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To make turtleSpaces more accessible to our users, we’ve created a WebAssembly build of turtleSpaces and paired it with a new Javascript front-end UI that renders turtleSpaces output natively in the browser, and has a code editor with syntax highlighting.

It comes with a number of built-in examples, and a fairly complete set of features: loading from the local machine, saving to the local machine, exporting STL, exporting PNG (high-resolution), and sharing using the turtleSpaces model viewer (which unlike STL is in full color).

Today’s example is short but sweet. It creates a design made out of a bunch of qtip-like ‘sticks’ with balls on the ends.

It is a design made out of ‘almost squares’ (four sides each at an 85 degree angle to each other). The turtle then turns right 5 degrees, and slides left 20 before continuing to the next almost-square.

Each side of the almost-square is coloured based on its iteration in the almost-square loop, and the fill colour of the balls is set to match. Also, each iteration is raised an amount relative to its iteration, creating a pleasing 3D effect.

This Logo program uses hatchlings to create simple 2D fireworks. The turtle’s model is changed into an icosphere to simulate a launching firework, and then more hatchlings are used to create the starburst. The trails are merged back into the main turtle ‘track’ and the hatchlings are terminated, leaving the rendered drawing on-screen at the conclusion of the program.

Read through the code (and pay particular attention to the ;comments) to see how the program works. It is made up of two procedures: fireworks, and burst.

On our journey to porting turtleSpaces to the Web (yes, that’s coming!), we’ve added a primitive, SHAREVECTORS “description (or |description|) that allows users to share their creations to the web. SHAREVECTORS will return a link to the turtleSpaces website where you can view a static model, as it was in turtleSpaces when you executed the SHAREVECTORS command.

Note that the camera in the web viewer is currently fixed to the Y axis and is oriented upward, and so you need to ensure your models are oriented that way (they should look correct if you issue a CAM:CS to return the camera turtle to its home position).

This commented Logo source code creates a thumbtack, a cork board, and then draws random string art using them.

Read the**;comments** to learn more about what the primitives do and what their shortcuts are.

Try some of the primitives out in turtleSpaces interactive mode (the myrtle prompt) and see what they do!

You can drag-select the source code and then paste it into the turtleSpaces editor (which you enter by typing ed and Enter or pressing control-shift-E) using control-shift-V (paste)

This Solar System simulation features the ability to add orbiting moons to the planets, a few of which are already defined. It is not entirely to scale (the planets are larger than they are in reality).

Use the scrollwheel or finger-scroll to zoom in and out, and drag the mouse to rotate around the sun!

TO solarsystem
  
  reset
  penup
  hideturtle
  
  cam:pullin 100
  ;pull in the camera turtle
  
  ;---------------------------------
  ;make a starfield in the distance:
  ;---------------------------------
  
  setfillcolor 5
  repeat 200 [
    home randomvectors
    forward 2500 + random 100
    up 90
    spot 1 + random 5
  ]
  
  ;---------------------------------
  ;define planetary parameter lists:
  ;---------------------------------
  
  make "distance [0 39 72 100 152 520 953 1918 3006 3953]
  ;the distance of the planets from the sun in 100ths of an AU
  ;The first value is the sun itself, which is at the home position
  
  make "size [100 3 7.5 7.9 4.2 88.7 74.6 32.6 30.2 1.41]
  ;the planets are in scale relative to each other but not the sun,
  ;which is much larger than the value we have given it here
  
  make "color [13 8 9 7 1 14 11 7 2 10]
  ;each planet's color (and the sun)
  
  make "tilt [0 7 3.3 0 1.85 1.31 2.49 0.77 1.77 17.14]
  ;ecliptical tilt
  
  make "speed [0 4.1 1.62 1 0.53 0.084 0.034 0.011 0.006 0.004]
  ;speed of orbit
  
  ;-------------
  ;define moons:
  ;-------------
  
  make "moon [0 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 0]
  ;how many moons?
  
  make "mooncolor [[][][][5][8 9][][][][][]]
  make "moondistance [[][][][3][2 3][][][][][]]
  make "moonsize [[][][][2.1][1.12 0.62][][][][][]]
  make "moontilt [[][][][0][1 2][][][][][]]
  make "moonspeed [[][][][30][40 30][][][][][]]
  ;moon parameters, similar to planets
  ;only earth and mars are populated here,
  ;add the others as you like!
  
  ;---------------------------
  ;create the sun and planets:
  ;---------------------------
  
  repeat 10 [
    home
    
    make "planet repcount
    ;store the current planet for use inside hatch
    
    newmodel repcount {"setfc item :planet :color "ico 0.1 * item :planet :size}
    ;create a new turtle model using the data from the :color and :size lists
    ;we use a 'soft list' {} to create 'hard data' for use by newmodel
    ;as the turtle model is rendered each frame
    
    hatch [
      ;create a new hatchling
      
      setmodel :planet
      ;set the turtle model
      
      penup
      dropanchor
      ;set the orbit (anchor) point to the current position
      
      pullout 0.5 * item :planet :distance
      ;pull away from the anchor the distance specified in the :distance list
      
      orbitright random 360
      ;orbit around a random amount
      
      orbitup item :planet :tilt
      ;orbit up (tilt) the amount specified in the :tilt list
      
      showturtle
      ;hatchlings are not visible by default
      
      if 0 < item :planet :moon [ ;are there any moons? foreach "moon item :planet :mooncolor [ ;for each moon, let's create it the same way we did planets: make "moonnumber loopcount make "moonmodel word :planet loopcount newmodel :moonmodel {"setfc :moon "ico 0.1 * item :moonnumber item :planet :moonsize} make "parent turtle ;define the 'parent' turtle for use by the moon hatchling hatch [ ;hatch the moon setmodel :moonmodel dropanchor right random 360 pullout item :moonnumber item :planet :moondistance orbitup item :moonnumber item :planet :moontilt showturtle forever [ fixate query :parent [position] ;keep 'fixated' (look at and set the anchor point to) ;the parent turtle's position. if orbitdistance > item :moonnumber item :planet :moondistance [
                pullin orbitdistance - (item :moonnumber item :planet :moondistance)
              ]
              ;if it's getting away from us, try and catch up!
              
              orbitright 0.1 * item :moonnumber item :planet :moonspeed
              ;orbit the planet based on the :moonspeed
              
              sleep 6.25
              ;take a little nap
            ]
          ]
        ]
      ]
      forever [
        orbitright 0.05 * item :planet :speed
        sleep 25
      ]
      ;orbit the sun (we're back to the planet now) based on the value
      ;from the :speed list. Then take a little nap (wait 1)
      
    ]
  ]
  hideturtle
  ;hide Myrtle, although she would be sitting in the sun
  
END

Myrtle creates a 3D space tube ride for her to fly through…

Sometimes Myrtle needs to take a break and have a little fun! One of the things she can do is make a space tube and fly through it, using the TUBE and TUBEARC primitives:

TUBE makes a straight tube, and takes the parameters and . So, tube 20 10 10 makes a tube with a radius of 20 turtle units, a depth of 10 turtle units and 10 sides.

The Commodore Amiga computer had a famous ‘bouncing ball’ demonstration program, a checkered bouncing ball. It was a bit different than this, but this is certainly reminiscent of it.

We love the Amiga demo so much that we created a special checkered ball primitive, AMIGABALL, and a second ‘oid’ primitive, AMIGABALLOID, which is used to create the ‘compressed’ ball.

Rather than turning the turtle into a ball (one method), this method ‘cleans’ the ‘turtle track’ after rendering each frame of the animation (which we wait for using the NEXTFRAME primitive).

We’ve added a number of new 3D shape primitives in the latest release:

skewfiso
skewiso
skewpyramid
skewpyramoid
skewquad
skewrect
skewtraperect
skewtrapevoxeloid
skewtrapezoid
skewvoxeloid
traperect
trapevoxeloid
trapezoid

These allow you to “skew” (or slant) the created shape and / or compress or expand one “end” of it (trape, or trapezoidal). This allows for a large increase in the number of possible shapes you can create in turtleSpaces.

Also, you can export an arbitrarily-sized render of the current scene using the new SAVEPNG primitive:

The FRAG primitive creates a filled shape out of the current turtle position and her last two positions. For example:

FD 100 RT 90 FD 100 FRAG

will create a triangle.

While turtleSpaces has a variety of shape primitives, sometimes you need to create an arbitrary shape, and FRAG aids you in this.

Take this example, which draws a star:

TO star
  repeat 4 [
    forward 100
    right 170
    forward 86
    frag
    left 70
    forward 86
    right 170
    forward 100
    frag
    right 180
  ]