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From: ucbesvax.turner@ucbcad.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.lang
Subject: Re: Logo Versions? - (nf)
Message-ID: <1095@ucbcad.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 14-Dec-83 10:50:38 EST
Article-I.D.: ucbcad.1095
Posted: Wed Dec 14 10:50:38 1983
Date-Received: Sat, 17-Dec-83 02:26:53 EST
Sender: notes@ucbcad.UUCP
Organization: UC Berkeley CAD Group
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#R:rlgvax:-146500:ucbesvax:4500005:000:1562
ucbesvax!turner    Dec 14 01:48:00 1983

I looked at some LOGO's with a view toward implementation a few months
back.  I was surprised that I ever thought it was a great language.  (I
did, about 14 years ago, but all I had ever used before was BASIC.)

Perhaps my view toward implementation biased me somewhat, but I can't
stand Logo syntax now.  Sure, user-defined functions look the same
as primitives, but typing ":" in front of all variable identifiers
to get them properly evaluated is the other side of the coin.  Very
hard to parse properly.

The "RUN" command does allow you to write your own control structures,
but the resulting contortions in the interpreter hardly make it worth
it.  (Those turtles are aptly named--the move slowly.)  Why didn't they
just define more primitive control structures?  Or, if RUN was supposed
to illustrate the self-referentiality of the interpreter, why mystify
that process with sugary syntax?  The problems with parsing result
to poor execution rates for RUN, since RUN's argument must be reparsed
each time, to avoid the possibility of corrupting the internal state of
the LOGO interpreter.

And it's far from standard--TI LOGO is somewhat different from Apple.
Both have their advantages and their drawbacks.  The original MIT
dialect was better--less English-like but more regular.

But yeah...it's better than starting them on BASIC.  I'm still waiting
for a really good language for children.  LOGO makes computers look
both smarter and slower than they actually are.  (The computers, that is,
not the kids.)
---
Michael Turner (ucbvax!ucbesvax.turner)