Re: LOGO-L> Re: Question re: MicroWorlds Logo Project

[George Mills <mills@softronix.com>]

jstclair@omsd.cerf.fred.org wrote:
> 
> Please reply to bh@anarres.CS.Berkeley.EDU (Brian Harvey)  or
> logo-l@gsn.org   NOT   logo-list@gsn.org  or  me.
> 
> -John
> --Message below re-posted by <jstclair@omsd.cerf.fred.org>
> Date - 11 Jul 1997 15:54:27 GMT
> >From - bh@anarres.CS.Berkeley.EDU (Brian Harvey)
> To - jcstclair@omsd
> Subject - Re: LOGO-L> Re: Question re: MicroWorlds Logo Project
> Usenet: comp.lang.logo
> ------------------
> Post Usenet mail to comp-lang-logo@ucbvax.berkeley.edu
> ------------------
> 
> George Mills <mills@softronix.com> writes:
> >By the way as far as "data types" go there is only one data type and it
> >can only have 2 values. It a boolean 1 or 0, and it's the only data type
> >you need. What could be simpler for a young mind to understand.
> 
> It sounds as if MultiMedia Logic is a fine tool for a certain class of
> problems, and also for learning how the *circuitry* of a computer works.
> 
> But I disagree strongly with the "what could be simpler" part.  Every so
> often someone suggests in comp.edu that the CS curriculum should start
> with machine language since that's "simple," by which they mean that it's
> at a low level of abstraction.  But it's never a teacher who suggests it!
> CS curricula always start at a fairly high level of abstraction and work
> down, because what makes things simple is to abstract away the details.
> 

I guess I'm one of those non-teachers that would highly recommend it.
The "teachers" should listen to them :-)

>
> MML is fine if the problem you want to solve is at the circuit level of
> abstraction.  But if you want to solve a symbolic computation problem,
> or even an arithmetic problem, you don't want to have to invent ASCII
> or floating point or whatever out of Boolean logic!

You are absolutely correct. Solving a high level symbolic problem with
MML would be a lot work.  But what's the goal of Logo, MicroWorlds, Lego
and MML. It's to get students minds working into solving problems with
in
the domain given.  The Domain in which MML operates is the same domain
that touches us all everyday and most don't understand it. It teaches
you
how something like Logo can be created.

It is a lot of fun solving what programmers think are simple problems
in straight logic.  It gets you to think in different ways (Timing
things,
Storing things, Pipelining etc.).  Powerful concepts that you are not
that often exposed to in a language such as Logo.  It's like studying
medicine with out understanding bacteria.

"Simple" is the correct word for MML logic's domain. But as discussed
above things get more complex when you try to represent complex things
in this domain. But just as problems need to be broken down into simpler
byte size pieces in any language (subroutines) so do they in MML (black
boxes).

-- 
===============================================================
George Mills
email: mills@softronix.com
http://www.softronix.com
The www page contains some very powerful educational software.
Our single most important investment is our kids.


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