LOGO

My first programming language was LOGO. My parents signed me up for a week long computer camp at the high school when I was elementary school. I don’t remember who else attended it but I vividly remember the computer lab with all the Apple IIe’s. We didn’t have a computer at home. It was amazing and so very cool. It was like magic, typing words that directed a wee turtle to draw patterns on the screen.  

The class started with making squares:

Then on to a single circle. Once that was mastered, the mind blowing ‘repeat’ command was introduced. Circles upon circles endlessly filling up the screen, spiraling squares like bent slinkies. An interactive digital Spirograph where you’d never lose the pieces – it was a wonderland.

After repeat came the color commands. Changing the color of the line was fun. Changing the background was even more fun. I’m partial to blue – cyan blue circles on navy blue background. Headache inducing random color changing backgrounds with the endless repeats were brilliant! Flooding shapes with any one of the glorious 80’s colors – apple green or fire engine red or magenta. The class would have a seizure warning these days.

LOGO is still around in various forms. I found several versions of LOGO to download. Some are orphaned. There is a Python Turtle library. Folks have gone on to draw elaborate trees, fractals and colorful start clusters. It’s enchanting.

The closest to the LOGO of my summer afternoons in computer camp would be Terrapin Logo. I’m tempted to get a home license and play. Maybe I can recreate some of those endless bouncing patterns. Then again, it might be better to enjoy my memories. It could end up like watching Thundercats as an adult. It just doesn’t hold up.

Thinking back on it,  it’s kinda funny.  The computer camp was the only computer class I took while I was in school but I ended up working as programmer. My kids started playing with Scratch in grade school. Scratch is a cousin of LOGO. It’s funny how things come around again.