LOGO-L> Re: Is Logo old technology?

["Ken Kahn" <KenKahn@ToonTalk.com>]

Ehud Lamm wrote in message ...
>I once thought about doing alittle experiment and writing an article
>comparing how people "think" with TIM (The Incredible Machine, computer
>game) and how they think with Logo.
>
Sounds interesting. I'd read it if you wrote it.

>I believe that aisde from all else, one of Logo's greatest strengths is
>that it is a language.
>
>When I consider the way my thinking changed over the years, I think the
>most crucial point was grasping the concept of LANGUAGE. This concept, and
>the intuitive feeling I have of it, helped me in studiying CS and also in
>thinking about other issues. Logo was one of my first exposures to
>language. Indeed, a computer language and not a human tongue, but none the
>less a language where you have to try to put linear syntax on your ideas.
>A system in which semantics are tied to syntax.
>
Here's maybe where we need some philosophers to jump in. For a while, sign
language was not accepted as a proper language - now it is. People talk
about the language of film (referring to the syntax of close-ups, cuts,
dissolves, etc.). Is ToonTalk really a language? Does it have a syntax, much
less a linear one? I'm not sure that language is the best word to describe
ToonTalk, but I am sure it shares the nice properties that programming
languages have.

>I also think that being a computer language, Logo  helps in giving a good
>method for structuring algorithms into self contained parts, and building
>complex strucutures.
>
Ditto for ToonTalk.

>I did look for other ideas (and there are many ideas in trying to find a
>better method for programming a computer, than using a computer language),
>and was always dissatisfied. I wanted the flexebility, genericity and
>elegance of Logo.
>
ToonTalk is flexible and generic. I think it is elegant too.

>I think that the great thing about Logo is that it is not really a
>protective enviroment. It is REAL. You can get infinite loops, you can do
>harm. You have the real thing under your hands. Kids shouldn't settle for
>less.
>
I agree and ToonTalk is real in the same way that Logo is.

Best,

-ken kahn (www.toontalk.com)


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