🚀 go-pugleaf

/ hpfclp:comp.lang.misc / jbrown@ihopa.ATT.COM (Jeffery Brown) /  1:55 pm  Jan 18, 1988 /

|(I understand
|that "logo" is a graphics-based educational language -- does anyone
|have any experience with it?)
|
|	Jeff Brown
|	..!ihnp4!ihopa!jbrown or ..!ihnp4!ihlpf!jbrown
|	AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, Il.
|	(312) 979-5370

Logo is an excellent language for teaching beginning programming concepts.
I think Scheme would be better at the high school level, but Logo is
probably easier to find in your price range.  Scheme has a cleaner syntax,
though some beginners might be turned off by all the parentheses.  Logo is
also a dialect of Lisp, but it eschews parentheses for most of the things
that beginners would do.  Although it is best known for its graphics
subset, it is far more capable than just drawing pictures.  It is a solid
general purpose programming language which supports recursion and symbolic
programming.  A few years ago I helped my wife implement a simple symbolic
algebra program for addition, subtraction, multiplication and simplification
of polynomials in Logo.  This was based on an example from "Structure and
Interpretation of Computer Programs", by Abelson and Sussman (MIT Press,
1984).  The target students for the project were secondary level.

For the past year I have been teaching Logo to grade school children.  I
do this two mornings a week in conjunction with a Hewlett-Packard sponsored
Visiting Scientist Program, which gives HP employees some time to work
with local public schools at all grade levels.  I have no personal
experience with teaching Logo to older children, but it works very well
with younger ones.  I use the graphics part of the language primarily
with these kids.  I have introduced some of the symbolic programming
capabilities to them, but had to be careful about not boring them.

For the educational philosophy behind the creation of Logo the book
"Mindstorms", by Seymour Papert, the language's primary inventor, is
excellent.  MIT Press also publishes several additional books about the
educational uses of Logo.  There is a 3 volume series by Brian Harvey
entitled "Computer Science Logo Style", which sounds very good, though
I have not seen any of the volumes.  There is also "Exploring Language
with Logo" by Goldenberg and Feurzeig.  I have this book.  I haven't
gotten through the whole book yet, but have been impressed with the
first two or three chapters.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gerrie Shults                             Hewlett-Packard Company
phone:    (303) 229-3709                  3404 E. Harmony Rd.
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