/logo/comp.lang.logo. I'm just editing in changes & posting monthly (more or less). Acknowledgements appear immediately after pertinent entries like this: [Dale Parson, dale@mhcnet.att.com] Contents PART I. 1: What is Logo? 2: What was the genesis of Logo? 3: What is turtle geometry? 4: Why programming for kids? 5: What is a mindstorm? 6: Where can I learn more about Logo? 7: What are microworlds? 8: How do I get started with Logo? 9: Public Domain and Shareware Logos? 10: Non-English Logo implementations? 11: Public domain or shareware Logo applications, Logo-like environments 12: What do the schools use Logo for? PART II. 13: What does Piaget have to do with Logo? 14: How can kids use Logo for AI work? 15: Are there any archives for Logo? 16: What is LEGO/Logo? 17: How can I get LEGO/Logo? 18: What other robotic turtles or Logo-to-robot interfaces are there? 19: Can Logo help the handicapped? 20: Related professional organizations 21: Conference listings 22: Publications 23: Books 24: Aside from comp.lang.logo, what other net lists/groups might be useful? 25: Centers of Research Part I. Introductory Matter and Bibliography of Introductions and References 1: What is Logo? Logo is a computer programming language designed for use by learners, including children. One of the ideas guiding its creation was the principle "low floor, high ceiling." This means that it should be easy for the novice programmer to get started (the "low floor") writing programs and getting satisfaction doing so, but that the language should be powerful and extensive in a "sky is the limit" sort of way (the "high ceiling"). Logo was originally developed by Daniel Bobrow and Wallace Feurzeig at Bolt, Beranek and Newman, Inc., and Seymour Papert, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the 1960's. (See "2: What was the genesis of Logo?" below.) It was based on the goal of allowing people to use computers to manipulate things more familiar than the then-prevalent numbers and equations. Logo borrowed the techniques of symbolic computation (manipulating words and ideas) from the LISP programming language used in artificial intelligence research. Powerful computer science concepts of the procedure, recursion, programs-as-data are built into Logo. In its early days Logo was used to control a simple robot called the "turtle" because the first one had a turtle-like shell. Children would type commands such as FORWARD 50 to make the robot go forward 50 steps, or RIGHT 90 to make it turn right ninety degrees. The turtle robot carried a pen, so children could make drawings on a piece of paper. Later the turtle "migrated" to the computer screen when graphics terminals became available. This was good for several reasons: it was much cheaper, it was faster, and accurate geometric drawings could be made. Floor turtles remain interesting because they can sense their environment (for example, they can have switches that activate when they bump into a wall) and this information can be used to write feedback- controlled navigation programs. Logo's designers came to see the turtle as an important part of the Logo language. Children (and later teachers) who were first using computer could begin by "talking to the turtle," typing in commands to make it move. They could imagine how the turtle moved by "playing turtle"---moving their bodies as the turtle would. Papert called this "body syntonicity," the idea of understanding how some external object worked by thinking about your own body. He felt that the turtle as an "object to think with" was a powerful way to be introduced to the idea of programming. Logo teaches problem solving, logical thinking, constructive methods and allows the user to interactively create and manipulate mathematical processes. [Fred Martin | fredm@media-lab.media.mit.edu | (617) 253-7143 MIT Media Lab | Epistemology and Learning Group | Cambridge, MA 02139] [Brian Harvey, bh@anarres.cs.berkeley.edu] [Paul Wexelblat, University of Massachusetts Lowell, wex@cs.uml.edu] Logo is a dialect of LISP, notably one that a) eliminates much of the need for interminable nested parentheses and other notational nuisances found in other LISPs, giving kids a simple notation consisting of prefix function invocations and infix arithmetic, and b) adds to LISP a graphical "turtle" and the accompanying finite differential geometry. Why program in a dialect of LISP? It's interactive and interpreted. Both interactive command lines and user-written functions use a single notation that supplies immediate results. There is no edit-compile-link-run cycle with its inherent delay in providing results. Logo performs housekeeping operations such as memory management transparently. The flip side for interpreters is that they run slower than compiled native code, but Logo compiler systems have begun to appear, and machines are always becoming faster. BASIC is interactive and interpreted. Why not program in BASIC? In the beginning all BASIC variables were global and all BASIC control was based on line numbers. BASIC provided terrible support for composing hierarchical programs, and hierarchy is the primary tool for partitioning software complexity and making programming problems tractable. Logo, on the other hand, treats all programming uniformly as the creation and invocation of functions composed, in their turns, of functions, down to the core functional vocabulary of the language. New versions of BASIC have borrowed some functional features from other programming languages, putting them into non-standard forms that are not portable among BASIC dialects. Logo, in contrast, has had composition of functions at its core from the beginning, and is close enough to a standard to support code and design sharing among all well-conceived dialects. Logo's lists and property-value pairs support data structuring superior to any standard BASIC facilities. Logo also continues to support run-time equivalence of language and data, a characteristic common to LISPs but not to most other programming notations. This feature gives very strong support for the ability to create custom languages tailored to their applications. [Dale Parson, Bell Labs, dale@mhcnet.att.com] 2: What was the genesis of Logo? According to Wally Feurzeig in his article in *Digital Deli*, 1984, Logo was named by him at BBN and Paul Wexelblat built the first turtle on the floor. The name of the article is Logo Lineage. In the article Seymour Papert was called in as a consultant on the functional characteristcs. [Linc, James Internet: Gowj@novavax.nova.edu] Logo was developed at BBN in the 60's, Seymour was a consultant on the BBN project. The first implementation of what we now know and love as Logo, was written in LISP (surprise, huh?) on a PDP-1 (at BBN). Its name was "ghost". The goal then, was basic problem solving; the turtle gave immediate (non-written) feedback so bugs could be spotted *and it was fun*. Lots of other effects have been proposed as causes... Power was NOT a significant factor in the design, ease of use for non-typists who had to use a Teletype (r), was a big consideration, plus informative error comments. The turtle was a rather late innovation, Logo is not too much different now from the basic concepts before I built the first turtle. The first turtle was a radio controlled (wireless) floor roamer named "Irving" -- after the punchline of a then current joke. Irving had touch sensors and could do forward, back, right, left (rotations), and ding (Irving had a bell). Irving had his name changed when I started dating a girl who's father was named Irving. I designed and built Irving, and I added the turtle commands to Logo (then implemented on a different BBN PDP-1 in Assembly Language). Folklore: Earliest school users... Muzzy Jr High, Lexington MA the elementary school in Lincoln, MA FROTZ, GEFULTE, UNFROTZ and KREBS were 4 early built-in function names (hidden and unlikely to be guessed). Both Wally F. and I are available via email (Wally is feurzeig@bbn.com, and I am wex@uml.edu) although I am not able to do the FAQ, I would certainly be interested in helping with the history of the early Logo. BTW, Seymour is seymour@media.mit.edu (MIT Media Lab, down the road a piece). [Paul Wexelblat, University of Massachusetts Lowell, wex@cs.uml.edu] 3: What is turtle geometry? Turtle geometry is geometry that describes paths "from within" rather than "from outside" or "from above." For example, "turn right" means turn right relative to whatever direction you were heading before; by contrast, "turn east" specifies an apparently absolute direction. A Logo user or program manipulates the graphical turtle by telling it to move forward or back some number of steps, or by telling it to turn left or right some number of degrees. There are two advantages to turtle geometry. One is that many paths are more simply described in relative than in absolute terms. For example, it's easy to indicate the absolute coordinates of the corners of a square with vertical and horizontal sides, but it's not so easy to find the corners of an inclined square. In turtle geometry the same commands (go FORWARD, turn RIGHT 90 degrees, etc.) work for squares with any orientation. The second advantage is pedagogic rather than computational: turtle geometry is compatible with a learner's own experience of moving in the world--it's "body syntonic." [Brian Harvey, bh@anarres.cs.berkeley.edu] With its graphical pen down a turtle draws colored lines as it moves. A remarkable array of graphical creations, from elementary shapes such as circles and squares to complex recursive curves and fractal monsters, can arise from this body-centered model of geometry. Logo does provide for Cartesian coordinate and global heading usage as adjuncts to the body-centered turtle commands. The first turtles were mechanical devices that carried pens and drew on paper on the floor. Modern Logos support at least one graphical turtle and multiple graphical colors, sometimes of varying line widths. Turtle graphics now also appear in other programming languages, sometimes as function or class libraries. Advanced turtle graphics packages provide for multiple concurrently acting turtles with velocity. For introducing young kids to turtle geometry I advocate going for walks with good local maps in hand. In fact the best maps are those for beginning orienteering courses. Orienteering is a sport where you look for checkpoints in the woods using a detailed topographical map. Beginners' courses are mostly along trails and other "linear features," and compasses are useful mostly to figure which way to orient the map when you first get started or when you lose focus (especially kids). Advanced courses can require more serious compass use. The left and right turns, scaled steps, planning, problem solving, even the geometry, linear algebra and fractals are there if you care to pursue them. I understand from a pilot friend that navigating from the air is just as good, as undoubtedly is navigating at sea, but at about $3 to $5 per map at a typical meet you can't beat orienteering as a cost effective way for introducing kids to navigation and all the math that follows. In the U.S. to find your local club contact: U.S. Orienteering Federation P. O. Box 1444 Forest Park, GA 30051 Beginners' courses are < 2 miles, take snacks for the kids. [Dale Parson, Bell Labs, dale@mhcnet.att.com] 4: Why programming for kids? Programming isn't the point. How can computers help kids learn? There are two kinds of answers. One, the answer of most educational software, is to pick out some particular fact that you want a kid to know, and write a program that teaches it. The paradigmatic example is the boring arithmetic drill program, but even a non-boring, popular program such as the "Where in ... is Carmen Sandiego" series is basically teaching facts of geography. There are lessons built into the program. Once you've learned those lessons, there is nothing more to gain from such a program. The other answer is that the computer is a flexible tool that can be useful to a kid in learning *ANYTHING*, just as computers are useful to adults in almost any occupation. The same spreadsheet program can be used by an accountant, a physicist, or a school administrator. It turns out that the way to make computers most flexible at serving kids is to empower the kids to be able to tell the computer what they want--and that's programming. Beyond this generality lie lots of examples. Here are a couple: (1) Much of mathematics is the study of functions--a language that expresses transformations of one thing into another, such as F(X) = 3X + 7. It's trivial to express such a function as a Logo procedure, and once you've done that, you can explore interesting ideas such as the composition of functions. What's F(G(X))? Just ask Logo! (2) In English grammar the parts of speech are generally taught by arbitrary definition and then analysis of of sentences. This is notoriously boring because it's disconnected froma child's natural experience of language. Instead, try teaching these ideas by *synthesis* of sentences; write a program to make up sentence that match some pattern, like The _____ _____ saw the _____ _____ . Ex: The red fix saw the blue elephant. What other words can we use in place of "red"? ... and so on. Some people do also consider computer programming to be an interesting and valuable study for its own sake, but you don't have to take that view to want kids to have Logo. [Brian Harvey, bh@anarres.cs.berkeley.edu] An important outcome of working with non-trivial program construction is the creation of a healthy attitude toward the existence of bugs. This attitude could generalize into other, non-mathematical domains. School has a model that a student should study it and, at least on the test, get it right the first time. Anyone who has designed software knows that there are bugs. When bugs appear you investigate them and learn something. Sometimes you fix them and sometimes you even turn them into features. I think programming has something to teach the whole educational establishment about the relationship of a learner to unexpected features--bugs--in their conceptual models. [Dale Parson, Bell Labs, dale@mhcnet.att.com] 5: What is a mindstorm? Seymour Papert's book *Mindstorms* describes the approach of giving children simple tool so their energy and imagination can be powerfully applied to concept exploration and leaning. A central tool is the Logo language and its turtles. [PGO] 6: Where can I learn more about Logo? a. *Mindstorms: Children, Computers and Powerful Ideas*, Seymour Papert, Basic Books, 1980. b. *The Children's Machine: Rethinking School in the Age of the Computer*, Seymour Papert, Basic Books, 1993. c. The Epistemology and Learning Group at the MIT Media Laboratory, headed by Seymour Papert, 20 Ames Street Room 309, Cambridge, MA 02139. Write to E&L Publications and ask for the publications bibliography, or send a request to "el-pub@media.mit.edu". Some papers are available via anonymous FTP from cher.media.mit.edu (18.85.0.47) (Postscript printer required). d. The Logo Foundation, 250 West 57th Street, New York, NY, 10107-2603, Michael Tempel, president. michaelt@media.mit.edu or phone 212 765-4918, fax 212-765-4789. They publish *Logo Update* three times a year for free, also distribute Logo books, articles, videos and software. e. The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), 1787 Agate Street, Eugene, OR 97403-1923, phone 503-346-4414, publishes *Logo Exchange*, a quarterly journal, and a dozen Logo books. ISTE also supports SIGLogo, a special interest group for Logo-using educators. f. Council for Logo in Mathematics Education (CLIME), 10 Bogert Ave., White Plains, NY 10606, phone 914-946-5143, an affiliate of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, publishes a newsletter and CLIME Microworlds--collections of Logo programs and tools. See "Books" below. [Portions of above taken from *Logo Update*, Spring, 1993.] 7: What are microworlds? Microworlds are well-structured, open-ended environments for learning that focus on some problem domain, but do not have specific lessons built in. Most often, the word 'microworld' is used in reference to a computer environment, but the word can be taken to mean more generally, any well-structured, focused but open-ended learning situation. Perhaps the most well-known microworld is that of turtle geometry. The turtle obeys specific commands in a well-defined way, creating an environment for explorations in 'turtle geometry,' a relative geometry that is just as rigorous and logical as Cartesian geometry, yet often much easier to understand. This idea of a system of rules and constraints that has its own internal logic, yet encourages exploration, construction, and learning, is the essence of a microworld. In "Computer-Based Microworlds: A Bridge between Constructivism and Direct Instruction," Proceedings of Selected Research Presentations at the Annual Convention of the Assoc. for Educational Communications and Technology, 1991, Lloyd Rieber offers five considerations for the design of microworlds: o Provide a meaningful learning context which supports intrinsically motivating and self-regulating learning. o Establish a pattern where the learner goes from the "known to the unknown." o Provide a balance between deductive and inductive learning. o Emphasize the usefulness of errors. o Anticipate and nurture incidental learning. Getting Started; Computer systems and Programs 8: How do I get started with Logo? Get hold of a Logo interpreter and a tutorial and take it for a test drive. Turtle graphics is a popular place to start, although check out list processing early on to get some balance. Some public domain Logos appear below, so the test run needn't be expensive. A Logo user can operate in interactive mode, playing with pictures and symbol storage, working up to deferred execution via function definition. For the REALLY young there's INSTANT Logo, which is a simple Logo program that lets kids march the turtle around by hitting F R L B for forward (some amount), right 90, left 90 and back respectively. Four year olds have been known to master the basic interactive turtle commands. Anyone know of younger kids doing so? There are several major dialects and some spinoffs missing significant features of a Logo functional language. They run on almost all home style computer systems and most departmental machines like Vaxen. The first two vendor entries in this section from LCSI and Terrapin operate on several different machine platforms. Machine-specific Logos from Harvard Associates, Paradigm Software, ExperTelligence and others follow. Finally comes a section on public domain Logos. If you know of an active Logo compiler, interpreter, tool or library vendor or product that's missing, please submit an entry to the FAQ. Information on non-English Logo implementations is needed here. a. "LogoWriter," a modern version of the Logo language, is sold by Logo Computer Systems, Inc. (LCSI). Papert and past students of his are principals in this company. LogoWriter is the most popular version of Logo available today. LCSI This is really the main one, 3300 Cote Vertu Rd. They have a New York Office. Suite 201 We have dealt happily with this one however. Montreal, Quebec, Canada H4R 2B7 (800) 321-LOGO or (514) 331-7090 Logo Computer Systems, Inc. P.O. Box 162 Highgate Springs, VT 05460 * Logo Computer Systems, Inc. sells a version of its LogoWriter product for MSDOS, Apple II & Mac. * LCSI has released a new flagship Logo product (Summer, '93) named "Microworlds". Microworlds includes multi-tasking, interface objects with Logo programs behind them, draw tools, and other modern computer environment features. It runs on Macs, although there may be a DOS version (will run as a DOS application under MS Windows) in 1994. WE COULD USE A REVIEW OF THIS. b. Terrapin Logo has some minor software differences from the LCSI dialect. They publish Terrapin Logo for Macs, Apple II, and Commodore 64, LogoPLUS for the Apple II, and a Logo for MSDOS. Terrapin Software 400 Riverside St. Portland, ME 04103 800-972-8200 o What do I need to know about Apples? The two major companies supplying Logo for the Apple family are LCSI and Terrapin. If it is a GS, specify that since the LCSI for the GS is quite enhanced over the c/e/+ variety. Cost seems to be from $75-$100. c. 3D Logo & HyperLogo GS (FAQ question--Who is the vendor here?) The following info was gathered from a series of msgs from America Online - send email to MikeW50@aol.com for more details. The little I know extra about 3D Logo is this - it's a stand alone environment, whose programs can be interchanged if one is careful (obviously if one writes code accessing devices which only exist on one or the other environment, etc. the code won't be portable). HyperStudio is a button oriented multimedia development package which has been quite popular in the Apple IIgs environment and is apparently being 'ported' to the Macintosh. Logo will be at least one of the languages supported as a 'button' language (ala hypertalk, etc.) The language includes the ability to create 3D animated 'movies' - the package comes with 3D glasses to see the images. You can also order _both_ now for $85 plus $5 shipping. You'll be charged $55 now, and the balance when HyperLogo GS ships. You _can_ order by e-mail. If you do, be sure and include: Name Mailing address VISA or MC card # and expiration date What you are ordering What you expect to pay (avoids confusion) Or you can call (505) 898-8183 and ask for Patty. 3D Logo GS - This is the stand alone version of Logo for the GS. It should be shipping now. HyperLogo GS - This is the Logo for HyperStudio GS. They expect this one to be out in mid to late September. (See also Mac entries below for 3D Logo & HyperLogo). [Larry W. Virden INET: lvirden@cas.org] You also might want to check out some of the mail order companies. Educational Resources might be a good bet. 1-800-624-2926. In the summer of 1991, Joe Abernathy had an article in Incider magazine on a large number of Logo packages for the Apple family. o What do I need to know about PCs? LCSI and Terrapin supply DOS Logos. Cost seems to be from $75-$100. IBM sells a LOGO for their own machines. In the past, it has been much more expensive. d. PC Logo version 4.0, 1993, from Harvard Assoc. suports EGA & VGA for DOS, PCX graphics files, and multiple turtles. Harvard Associates 10 Holworthy St. Cambridge, MA 02138 800-776-4610 e. A DOS version of WINLOGO, with a Windows version planned, is available from Softeast Corp. It uses multiple, DOS-based windows and includes hooks for C and assembler subroutines. Softeast Corporation Knox Trail Office Bldg. 2352 Main St. Concord, MA 01742 508-897-3172 WIN-Logo is a version of Logo for the PC that was originally developed in the Spanish language and has recently been ported to English. This Logo uses a windowed environment to implement the command console, editing buffer, and graphic screen as well as other Features. It runs on IBM-PCs with EGA graphics or better. (Note: despite its name, WIN-Logo is /not/ an MS-Windows application; rather it is a regular MS-DOS application that has its own window/mouse-oriented GUI.) [But a Windows version is now (1993) planned.] See also Berkeley Logo and MS Windows Logo under public domain below. o What do I need to know about MACs? Five Logos are now available for MAC. * Terrapin Mac Logo is a fairly standard Logo with a few hooks into Mac features such as Quickdraw. It also has arrays and strings. The debugging tools are better than most Logos. It has multiple turtles. You can change the turtle shape to be Mac bitmaps (or arrays of Mac bitmaps which change as it turns). You can import MacPaint graphics, etc. You can have several windows open at once, and you can control the windows with Logo commands. You can save an Edit window as text, preserving comments (if you save a workspace, Logo reformats everything). Terrapin Mac Logo lists at $99.95. It comes with a reference manual and a nice tutorial about programming in Logo. f. Object Logo from Paradigm Software, Inc P.O. Box 2995 Cambridge, MA 02238 617 576-7675 fax: 617 576-7680 email: PARADIGM@APPLELINK.APPLE.COM * Object Logo is now sold and supported by Paradigm Software. Object Logo is an extremely powerful implementation. It compiles Logo programs into native machine code programs that run very fast. It supports Macintosh windows, Quickdraw, etc. In addition its main advance is an object-oriented extension to Logo with message passing and inheritance; for example, the Object Logo user can define new kinds of turtles that are like ordinary ones except that ________ (e.g., they draw dotted lines instead of solid ones). The Object Logo student edition costs $49.95 and includes all of the features of the $195 Object Logo version 2.61 except for MIDI music and Lego Robotics (available as options) and the ability to compile standalone applications. g. ExperLogo is available from ExperTelligence, Inc. It is a compiled Logo with 1,2, and 3 dimensional bunnies (everybody else has turtles...bunnies go faster). It supports Quickdraw calls, menu changes, and is chock full of functions and commands. The cost is $150. The address I have from AI Expert (6/89) is: ExperTelligence, Inc 5638 Hollister Ave. Ste 302 Goleta, CA 93117 (805) 967-1797 [Gerald A. Edgar edgar@mps.ohio-state.edu] h. HyperLogo Mac 2.0 (?) - This is the next version of HyperLogo for the Mac. It will have callbacks, a smoother user interface, and so forth. They expected to finish it around the end of August. It will be tested for a while by Roger Wagner Publishing, then released by them. 3D Logo Mac - This is the stand alone Logo for the Mac. It should be out in October sometime, probably early. See HyperLogo GS and 3D Logo GS under Apple II above for details. [Larry W. Virden INET: lvirden@cas.org] See also Berkeley Logo under public domain below. o What are the Other Computer Systems? Atari 800XL Anybody have FAQ entries to submit for here? 9: Public Domain and Shareware Logos? a. Berkeley Logo (this last updated August, 1993): Release 3.0 of Berkeley Logo is now available by anonymous FTP. Versions are available for Unix systems, DOS machines, and Macintoys. The PC distribution includes two executable programs. BL.EXE runs on any PC, but is limited to 640K of memory. UCBLOGO.EXE requires a 286-or-better processor, but is able to take advantage of extended memory if you have it. Read the README file for technical details. Thanks to many people who reported bugs, and several people who actually sent bug fixes. I am particularly grateful to George Mills, who caught a bunch of bugs, and to Randy Sargent, who finally zapped the dreaded memory leak. FTP to anarres.cs.berkeley.edu and get any of the following files: pub/ucblogo/ucblogo.tar.Z Unix sources and documentation pub/ucblogo/blogo.exe PC version, PKZIP form, including executables BL.EXE and UCBLOGO.EXE pub/ucblogo/ucblogo.sea Mac version, StuffIt form, w/ executable Logo pub/ucblogo/usermanual Just the documentation file. pub/ucblogo/csls.tar.Z Logo programs from Computer Science Logo Style Be sure to use BINARY transfer mode when retrieving the archive files! The DOS version is in the form of a self-extracting PKZIP archive. To install it, put blogo.exe on your hard disk and say blogo -d The Mac version is in the form of a self-extracting StuffIt archive. To install it, just copy to your hard disk and double-click on it. The Unix version is a compressed tar file. To install it, copy to your directory, then say uncompress ucblogo.tar tar -xf ucblogo.tar The DOS and Mac versions include a SOURCE subdirectory containing the C source files used to compile Berkeley Logo. If you don't want to play with the code, you can delete this directory and all its contents. Advantages of Berkeley Logo: * It's free. * It comes with source files (in C). * Logo programs are completely compatible among Unix, PC, and Mac. Disadvantages of Berkeley Logo: * It's pretty slow. * It doesn't do anything fancy about graphics. (One turtle.) If you don't have FTP access, but can read a 3.5-inch disk, send me $3.00 to cover costs and tell me whether you want the Mac or the PC version (or send $6.00 for both) and I'll send you a disk. (Outside North America, please send US $4.00 for one disk or $7.00 for both.) The PC disk includes both PC versions. This offer is good until October 1, 1993. (I am hoping to arrange to have the program distributed by people who are really in that business, instead of doing it myself. I'll post details when they're available.) Brian Harvey 2634 Virginia St Berkeley, CA 94709 [Brian Harvey, bh@anarres.cs.berkeley.edu] b. MS Windows Logo (this last updated November, 1993): MswLogo Version 3.5 for Micro-Soft Windows 3.0,1 is ready !!! ------------------------------------------------------------- Contents -------- Part I) Kit Description/Location: Part II) New features/bugs fixed: Part III) Installation: Part IV) Standard features: Part V) Recommended usage: Part VI) Bugs / Missing features / Wish List: Part VII) Reporting bugs: Part VIII) Sources: Part IX) Minimum System Requirements: Part X) Public domain Logo's (on IBMPCs): Part I) Kit Description/Location: The "base kit" is for users with Windows 3.1. The "extensions kit" is for Windows 3.0 users. The "extensions kit" is not a FULL kit, you still need the "base kit" for any installation. The "base kit" includes the only documentation in Microsoft Windows Write (.WRI) format. You can load it into Write and print for any format you have drivers for, including postscript. mswlgo35.zip (base kit: Windows 3.1) mswext35.zip (extensions kit: Windows 3.0) mswsrc35.zip (source kit: most sites) You will find kits at the following locations. itrc::/millspub/mswlgo35.zip (this is a DEC internal location) (vms:$ spool copy itrc::"/millspub/mswlgo35.zip" []mswlgo35.zip) or cher.media.mit.edu on pub/comp.lang.logo/programs/mswlogo or compuserv on LOGOFORUM LIB 11 MSWL35.ZIP,MSWE35.ZIP,MSWS35.ZIP or Send the following message to: ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com ----cut here---- connect 18.85.0.47 binary uuencode chdir pub/comp.lang.logo/programs/mswlogo get mswlgo35.zip quit ----cut here---- Send the following message to: ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com for more information on ftpmail ----cut here---- help ----cut here---- Note: The ftpmail server suggested here it is a common service to internet users from Digital Equipment Corporation. You can also obtain an installation floppy by Postal Mail. Send a Self-Addressed (Post Paid) package to: George Mills 33 Thoreau Road Northboro MA 01532 The package MUST contain a 1.44 or 1.2 Formatted Floppy. Since the kit is getting large and expensive to down load I don't mind anyone asking for it by Postal Mail. Part II) New features/bugs fixed: o If you have not run the DEMO in a while try it. It has been updated to reflect new features and explains each step. o What appears to be the most simplest enhancment is probably the most powerfull (and fun). That is I added callback timers. Basically you can fire these things off in the background while other things happen. You can simulate multiple tasks running at the same time. You can also get into BIG trouble with them if your not careful :-). See SETTIMER. o Bitcut was causing memory to be lost at the Time you exited logo. o BYE command could cause application to fault where as file-exit would be fine (unless running, see below). o I did not like the solution I used to allow larger file edits (32K) in 3.4. The solution in this version is much cleaner requires a fraction of the code. As a by-product you also get close to 64K under both Windows 3.0 and 3.1. o Windows 3.0 users will be happy to know you know get the Graphical User Interface for fonts. The only difference now between 3.0 and 3.1 users is once again the multimedia features. This change causes an extra Manual step after the installation for Windows 3.0 users (see install below). o The PC speaker can now be used using the Sound command. Supported under Windows 3.0 and 3.1. See SOUND command. o Your Sound Card can now be a Programmable Synthesizer through the MIDI API. See MIDIMESSAGE command and check out MIDI.WIN in examples. o The "ActiveArea" can now be accessed or set through logo commands. See ACTIVEAREA and SETACTIVEAREA commands. o The WAIT command had a bug in which it truncated the argument down a second (0-59 gave 0, 60-119 gave 60). o Load, Save and Edit could corrupt or be corrupted if you used logo while they were occuring. Proper locking out the user now occurs. An hour glass will appear during these operations. o Lots of BitMap enhancements. You have access to 1024 internal bitmap buffers. They have also been optimized for higher performance. You can also Paste the BitMaps in 9 different ways (OR, XOR, INVERT etc.). With these you have a lot of flexibility. See SETBITMODE and SETBITINDEX. BITCOPY was added for performance reasons. All bitmap commands work as they previously did, there is just more commands and power behind them. o The BITMAP memory (index=0 which is the default) will use the Clipboard for cutting and pasting. This means you can directly work with other Windows applications without going through a .BMP file. o No more General Protection Faults on abrupt Exits. It basically halts logo for you, then exits. If it does not Halt and Exit, you can force an abrupt exit through the system menu or the task manager. However you will be warned if logo is not halted. You may get a GPF if you ignore the warning. o MswLogo now knows you cannot have more that one copy running at the same time and basically launches you to the existing running copy. o I added a command called "MACHINE" which returns the capabilities of your installation. Such as is it Windows based, is it Windows 3.1 or Windows 3.0, do you have a palette, How big is the work area etc. o For those working with the sources I have cleaned them up and commented them quite a bit. Although they still need more house cleaning. Thanks to many folks for spotting many of these bugs. Part III) Installation: 1) Build a kit area on floppy or hard disk: C:\> format a: /u or C:\> mkdir logokit C:\> a: C:\> cd logokit 2) Unzip the kit to that area: C:\> pkunzip -d c:\mswlgo35.zip (You must use -d switch) 2b) For windows 3.0 (ONLY) you need to "modify" the kit: C:\> pkunzip -o c:\mswext35.zip (-o is for Overwrite) 3) Install it: C:\> win a:\setup or C:\> win c:\logokit\setup 3b) For windows 3.0 (ONLY) you need to manually copy a file: C:\> cd C:\> copy a:\commdlg.dll or C:\> copy \logokit\commdlg.dll pkunzip -o c:\mswext35.zip (-o is for Overwrite) If you wish to add switches you still must do this manually, by changing the Icons properties (See Program manager File menu). Use switches: "-h number" (to select height) "-w number" (to select width) "-l filename" (to autoload procedure, must be last) The default is 1000x1000. For example to change to a 500x500 image (using 1/4 the amount of memory) enter: c:\logo\logo -h 500 -w 500 Start it from Windows by double clicking the Logo Icon. You can create multiple Icons with different switches. Start it from DOS by typing "win logo [options]" at DOS prompt (assuming logo.exe is in your PATH). Try typing "DEMO" in the "Input Box" (bottom most box in commander). Note if DEMO does not run you did not install it correctly. Part IV) Standard features: o Supports Text in all available fonts and sizes. o Cut, Paste and stretching bitmaps. o Supports Clipboard Text and Bitmaps. o Zoom. o Tail recursion. o User error handling. o "Standard" Logo parsing. o Floodfill. o Save and restore images in .BMP format. o 16.7 million pen and background colors (using windows dithering). o Supports color palette (256 solid colors). o Standard Windows Hypertext Help. o Standard Windows Printing. o Supports separate library and work area. o Allows you to do real Windows (Event Driven) programming. Part V) Recommended usage: o All ages, from beginner (Forward 100, Right 90) to expert (develop professional looking Windows Graphical User Interfaces). Part VI) Bugs / Missing features / Wish List: o Real mode is not supported. o SETCURSOR function is not supported. o Multi-line Clipboard support. o Multiple Turtles. o DDE support o DLL support o Functions to add menu's Part VII) Reporting bugs: Report bugs to George Mills: internet: mills@athena.tay.dec.com compuserv: 71222,452 You can also report bugs to Brian Harvey: internet: bh@anarres.cs.berkeley.edu Part VIII) Sources: Sources are available at the most kit sites. If you are working with ANY derivative of the UCB Logo sources Send me mail to be added to a mailing list so that we can all stay in touch. The MswLogo sources are written using: Borland C++ for windows (for .EXE) MicroSoft Word (for online help and DOCs) Dr. Help shareware (for online help and DOCs) Sources for Unix, DOS, and Mac are available from Brian Harvey by anonymous ftp at anarres.cs.berkeley.edu. Part IX) Minimum System Requirements: 286 with Minimum of 2meg running Window 3.0 in Standard Mode. Part X) Public domain Logo's (on IBMPCs): LADYBUG - Simple cute (barely logo) program. The thing that is impressive is how the author added music (using the PC speaker). CGA-DOS. NO support. UCBLOGO - Brian Harvey at Berkeley started over with this project and is a very good core. But again under DOS has a no graphical user interface. Supported. Best public Domain for DOS. Also available for MAC and UNIX (anonymous ftp from anarres.cs.berkeley.edu). MSWLOGO35 Graphical User Interface and UCBLOGO core. Supported. Best public Domain for Windows (that I know of at this time). [George Mills, mills@athena.lkg.dec.com] 10: Non-English Logo implementations? Anyone care to write this entry? 11: Public domain or shareware Logo applications, Logo-like environments and code libraries? a. The Logo Foundation (see above) above has CLIME Microworlds (math ed), Logo Music Tools & some other goodies for assorted Logos. b. The "segs package is currently available from dale@mhcnet.att.com, & has been run on Berkeley Logo & MSWLogo. It allows you to graphically operate on a set of line segments (operators: bend, cut, splice, branch, insert, delete, reflect, swap, turn, undo & redo) that serve as a declarative representation for a recursive curve generator. Segs automatically generates Logo code from line segment templates, so the line segments serve as a declarative programming language. It is inspired in part by the L-systems of *Algorithmic Beauty of Plants* and also the fractal generators as presented in Benoit Mandelbrot's *The Fractal Geometry of Nature*. A MS Windows interface is planned for Fall, '93, after which this should go into an ftp site somewhere. About 1200 lines of commented Logo code. c. Ladybug is not Logo, but is a turtle graphics program inspired by Logo. It is from David N. Smith from 44 Ole Musket Lane, Danbury, CT 06810 as of 1984. He allows educational institutions and others to freely hand it out but not for profit. It does Logo graphics and also includes a sound capability. Runs on a CGA system, others may be available. d. LogoMation is a programming environment for people, young and not so young, doing their first steps in programming. It introduces the concepts of programming and program design through a programming language that supports advanced graphics, animation and sound. It is available at fine FTP sites and archives all over the U.S., including - sumex - umich - the logo archive: cher.media.mit.edu (18.85.0.47) - BCS - America Online LogoMation runs on Macintosh computers equipped with a 68020 processor or better, system 6.0.7 or better, and color QuickDraw (note that it does not *have* to be a color mac, although it's a lot more fun in color). It is a $25 shareware. LOGOMATION IS *NOT* THE TRADITIONAL LOGO LANGUAGE, although like Logo it supports the notion of turtle graphics, and is easy enough to be used even by very young users. LogoMation features * Turtle graphics, e.g. Forward and Left commands. Straight and Circle movement modes. * Full 24-bit color graphics; variable width lines, fill patterns. * Unlimited number of named pens ("turtles"). * Full Mac text support, including fonts, sizes and style. * Easy definition of named pictures, simply by preceding a group of LogoMation statements by the Picture command. Pictures can also be imported from any other graphics tools. * Animation is programmed by moving pictures at varying speeds and along straight and arbitrarily curved paths. * Sounds can be recorded and used during animation, in either sync or async mode. * Library of built-in functions for math, string manipulation, and I/O. * WYSIWYG indentation (i.e. compound statements are defined through indentation). * Language-oriented text editor with automatic indentation and with automatic completion of abbreviated commands. * Automatic, declaration free data structures: numbers, strings, sequential arrays and associative arrays. [Chuck Shavit email: chuck@ksr.com] (Please note that LogoMation is not related to what I do at KSR) One resource for AppleII's is: MECC (Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium?) to which many public school systems subscribe, has an application called EZLogo, it allows limited commands such as only turns of x*30 degrees, no saving of procedures if I remember right. I used it when I was student teaching and it was the only thing available. [Charlotte Hitchcock ] Logo in Education 12: What do the schools use Logo for? I finally tracked down my "Seeding Mindstorms with Logo" information. It is a paperback book designed for elementary teachers to use to develop basic geometry, shape, writing and problem solving skills (as well as probably a few more skills). I paid $5.95 for the book, which I got from Interactive Education Technologies, P.O. Box 393; Fontana, WI 53125. Their phone number is (414) 275-9474. [jp2r+@andrew.cmu.edu] Another interesting Logo user is SummerMath, a math camp for girls at Mt. Holyoke College in S. Hadley, MA (Alan Lipp, computer person) where high school girls spend 2 hrs/day for six weeks with Logo - they do some pretty advanced stuff, more than most schools I've run into. [Charlotte Hitchcock ] 12A: What results have been obtained from the use of Logo in the classroom? There is some research in this area, I don't have many references at hand, but historically, they look at things like establishing earlier skill mastery, better cognition or problems solving approaches, better self image, less fear of computers and technology,...aid to handicapped students, etc. This is a tough subject to get a start in, because there are so many uncontrolled variables. Some refs across a wide spectrum that might be of use; the quality of the papers is uneven. Cuneo, D. ``Young Children and Turtle Graphics Programming: Understanding Turtle Commands.'' Paper presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for research in Child Development, Toronto, Apr 1985. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 260 800) Emihovich, C. and Miller, G. ``Effects of Logo and CAI on Black First Grader's Achievement, Reflectivity and Self-Esteem.'' ``Elementary School Journal,'' 1988, Vol 88, No 5, pp 473-487. Harckham, L. ``The Impact of Microcomputer Instruction on Handicapped Students: Second Year Findings.'' Paper presented at the Annual Convention of the Council for Exceptional Children, New Orleans, Mar-Apr 1986. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 280 245) Munro-Mavria, S. ``Computer Programming by Kindergarten Children Using Logo.'' Paper presented at the Association for Media and technology in education in Canada/ADATE Confluence '83, Montreal, June 21, 1983. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 237 066) Siann, G., McLeod, H., Glisskov, P., \& Durndell, A. ``The Effect of Computer Use on Gender Differences in Attitudes to Computers.'' ``Computers Educ'' 1990 Vol 14, No. 2 pp 183-191, (Great Britain: Pergammon Press, plc) Article 1083 of comp.lang.logo: Path: news.media.mit.edu!grapevine.lcs.mit.edu!uhog.mit.edu!sgiblab!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!att-out!cbfsb!cbnewsg.cb.att.com!dal3 From: dal3@cbnewsg.cb.att.com (dale.e.parson) Newsgroups: comp.lang.logo Subject: January FAQ Part 2 of 2 Keywords: FAQ Message-ID: Date: 19 Jan 94 22:15:15 GMT Sender: news@cbfsb.cb.att.com Organization: AT&T Lines: 567 January, 94 comp.lang.logo FAQ, Part 2 of 2 PART II. 13: What does Piaget have to do with Logo? Seymour Papert's early work with AI caused him to think about what human intelligence is, which eventually led him to Geneva where he studied with Piaget from 1958 to 1963. The strong influence of Piaget's ideas on Papert's thinking is evident in the indexes of his two important books. Mindstorms lists about 20 Piagetian references and The Children's Machine about 24. No other references to persons in either book even comes close (most are four or less). Without diminishing the unique contribution of Papert's original thinking and application, it must be said that Piaget's ideas are such an integral part of Papert, that virtually everything about Logo has something to do with Piaget. One example will be my contribution: Piaget described stages of mental maturation through which children go with age and experience. Each stage is characterized by a type of thought that is subsumed and transcended by the subsequent stage. The stage of concrete operational thought, where most elementary and middle school children function, is characterized by thought that is logical when concretely embodied. In other words, children of about eight to 14 years old can usually functional logically when the problem is of a type that can be worked out with objects. Thinking about thinking, or metacognition, was believed to be a formal operational process, too abstract for concrete stage thinkers. Papert asserts that by providing the Turtle as an object to think with, Logo furnishes for ideas previously known only through abstraction, a concrete embodiment. Logo thus allows the learner to externalize his or her expectations or intuitive notions into the concrete form of a program, where the notions are accessible to reflection. [Linda Jones ] 14: How can kids use Logo for AI work? In Seymour Papert's book "The Children's Machine" (1993, P. 169) he relates a conversation he had with Piaget in the early 1960's about what would happen if children could play at "...building little artificial minds." Papert says he had been saying the essence of AI was to make theoretical psychology concrete. Since what children thrive on is concreteness Papert felt in principle some elementary form of AI could become a children's construction set. In Papert's view if psychologists could benefit from making concrete models of mind, why shouldn't children whose need was even greater also benefit? Although Papert and Piaget didn't think at that time the prospects for inventing a thinking machine were more than a "Gedankenexperiment," the fire was lit in Papert's eyes to make a shift from the philosophical to a real experiment. In the early '60's Papert was asking himself what do people do when they do AI. What Papert considered was that a piece of human mental activity like playing chess or seeing a cat can be transformed into a computer program that will do something similar. What follows is a discussion of whether the computer program "really" does what the human did. What Papert considered as plausible was that children doing some elementary AI would give them a new context for thinking about thinking. The accounts of building knowledge bases in research by Lippert (1988) in a physics domain suggest Paperts early concepts about metacognition (thinking about thinking) were correct. The earliest known attempts of children doing AI by Papert consisted of children studying a matchstick game called "twenty-one." In this game two players take turns in removing one, two, or three matches from a pile of twenty- one matches. The one who takes the last match loses. The children's immediate goal is exactly that of people making what would later come to be called expert systems. The knowledge base for the expert system would consist of rules that would make the computer act in ways similar to the children playing the twenty-one game. Although today Papert considers Lego-Logo applications of this early thinking a program by Murphy (1985) combines the technology of expert systems and Logo. Since Papert felt the existing languages LISP and FORTRAN were not suitable for elementary AI work with third or fifth graders he convinced a group at BBN (Bolt, Beranek an Newman) for which he was doing consulting to create a new language for children. One year later Logo was born and according to Feuerzig (1984) its functional characteristics were based on LISP. Although Papert says the path of this work followed psychologists who deliberately construct "inexpert systems" that make the program act like a "novice" and then pass through a progression of levels of increasing inexpertise instead of the "knowledge engineers" who build expert systems the groundwork for "Novice Knowledge Engineers" was laid. Today some work with Novice Knowledge Engineering and middle school students (seventh graders like the early Logo language implementations) is going on at Nova University and a post graduate student named James Gow. The work uses the Logo based Expert System shell created by Murphy and instructs children in building expert systems that act like students who solve fraction problems. One published paper exists in the proceedings of Eurologo 93 by James and he can be reached at gowj@novavax.nova.edu. [James Gow ] Electronic resources and Archives for Logo 15: Are there any archives for Logo? a. The Epistemology and Learning Group at MIT maintains an anonymous FTP server containing papers about Logo in education and LEGO/Logo. The address is cher.media.mit.edu (18.85.0.47). You will need a PostScript printer to print the papers. There is additional logo information there (text) in /pub/logo. There is no established archive for Logo programs, however the comp.sources.misc archives has some Logo code in Volume 12 Issue 11 generally abbreviated as V12i011 for some curves and music that Gerald Produced. They are for a Macintosh Logo and quite nice. o Besides this newsgroup, what other Electronic resources are there for Logo logo-friends, k12.ed.math Opportunities for Logo 16: What is LEGO/Logo? [NB, The official product trademark of LEGO is``LEGO tc logo.'' The ``tc'' in``LEGO tc logo'' stands for ``Technic Control.'' However to remain consistent with the preferred style, we will use LEGO/Logo for both concept and product] LEGO/Logo is a set of materials that allows the Logo language to control motorized machines built from LEGO bricks. In a way, LEGO/Logo is a throwback to the early days of floor turtles, but with an important new twist: in addition to writing the programs to control the "turtle," children can build the turtle itself! And much more: practically anything imaginable can be built from today's LEGO set, which includes gears, wheels, axles, motors, and sensors in addition to the basic building brick. Children have made electronic houses, candy factories, and robotic animals, just to name a few. LEGO/Logo allows children to be multimedia inventors---designing both hardware and software---and learn more about the technology by being involved from the standpoint being an empowered creator, not an intimidated user. Details from an Electronic copy of a LEGO Dacta announcement: LEGO Dacta, the educational division of LEGO Systems, Inc. (the retail toy giant) introduces "The Technic Control I (TCI) -12. This hands-on problem solving kit is designed to give students a better understanding of the role of computers and machines in today's technology. Specific student activities designed for the four major areas of Technology Education (ie., Construction, Communications, Manufacturing, and Transportation) are provided in the brand new TCI Resource Guide (item #959). This guide of over 300 pages contains forty hands-on activities for students, extensive teacher notes, selected building instructions, and many programming solutions. The TCI Technology pack can also be used with robotics, engineering, gifted and talented, artificial intelligence, physical science, and applied mathematics curricula, grades 7-12. The Technology pack includes two 1090 Building sets (each set contains 404 elements with individual storage trays and step-by-step building instructions for five computer-controlled models), the TCI Resource Guide, software disks, reference guides, computer slot card and cable (compatible with Apple and MS-DOS systems), and an interface box and transformer. This Technology Pack is suited for use by four students at one computer station. LEGO Dacta publishes "LEGO Connexions," a newsletter for LEGO Logo users. 17: How can I get LEGO/Logo? a. "LEGO tc logo" is sold by LEGO Dacta, c/o LEGO Systems Inc., 555 Taylor Road, Enfield CT 06082, (800) 243-4870. It is available for the IBM-PC and the Apple II series (IIe and IIgs) computers. For a full color, descriptive brochure, write: LEGO Dacta 555 Taylor Road Enfield, CT 06082 or call, toll free, (800) 527-8339. The new LEGO Control Lab is a computer interface for use with its 9 volt motor system. It provides a GUI for describing the sensor and motor interface box. It also has a Logo programming environment and a data acquisition/plotting package. The LEGO Control Lab is available through LEGO Dacta and should be coming out in the Fall of 1993. b. Paradigm Software sells the "Pearl Controller" which allows interfacing a LEGO/Logo kit sold by LEGO to the Mac. Phone contact is (617) 576-7675. c. Bots, Inc. sells a robotic controller for the Mac compatible with LEGO sensors and motors. Contact Len Erickson at Bots, 905 South Springer Road, Los Altos, CA 94024, (415) 949-2566. How do the schools use LEGO/Logo? I have used LEGO Educational products in my classes for two years now, and as far as I am concerned, they are the "...best thing since sliced bread!" For more information about how I use LEGO LOGO in the physics lab, drop me a line on most of this same "station" and I'll be happy to talk to you about it: Ron Revere= rrevere@vdoe386.vak12ed.edu. 18: What other robotic turtles or Logo-to-robot interfaces are there? There is also Fischer Technic, which is another construction element type system. They sell a computer interface, sensors, motors and other parts required for turtles for about the same prices at LEGO (maybe a little more expensive.) Fischertechnik has the Experimental Robot Kit. This kit contains modular construction, mechanical and electrical elements needed for a mobile robot or other computer controlled applications. The set contains two motors and several sensors including a photoresistor (for line following) and a temperature probe. The cost of the Experimental Robot Kit is around $360.00 (USD) including interface for use with IBM PC and Apple II computers; the Macintosh version is about $435. The WAO II Programmable Robot is a small circular robot with built-in memory and keypad, for entering and executing up to 256 control commands. The WAO II has two whisker-like bump sensors and is powered by two DC motors. Control commands can also be sent via a host computer (IBM PC or Apple II) through the use of an optional computer interface. The WAO II requires mechanical assembly (all electronics are pre-assembled.) The cost of the WAO II is about $85 (USD) the interface is about $40. It is built and distributed by company called OWI, Inc. The WAO II is also available from various mail order electronics retailers including: Edmond Scientific Company (609) 547-8880 (They also sell the Apple II interface) Unicorn Electronics (800) 824-3432 The WAO II is also available at some educational and hobby supply stores. Both the Fischertechnik Experimental Robot Kit and the WAO II are available through _Robot Explorer_ a robotics newsletter; the editor of the newsletter can be contacted via e-mail at: rgacote@world.std.com The phone number is: (603) 924-0679 Fischertechnik has several offices in several countries and education kits are available at some educational and hobby stores. [Karl R Altenburg, North Dakota State U., altenbur@plains.NoDak.edu] Valiant Technology of the U.K. sells the Valiant Turtle robot with interface cards and software for DOS, Apple II & Macs, compatible with LogoWriter & PC Logo according to a 1992 brochure. They also have some standalone turtles with built-in turtle geometry command language. Addresses in U.K. and distributors in N.A. as of May, 1992: Valiant Technology Ltd. John Crowley Myrtle House Youth in Motion 69 Salcott Road 5140 North Siesta Drive London SW11 9DQ Tucson, Arizona 85710 phone: 071-738 9595 phone: 602-760-0539 fax: 071-924 1892 fax: 602-760-0539 Jim Miller Stephen J. Rogers & Assoc. United Education Corp. Unit 2, 45 Basaltic Rd. 188 Industrial Drive Concord, Ontario Suite 432 L4K IG5 Elmhurst, Illinois 60126 phone: 416-660-9677 phone: 708-833-6222 fax: 416-660-3056 fax: 708-833-4909 MINI BOARD GENERAL INFORMATION This short document is an introduction to the Mini Board. This information is posted to the Internet newsgroup "comp.robotics" periodically or upon request, or may be mailed to individual who specifically requested information. This document may be distributed without restriction. The Mini Board is a miniature microprocessor-based controller board designed for control of small robotic devices. It may be used for any number of applications that require sensing with analog and digital electronic sensors and/or control of DC and stepper motors. It may programmed to operate "stand-alone" (i.e, running a program autonomously from its internal memory) or attached via an RS-232 serial line to provide sensing and control capability to a desktop computer. The Mini Board was designed at the MIT Media Laboratory. The printed circuit board design, electronic schematic, related software, and documentation are are copyrighted but may be distributed and used freely. This means that you may use the Mini Board for any application you like without having to pay anyone for its design, but you must leave the copyright information intact if you re-distribute boards and/or plans. ... Full documentation for the Mini Board is available via anonymous FTP to "cherupakha.media.mit.edu" (Internet 18.85.0.47). Go to "pub/miniboard" directory and begin by reading the README file located there. ** You will need a PostScript printer to print out the documentation files; the main document is about 60 pages long. ** If you do not have ready access to a PostScript printer, you may order a hard copy by sending a check or money order for $5 (U.S. dollars) made out to "MIT Epistemology and Learning" at: Epistemology and Learning Publications M.I.T. Media Laboratory 20 Ames Street Room E15-309 Cambridge, MA 02139 ... ini Board and other robot controller boards. To join the list, send an e-mail message with the Subject: line containing the following text: subscribe robot-board to "listserv@oberon.com". Then you will be automatically added to the list. To send a message to the people on the list, write e-mail to "robot-board@oberon.com". Please *DO NOT* send administrative things to the main "robot-board" mailing list address, as then everyone will get annoyed. If you have trouble, you can contact Greg directly at "gkulosa@oberon.com". [Fred Martin | fredm@media-lab.media.mit.edu] 19: Can Logo help the handicapped? Marvin Minsky reports that, ``In the LOGO project here, a graduate student, Jose Valente, was introduced to a severe CP patient who could only grunt and voluntarily move a few muscles. He was considered hopelessly retarded by the institution staff (age 17). Valente coupled him to a turtle geometry system with a head-pointer, and it turned out that he knew quite a lot of language and quite a lot of intuitive geometry; in a couple of years he had become a good programmer, was admitted to Amherst, and got a job in a registrar's office in a local university, etc.'' Staying up to date and Advancing the State of the Art 20: Related professional organizations 21: Conference listings 22: Publications a. The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), 1787 Agate Street, Eugene, OR 97403-1923, phone 503-346-4414, publishes *Logo Exchange*, a quarterly journal, and a dozen Logo books. ISTE also supports SIGLogo, a special interest group for Logo-using educators. b. The Logo Foundation, 250 West 57th Street, New York, NY, 10107-2603, Michael Tempel, president. michaelt@media.mit.edu or phone 212 765-4918, fax 212-765-4789. They publish *Logo Update* three times a year for free, also distribute Logo books, articles, videos and software. The MIT Internet Logo FTP site (cherupakha.media.mit.edu OR 18.85.0.47) is pleased to announce that it will be carrying PostScript versions of *Logo Update*, the thrice-yearly newsletter publication of the Logo Foundation. Volume Two, Number One (Fall 1993) is presently on-line in file pub/logo/logo-update/LUv2n1.PS.Z (compressed PostScript). It looks real nice fresh off of a laser printer; all of the graphics are intact. This issue is eight pages long, and includes a column written by Seymour Papert, a brief introduction to Microworlds by Eadie Adamson, a book review by Carol Sperry, and a discussion of the St. Paul, Minnesota Logo project by editor Michael Tempel. If you would like to receive hard-copies of the Logo Update, you may request a subscription by writing to the Logo Foundation, 250 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10107-2603 (phone 212 765-4918, fax 212 765-4789). Subscriptions are free, but tax-deductible contributions are welcomed. (If you have a PostScript printer and easy FTP access, why not save the Logo Foundation a little money and get your subscription electronically from cher.media.mit.edu.) I'll send out notes when back issues go on-line, and when new issues become available. [Fred Martin | fredm@media.media.mit.edu] 23: Books Logo philosophy: ---------------- Papert, Seymour: *Mindstorms* (Basic Books, 1980). Papert, Seymour: *The Children's Machine* (Basic Books, 1993). For late elementary through junior high kids: --------------------------------------------- Abelson, Harold: *Apple Logo* (McGraw-Hill) Birch, Alison: *The Logo Project Book* (Terrapin, Inc) Watt, Daniel: *Learning with Logo* (McGraw-Hill) For working with late elementary through junior high kids: ---------------------------------------------------------- Harel, Idit. *Software Design for Learning: Childrens Construction of meaning for fractions and logo programming*. This study was done with year 4 students and is both highly practical and also breaks new theoretical ground (by combining Papert's theories with Perkins and Vygotsky). Harper, Dennis: *Logo Theory & Practice* (Brooks/Cole, 1989). Kafai, Yasmin: *Minds in Play: Computer Game Designs as a Context for Children's Learning* (MIT Media Lab, 20 Ames Street Room E15-309 Cambridge, MA 02139). Solomon, Cynthia, *Computer Environments for Children* (MIT Press, 1986). A research document describing and comparing four different approaches to the use of computers in education, including Logo. *Nudges - Apple Logo Projects* by Bull, Riordon, and Tipps Holt, Rinehart, and Winston SBN 0-03-002737-3 *Exporations in Logo* (Creative Publications Sunnyvale ). A good starting point to maths puzzles and problem solving is Barry Newell's little book called: *Turtle confusion: Logo puzzles and riddles (Curriculum Development Centre, PO Box 34, Woden, ACT 2606, Australia). This one is a little gem with 40 puzzles at different levels, suitable from the beginner to advanced problem solver and logo user. I have used it extensively in 3-7 classes. [Bill Kerr, Paralowie R12 School, South Australia] For high school to adult: ------------------------- Harvey, Brian: *Computer Science Logo Style* (MIT Press) vol. 1: Intermediate Programming vol. 2: Projects, Styles, and Techniques vol. 3: Advanced Topics Friendly, Michael: *Advanced Logo* (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates) Boecker, H.-D., H. Eden, G. Fischer: *Interactive Problem Solving using LOGO*, (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1991, ISBN 0-8058-0305-X (cloth) / 0-8058-0306-8 (paper)) Burke, Michael, and L. Roland Genise: *Logo and Models of Computation* (Addison-Wesley) A shareware tutorial: _____________________ I have written a book specifically for teachers and teachers-in- training called ALL ABOUT LOGO. It's available as shareware. I have used many of the ideas in Brian's (see above) excellent book, and included the traditional graphics material. The format is also more "traditional" in that it includes suggested "Explorations" at the end of each of the 14 chapters. Version 1.1 (geared for Macintosh LogoWriter) is available by ftp from cher.media.mit.edu /pub/logo. I have written an update to this (version 1.2) and am working on version 1.3 which removes the last (I hope!) of the technical errors. Version 2.2 (geared for Apple II LogoWriter) is also available. I plan to replace Version 1.1 with version 1.3 and add version 2.3 to the ftp server in the next couple of weeks. I'd be pleased to send a hard copy version for your inspection if you like. [Dave Kressen dkresse@ctp.org] Using Logo to learn other stuff (mostly math) --------------------------------------------- Abelson, Harold & Andrea diSessa, *Turtle Geometry* (MIT Press) The classic text on the subject. Cuoco, Albert: *Investigations in Algebra* (MIT Press) Clayson, James: *Visual Modeling with Logo* (MIT Press) Goldenberg, E. Paul, and Wallace Feurzeig: *Exploring Language with Logo* (MIT Press) Hoyles, Celia, and Richard Noss, *Learning Mathematics and Logo* A collection of research papers about various aspects of the use of Logo in math classrooms. Lewis, Philip: *Approaching Precalculus Mathematics Discretely* (MIT Press) Prusinkiewicz, Przemyslaw & Aristid Lindenmayer, *The Algorithmic Beauty of Plants* (Springer-Verlag, 1990). Plant growth/structure modeling based on turtle geometry and L-systems, excellent illustrations. 24: Aside from comp.lang.logo, what other net lists/groups might be useful? There is a "logo-friends" mailing list at logo-friends@ismennt.is, subscription requests to logo-friends-request@ismennt.is, it hasn't seen much traffic since its inception in Summer, '93. It's sponsor is Petur Thorsteinsson (petur@ismennt.is) The Icelandic Network for Education Kd There's comp.edu, where the original RFD for comp.lang.logo was posted. The home school mail list. home-ed@world.std.com Submissions for the list home-ed-request@world.std.com Subscription requests Home-ed is not exactly a hotbed of Logo activity, but it appears to be gaining momentum. Another, similar list is: The Learning List, learning-request@sea.east.sun.com A spin-off of the Home Ed list, The Learning List is concerned exclusively with child-centered learning, as espoused by the writings of the late John Holt. Subscribers must agree by the lists Charter, which will be sent upon request. Distance Educat. Data telnet sun.nsf.ac.uk or telnet 128.86.8.7 (Login: janet Hostname: uk.ac.open.acs.vax Username: icdl) Nat'l Education BBS telnet nebbs.nersc.gov or telnet 128.55.160.162 offers: Education BBS (Login: guest) ISAAC telnet isaac.engr.washington.edu or 128.95.32.61 offers: Info. System for Advanced Academic Computing, for IBM users. List of Lists ftp ftp.nisc.sri.com or ftp 192.33.33.22 offers: List of interest groups/email lists in /netinfo/interest-groups. [rslade@fraser.sfu.ca ] 25: Centers of Research WE NEED ENTRIES, FOLKS. AN ENTRY SHOULD IDENTIFY A CENTER AND A SUMMARY OF THE WORK GOING ON THERE.