[Edu-sig] Python 2.6 Turtle module and Sugar TurtleArt (was Re: Edu-sig Digest, Vol 63, Issue 11)

[John Posner]

[ resending from correct email account ]
 
> How would you compare this turtle module with the
TurtleArt activity
> in Sugar? It is available in .deb and .rpm packages
for Ubuntu,
> Debian, and Fedora, and also in .xo bundles,
installable with
> xo-get.py. Sugar Labs is working with other Linux
distributions to
> make Sugar packages available as widely as possible.
> 
> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/TurtleArt
> http://wiki.laptop.og/go/Xo-get
 
Edward, I've had no experience with OLPC. :-(   I was not familiar with these packages, so I
downloaded the Sugar emulator for Windows at wiki.laptop.org, and played with
the TurtleArt activity for a while. So with those minimal credentials, here's
my 15-second opinion:
 
The basic drawing capabilities of the TurtleArt activity
and Gregor's Turtle module are roughly comparable. The Turtle module has many
more bells and whistles, such as the nifty stamp() routine. The TurtleArt
activity has its own visual programming language (see note below), which by
necessity is pretty rudimentary. By contrast, Gregor's Turtle module gets to
use all the facilities of Python for program construction. And the Turtle
module has an event model, allowing the user to interact with the turtle(s) on
the drawing canvas.
 
NOTE: the first provisional name for Lotus 1-2-3 was VPL
("visual programming language"). I'm sure that for many people,
putting a @SUM() function at the bottom of a column of numbers was the alpha
and omega of their programming experience.
 
Best,
John
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