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An interesting perspective on Logo and getting kids interested in programming. Is there something in the spirit of Logo but for shader programming? That might show more of the “magic creative potential”

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James Paterson

@presstube

· May 4

Replying to @timknapen

It totally stuck

Turtle didn’t land for me. I didn’t get the magic of code via that example. Just felt like a clunky, limited way of doing something I already loved: drawing Same w math: I didn’t understand the magic creative potential the way it was taught in school

Andy Matuschak

@andy_matuschak

May 5

This is a broadly useful litmus test for "intro to computation" environments: are you using programming to do something which would be easier to do "by hand"? If so, the context is probably weak! (This applies also to e.g. "move the robot to the target" exercises)

Replying to

and

I think Logo really shines when you rapidly move to things which would be difficult to do by hand. One of the easiest early examples is large-scale repetition, especially repetition+scaling to make fractal patterns.

9:02 PM · May 5, 2022Twitter Web App

Replying to

I think you're right. By default I think most people begin with drawing houses, flowers, etc. but you could quickly move beyond that. My own kid draws a lot, and had a lukewarm response to the basic drawing stuff. But L-systems to draw grass, trees, etc. might be a hit!