Logo is a programming language designed for learning. It grew out of the work of Seymour Papert, Wally Feurzeig and Cynthia Solomon in the 1960s, who wanted a language children could use to explore mathematics by trying things and seeing what happened. Papert had studied under Jean Piaget, and Logo carries Piaget’s constructivist idea that people learn best by building things.
Logo’s best-known feature is the turtle: a cursor that moves relative to itself. You tell it to go forward or turn right, and it draws as it goes. Because you steer the turtle the way you would walk yourself, it is an easy way into geometry and into programming. Behind the turtle, Logo is a full language with procedures, recursion, and powerful words and lists.
turtleSpaces is a modern Logo based on Apple (LCSI) Logo. It takes the turtle into three dimensions and adds shapes, colours, animation and 3D-printable models. See Features for what it adds, and the Reference for every command.
Our three-part series covers how Logo came about, what happened to it in schools, and where it could go next:
More essays are under Contemplations.