The robot 'turtle' has evolved into a graphical turtle on the screen. In some logos a representation of a turtle remains as the 'pointer'. In MSW Logo it has been reduced to a triangular pointer.
The MSW Logo Turtle
Logo is a graphical programming environment. It can be as simple, or as powerful as you choose. At its simplest level you use commands to move a "turtle" around the screen, drawing as it goes.
|
Why a "Turtle"? - The original idea behind Logo was that
a small robot device would be connected to the computer and made to move
around the floor, drawing as it goes. The first such robot was a domed
perspex device with wheels. It's domed "shell' made it look like an
electronic turtle.
The robot 'turtle' has evolved into a graphical turtle on the screen. In some logos a representation of a turtle remains as the 'pointer'. In MSW Logo it has been reduced to a triangular pointer. |
"Why do we call these objects "turtles"? There is a long tradition. It started in the 1950s when a scientist named Grey Walter built a small mechanical robot. Walter programmed the robot to act like a real creature: for example, when the robot was low on energy, it began to look for "food" (a recharger). Walter called his robot a turtle because it had a turtle-like "shell" on top to protect its electronics.
In the 1960s, Seymour Papert and his colleagues at MIT built a similar robot turtle. But they wanted children, not scientists, to program the turtle. So they created a new programming language called Logo that made it easy for children to program the turtle's motion. Logo was intended to provide children with a new way of "playing" with (and learning) mathematical ideas.
Later, as computers (and displays) became less expensive, the Logo turtle moved onto the computer screen. Millions of school children have created graphics and animations by giving Logo commands to turtles on the computer screen."
From an essay by: Mitchel Resnick and Brian Silverman Epistemology and Learning Group MIT Media Laboratory
For the full text see: http://lcs.www.media.mit.edu/groups/el/projects/circles/turtles.html