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LOGO Manual
VAX/VMS Internal Version 1.0
Meyer Billmers
Digital Equipment Corporation
Marlboro, MA
October, 1983
CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 2 USING LOGO
2.1 STARTING LOGO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-1
2.2 SYNTAX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-1
2.3 MULTIPLE INPUTS TO OPERATIONS . . . . . . . . . . 2-2
2.4 MULTI-INSTRUCTION LINES . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-3
2.5 MULTI-LINE INSTRUCTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-3
2.6 COMMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-3
2.7 WORDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-3
2.8 NUMBERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-4
2.9 LISTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-5
2.10 VARIABLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-6
CHAPTER 3 LOGO PRIMITIVE PROCEDURES
3.1 DEFINING USER PROCEDURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-2
3.2 MANIPULATING WORDS AND LISTS . . . . . . . . . . . 3-4
3.3 TURTLES AND GRAPHICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-8
3.4 ARITHMETIC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-15
3.5 CONDITIONAL EXECUTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-18
3.6 FILE INPUT AND OUTPUT . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-20
3.7 PROCEDURE EXIT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-22
3.8 PROPERTY LISTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-23
3.9 PAUSING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-24
3.10 MISCELLANEOUS PRIMITIVES . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-26
CHAPTER 4 THE LOGO LIBRARY
INDEX
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
Logo is a computer programming language which was designed to be
both simple to use and extremely powerful. It was designed by a
group of computer scientists at MIT and at Bolt, Beranek, and
Newman. Its structure is based largely on the LISP language, which
is widely used in Artificial Intelligence research, but the
notation has been changed to make Logo far easier for a beginner
than LISP. This manual describes a version of Logo for the PDP-11,
originally written in C at the Boston Children's Museum and
extensively modified at the Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School.
This version has been modified to run under VAX/VMS; it is an
internal version to Digital, and may not be used for any
profit-making purposes. Where VMS-specific functionality has been
incorporated, it will be so noted.
procedure The power of Logo comes primarily from the idea of the procedure.
A procedure is simply something the computer "knows" how to do;
some procedures are built into Logo itself (these are called
primitive defined primitive procedures), while others are defined by the programmer
in terms of these simple procedures. Defined procedures can be
used as part of the definition of other procedures, so that a
complicated program can be built in "layers" of complexity. This
layered structure is analogous to the description of a complex
machine in terms of building blocks: an automobile is made of a
chassis, a drive train, an electrical system, and so on. The drive
train contains an engine, a transmission, a clutch, an axle, and so
on. The transmission contains a housing, gears, and levers. A
lever may include connecting joints at the ends and at a pivot
point. Eventually the description of the automobile reaches the
level of bolts and washers; these correspond to the primitive
procedures in Logo.
Additionally, LOGO enables the visualization of programming
concepts by making graphic presentation easy. This is done using
"turtle graphics". Depending on the implementation and the site,
LOGO will support a "display turtle" capable of moving around on a
graphic terminal and drawing figures, or a "floor turtle" which
moves on the floor on wheels and traces with a pen in its body.
You should check with your system manager to see which kinds of
turtles are available on your system.
CHAPTER 2
USING LOGO
This chapter briefly describes the use of LOGO, its syntax, and
some helpful facilities for getting about. Some familiarity with
programming and computers is assumed; the reader with no computing
experience is referred to some of the tutorial-level books about
LOGO.
2.1 STARTING LOGO
logo Use the VMS command logo to start the Logo interpreter. When Logo
is running it will print an asterisk (*) at the beginning of a line
to indicate that it is ready for you to type in a Logo instruction.
The instruction may print something on the terminal, or draw a line
on a graphics display screen, or move a turtle around the floor.
Then another asterisk is typed and you may give another
instruction. (If Logo prints a "greater than" sign (>) instead of
procedure definition mode an asterisk, it is in procedure definition mode, which will be
described later. Type the interrupt character (control-C) to
return to normal mode.)
logo If an argument is used with the VMS command logo, the argument is
taken as the name of a procedure, which Logo runs before doing
anything else. You can therefore create a command procedure which
will start Logo, run a procedure automatically, and (if you say
"goodbye" at the end of the procedure) exit.
2.2 SYNTAX
Unlike most computer languages, Logo has an almost entirely uniform
syntax. That is, all of the different commands Logo understands
are represented using the same notation: the name of a procedure
inputs constants is followed by its inputs, which may be constants (like numbers) or
else may be the results of using other procedures. Here is a
simple example:
USING LOGO Page 2-2
print "hello
print In this Logo instruction, the primitive procedure print is used
hello with a constant input, the word hello. The quotation mark
hello indicates that hello is being used to represent the word itself;
without the quotation mark it would have been interpreted as the
print name of a procedure, just as print is the name of a procedure. In
print Logo, the print procedure always requires exactly one input, which
word is the thing to print. The input can be a word, as in this
list number example, or a list, which will be explained later. (A number is a
sentence special case of a word, and a sentence is a special case of a
list.) Here is another example:
print first "hello
first In this instruction, the primitive procedure first is used. This
output procedure takes one input, a word, and has an output which is the
first first letter of the word. The output from first is used as the
print h input to print, so what is printed is the letter h rather than the
hello word hello as in the earlier example.
output printed Don't confuse the output from a procedure with what is printed by
print the print command. In Logo, the word "output" is not used to refer
to what is printed by a program, just as the word "input" does not
mean something you type into the program. Instead, these words
refer to objects (words or lists) which are given to a procedure
(inputs) or produced by a procedure (outputs). A particular
procedure has a fixed number of inputs and outputs. The number of
inputs may be anything, including zero, whereas the number of
outputs is either zero or one. A procedure with an output (like
first operation print first) is called an operation; one without an output (like print)
command is called a command.
true Some operations only have two possible outputs: the word true and
false predicate the word false. Such a procedure is called a predicate.
Predicates are used to allow a program to carry out some
instruction only if a particular condition is met. By convention,
predicates generally have names ending with the letter "p".
2.3 MULTIPLE INPUTS TO OPERATIONS
Several Logo primitive procedures are operations with two inputs.
sum The arithmetic operations, like sum, are examples of this. A
special extension to Logo syntax allows such an operation to have
more than two inputs by enclosing the operation and its inputs in
parentheses or braces:
(sum 2 5 13 8.5)
Association is right to left. At least two inputs must be given,
list except for the list operation, which can take one input if
parenthesized.
USING LOGO Page 2-3
2.4 MULTI-INSTRUCTION LINES
It is possible to put more than one instruction on the same line
when you are typing to Logo. To do this, type a semicolon (;)
between the instructions:
print "hello; print "goodbye
Later in this manual, the phrase "instruction line" will mean one
or more instructions on a line.
2.5 MULTI-LINE INSTRUCTIONS
It is possible to continue an instruction on a second line. To do
this, end the first line with a backslash (\), immediately followed
by the RETURN key. If you are typing a quoted word, you must end
the word (with a space, for example) before using the
backslash-RETURN combination. Inside a quoted word,
backslash-RETURN means to put an actual RETURN as part of the word.
2.6 COMMENTS
It is possible to include in an instruction line comments which are
meant for human readers of your program (including yourself, next
week), and which are not Logo instructions. To do this, begin the
comment with an exclamation point (!). Everything after the
exclamation point on the line will be ignored by Logo. For
example:
print [Hi, there.] ! A friendly greeting.
However, the exclamation point does not begin a comment if it is
part of a word or list (see below). You should type a space before
the exclamation point, as in the example above, to make sure it
will be interpreted as the beginning of a comment.
2.7 WORDS
Every computer language deals with particular kinds of objects.
Most languages, like FORTRAN or BASIC or Pascal, are best at
list processing dealing with numbers. Logo is a list processing language, which is
at its best with more complicated data structures. The two main
word list categories of object are the word and the list.
USING LOGO Page 2-4
word character A word is a string of characters. (A character is a letter, digit,
space, or punctuation mark. Things like TAB and RETURN on the
terminal keyboard are also characters, although they are not
usually used as part of Logo words.) A word can be any length,
including zero. The way to indicate a word as part of a Logo
program is to use the quotation mark (") before the word. The word
begins with the character after the quotation mark and continues
until a space, a tab, the end of the line, or one of these
characters:
( ) [ ] { } " ;
A quotation mark immediately followed by a space or one of the
empty word other word-terminating characters indicates the empty word, which
is a word of length zero.
Please notice that, unlike most programming languages, Logo does
not use quotation marks in pairs to delimit strings of characters.
The following instruction is an error:
print "aardvark"
print two This is an error because the print command is followed by two
aardvark words, the word aardvark and an empty word which is indicated by
print the second quotation mark. Since print only uses one input, the
second word has no purpose, and Logo gives the error message
There's something extra on the line. print takes only one
input.
In order to include one of the word-terminating characters in a
word, you must precede it with a backslash (\). Do not confuse
backslash with the regular slash (/) character. For example, this
instruction:
print "\(boo\)
(boo) will print the five characters (boo) as its result. The space
character may be included in a word by using a percent (%) instead
of the space. Therefore, the following are equivalent:
print "Hello%there. print "Hello\ there.
To include a percent character or a backslash character in a word,
you must precede it with a backslash.
2.8 NUMBERS
A number is a special case of a word, in which the characters are
all digits. (That definition isn't quite complete, and will be
expanded in the next paragraph.) A number need not be preceded with
a quotation mark. (This rule is possible because normally Logo
USING LOGO Page 2-5
interprets words without quotation marks as the names of
procedures, but there are no procedures whose names begin with
digits.) If a quotation mark is not used, then any nondigit
terminates the word.
Actually, numbers may be written in scientific notation. That is,
they can include signs, decimal points, and a power of 10 by which
exponent the number is multiplied. This exponent is indicated by the letter
e e followed by the integer power of 10. The following numbers have
the same value:
1000 "1000 1000.00 1e3 10.0e+2 "+1.0e3 10000e-1
Notice that if the number begins with a sign it must be quoted. A
quoted number still must begin with a digit or a sign, not with a
e E decimal point or a letter e. (The letter may be a capital E, by
the way.) If a number is quoted, it must end with one of the normal
word-terminating characters. A number which contains only digits
integer (no decimal point or exponent) is called an integer. Note that a
number with a decimal point is not considered an integer even if
the digits after the decimal point are all zero.
Since a number is a word, the usual character-manipulating
procedures may be applied to it. For example,
print first 1024
1 prints the digit 1 which is the first character of the number. In
addition, there are arithmetic procedures which apply specifically
to numbers:
print sum 3 2
prints the number 5. These procedures will be listed later.
2.9 LISTS
A word can be thought of as a list of characters; for example, the
hello word hello is a list of five letters. In Logo it is possible to
manipulate not only lists of characters but also lists of words,
lists of lists of words, and so on. This is a very powerful
capability which allows very complicated data structures to be
manipulated easily. To indicate a list in a program, you put
square brackets ([ and ]) around the list, and separate the list
elements with spaces. For example:
print [This is a list of seven words.]
sentence A list all of whose elements are words is called a sentence. Here
is an example of a list which is not a sentence:
print [[This is a list][of two sentences.]]
USING LOGO Page 2-6
Within a bracketed list, square brackets delimit sub-lists (lists
which are elements of the main list). The quotation mark,
parentheses, and braces are not considered special within a
bracketed list, unlike the rules for quoted words. A list may
extend over more than one line; that is, if you have typed an open
square bracket ([) and have not yet typed the matching close square
bracket, the Logo instruction is not ended by typing the RETURN
key.
2.10 VARIABLES
name A variable is an entity which has a name, which is a word, and a
thing value thing (also called a value), which can be any Logo object.
Variables are used to "remember" a computed object for repeated or
delayed use in a program. In Logo, the most common way that a
variable acquires a value is that it is associated with an input to
a user-written procedure. In the following example, don't worry
about the details of the format of the procedure, which will be
explained later:
to pff :sentence
print first first :sentence
end
This is the definition of a command with one input. The name of
pff the command is pff. It has one input because in the "title line"
to pff (the one starting to pff) there is one variable name after the
sentence command name. The variable whose name is sentence is associated
pff with the first (and only, in this case) input to pff. In the line
print :sentence starting with the word print, the notation :sentence means "the
thing name sentence thing of the variable whose name is sentence". (To refer to the
name itself, quote it as you would any word.) If this procedure is
used in a Logo instruction like this:
pff [This is the poop.]
sentence [This is the poop.] then the variable sentence has the value [This is the poop.].
It is also possible to assign a value to a variable by an explicit
Logo instruction. There is a primitive procedure to do this:
make make -- Command, two inputs.
The first input is the name of a variable (that is, it must be
a word); the second is any Logo object. The effect of the
command is to assign the second input as the value of the
variable named by the first input.
If you are accustomed to programming in a non-procedural language
like BASIC, you should strenuously avoid the temptation to overuse
USING LOGO Page 2-7
make make; explicit assignment is almost always the wrong thing to do in
Logo. Total abstention is the best policy for a Logo beginner.
dynamically scoped In Logo, variables are dynamically scoped. That means that a
variable can "belong to" a particular procedure; such a variable
can be used by that procedure and by any procedure which is used by
an instruction within the procedure, but is not available to the
procedure which invoked the owning procedure. In other words, such
local a local variable comes into being when the owning procedure starts
running, and disappears when that procedure is finished. It is
possible for a procedure with a local variable to use another
procedure with a local variable of the same name. In that case,
the variable belonging to the "inner" procedure is the one which is
associated with the name as long as it exists; when the inner
procedure is finished, the "hidden" variable belonging to the outer
procedure is again available.
A variable which is associated with the input to a procedure is
automatically local to that procedure. Other variables are
global normally global: they are "permanent" and do not disappear when
the procedure in which they get their values finish. It is both
possible and desirable to make such variables local, by an explicit
instruction to that effect:
local local -- Command, one input.
The input must be a word. A variable with that word as its
name is created, local to the currently running procedure
local (that is, local to the procedure in which the local command is
used).
The virtue of local variables is that they make procedures more
independent of one another than they would be if global variables
were used. In other words, if you use local variables
consistently, then nothing that happens in one procedure will
change the values of variables used in another procedure. This
makes it very much easier to find program errors.
CHAPTER 3
LOGO PRIMITIVE PROCEDURES
This chapter describes the LOGO primitive procedures. These are
routines, or commands, which are built into LOGO. They may be
described in LOGO by issuing the "describe" command.
LOGO PRIMITIVE PROCEDURES Page 3-2
3.1 DEFINING USER PROCEDURES
There are two ways to define your own procedure. The first way,
to using the to command, is simple to learn but limited in
edit flexibility. The second way, using the edit command, is more
complicated to learn, but makes it easy to make changes in your
edit emacs procedures. The edit command uses the text editing program emacs,
just as you might use it outside of Logo to edit a document you
want to print. Once you've learned the special editing commands in
emacs to emacs, it's easy to use. The to command makes it possible to begin
emacs programming in Logo without having learned how to use emacs. It
just lets you type in your procedure definition, without any
provision for correcting errors or changing the definition of the
procedure. It is fast and convenient for short procedures, but
limited.
to The to command is unique, in Logo, in that its inputs are
evaluated interpreted in a special way. The inputs aren't evaluated: Logo
doesn't run any procedures you name, or look up the values of any
to variables, before carrying out the to command. The example below
should make this clearer.
to to -- Command, special form, see below.
This command takes a variable number of inputs. The first is
the name of a procedure to be defined. The rest, if any, must
be preceded by colons, and are the names of variables to be
to used as inputs to the procedure. Logo responds to the to
command by printing a "greater than" sign (>) prompt, to show
you that you are defining a procedure rather than entering
commands to be executed immediately. You type the instruction
lines which make up the definition. When you are done with
end the definition, type the special word end on a line by itself.
For example:
*to twoprint :thing *to twoprint :thing
>print :thing >print :thing
>print :thing >print :thing
>end >end
* *
This example shows the definition of a procedure named
twoprint thing twoprint, which has one input, named thing. The procedure you
to are defining with the to command must not already be defined.
edit ed edit -- Command, no inputs. Abbreviation: ed
The edit command allows the user to use the full editing
functionality of the Emacs text editor to create or correct
user procedures. In order to be able to use this command, you
must have a Kept Emacs process and you must have the logical
emacs$name defined to be the name of that process.
LOGO PRIMITIVE PROCEDURES Page 3-3
When in Emacs, the user may change or create as many LOGO
procedures as is desired. The procedures must be written to
disk files for the changes to be "seen" by LOGO. All LOGO
procedures are contained in disk files whose names are of the
form
procname.lg
where "procname" is the name of the procedure. When the
editing session is complete and all the new files have been
written out to disk, the user should execute a (pause-emacs)
to return to LOGO. The changes or new procedures will take
effect immediately.
show po show -- Command, one input. Abbreviation: po
The input to this command is a word or a list of words. Each
word must be the name of a procedure. The command prints out
the definition(s) of the procedure(s) on your terminal. (The
po printout abbreviation po stands for printout, which is the name used
for this command in some other versions of Logo.)
pots pots -- Command, no inputs.
This command types at your terminal the title lines of all
procedures you've defined, as well as the library procedures.
The name is an abbreviation for "print out titles".
erase er erase -- Command, one input. Abbreviation: er
show As for the show command, the input is either a word, naming
one procedure, or a list of words, naming more than one. The
named procedures are erased, so that they are no longer
defined.
LOGO PRIMITIVE PROCEDURES Page 3-4
3.2 MANIPULATING WORDS AND LISTS
There are primitive procedures to print text objects on the
terminal, to read them from the terminal, to combine them into
larger objects, to split them into smaller objects, and to
determine their size and nature:
print pr print -- Command, one input. Abbreviation: pr
The input, which may be a word or a list, is printed on the
terminal, followed by a new line character. (That is, the
terminal is positioned at the beginning of a new line after
printing the object.) If the object is a list, any sub-lists
are delimited by square brackets, but the entire object is not
delimited by brackets.
type type -- Command, one input.
The input, which may be a word or a list, is printed on the
without terminal, without a new line character. (That is, the
terminal remains positioned at the end of the object after
print printing it.) Brackets are used as with the print command.
fprint fp fprint -- Command, one input. Abbreviation: fp
print The input is printed as by the print command, except that if
it is a list (as opposed to a word) it is enclosed in square
brackets. The name of the command is short for "full print".
ftype fty ftype -- Command, one input. Abbreviation: fty
type The input is printed as by the type command, except that if it
is a list, it is enclosed in square brackets.
readlist rl readlist -- Operation, no inputs. Abbreviation: rl
Logo waits for a line to be typed by the user. The contents
of the line are made into a list, as though typed within
square brackets as part of a Logo instruction. (The user
should not actually type brackets around the line, unless s/he
desires a list of one element, which is a list itself.) That
list is the output from the operation.
request request -- Operation, no inputs.
A question mark is printed on the terminal as a prompt. Then
Logo waits for a line to be typed by the user, as for
readlist readlist.
word word -- Operation, two inputs.
The two inputs must be words. The output is a word which is
the concatenation of the two inputs. There is no space or
other separation of the two inputs in the output.
LOGO PRIMITIVE PROCEDURES Page 3-5
sentence se sentence -- Operation, two inputs. Abbreviation: se
The two inputs may be words or lists. The output is a list
formed from the two inputs in this way: if either input is a
word, that word becomes a member of the output list; if either
members input is a list, the members of that input become members of
the output. Here are some examples:
first input second input output
"hello "test [hello test]
"goodbye [cruel world] [goodbye cruel world]
[a b] [c d] [a b c d]
[] "garply [garply]
If an input is the empty list, as in the last example above,
it contributes nothing to the output.
list list -- Operation, two inputs.
The output is a list of two elements, namely, the two inputs.
The inputs may be words or lists.
fput fput -- Operation, two inputs.
The first input may be any Logo object; the second must be a
list. The output is a list which is identical with the second
input except that it has an extra first member, namely, the
first input.
lput lput -- Operation, two inputs.
The first input may be any Logo object; the second must be a
list. The output is a list which is identical with the second
input except that it has an extra last member, namely, the
first input.
first f first -- Operation, one input. Abbreviation: f
The input may be any non-empty Logo object. If the input is a
list, the output is its first member. If the input is a word,
the output is a single-letter word, namely the first letter of
the input. If the input is empty (a word or list of length
zero) an error results.
last l last -- Operation, one input. Abbreviation: l
The input may be any non-empty Logo object. If the input is a
list, the output is its last member. If the input is a word,
the output is a single-letter word, namely the last letter of
the input. If the input is empty (a word or list of length
zero) an error results.
butfirst bf butfirst -- Operation, one input. Abbreviation: bf
The input may be any non-empty Logo object. If the input is a
LOGO PRIMITIVE PROCEDURES Page 3-6
list, the output is a list equal to the input list with the
first member removed. (If the input list has only one member,
empty list the output is the empty list, a list of zero members.) If the
input is a word, the output is a word equal to the input word
with the first letter removed. (If the input is a
empty word single-letter word, the output is the empty word.) If the
input is empty, an error results.
butlast bl butlast -- Operation, one input. Abbreviation: bl
The input may be any non-empty Logo object. If the input is a
list, the output is a list equal to the input list with the
last member removed. (If the input list has only one member,
empty list the output is the empty list, a list of zero members.) If the
input is a word, the output is a word equal to the input word
with the last letter removed. (If the input is a
empty word single-letter word, the output is the empty word.) If the
input is empty, an error results.
count count -- Operation, one input.
The input may be any Logo object. If the input is a list, the
output is a number indicating the number of members in the
list. (Note: only top-level members are counted, not members
of members. The count of the list
[[This is] [a list]]
is 2, not 4.) If the input is a word, the output is the number
of letters (or other characters) in the word. Remember that
in Logo a number is just a particular kind of word, so the
count output from count can be manipulated like any other Logo word.
emptyp emptyp -- Operation (predicate), one input.
true The input can be any Logo object. The output is the word true
if the input is of length zero (i.e., it is the empty word or
false the empty list). The output is the word false otherwise.
wordp wordp -- Operation (predicate), one input.
true The input can be any Logo object. The output is the word true
false if the input is a word. The output is the word false if the
input is a list.
sentencep sentencep -- Operation (predicate), one input.
true The input can be any Logo object. The output is the word true
if the input is a sentence, i.e., a list of words. The output
false is the word false if the input is a word, or if any member of
the input is a list.
is is -- Operation (predicate), two inputs.
The inputs can be any Logo objects. The output is the word
LOGO PRIMITIVE PROCEDURES Page 3-7
true true if the two inputs are identical. That is, they must be
of the same type (both words or both lists), they must have
the same count, and their members (if lists) or their
characters (if words) must be identical. The output is the
false word false otherwise. (Note: this is an exception to the
convention that names of predicates end with the letter "p".)
memberp memberp -- Operation (predicate), two inputs.
If the second input is a word, the first input must be a word
true of length one (a single character), and the output is true if
and only if the first input is contained in the second as a
character. If the second input is a list, the first input can
true be any Logo object, and the output is true if and only if the
first input is a member of the second input. (Note that this
is member, not subset.)
item nth item -- Operation, two inputs. Abbreviation: nth
The first input must be a positive integer less than or equal
count to the count of the second input. If the second input is a
word, the output is a word of length one containing the
selected character from the word. (Items are numbered from 1,
not 0.) If the second input is a list, the output is the
selected member of the list.
LOGO PRIMITIVE PROCEDURES Page 3-8
3.3 TURTLES AND GRAPHICS
An important part of the Logo environment is a rich set of
applications to which the computer can be directed. The most
turtle geometry important of these is turtle geometry, a way of describing paths of
motion in a plane which is well-suited to computer programming.
There are two ways to use the turtle procedures. First, you can
floor turtle control a floor turtle, a small robot which can move one the floor
or on a table under computer control. Second, you can use a
display turtle display turtle to draw pictures on the TV screen of a graphics
terminal.
Each computer center has a different variety of graphics hardware
available. Floor turtles are very different from display turtles,
but also each kind of display terminal has different
characteristics. For example, some terminals can draw in several
colors; others can't. The following descriptions of graphics
primitives explain the "best" case for each one and mention
restrictions on some graphics devices.
The floor turtle can draw pictures on paper, because it has a pen
attached to its "belly": the underside of the turtle. Since it is
a mechanical device, however, it is not very precise; the pictures
you get may not be exactly like what your program specifies. A
more interesting way to use the floor turtle is to take advantage
touch sensors of its touch sensors. Switches under the turtle's dome allow the
computer to know when the turtle bumps into an obstacle. You can
use this information to write programs to get around obstacles or
to follow a maze.
The display turtle lives on the surface of a TV screen. It can
draw pictures more precisely than the floor turtle, since it does
not measure distances and angles mechanically. It is also faster
than the floor turtle. When using the display turtle, remember
that it interprets commands relative to its own position and
left direction, just as the floor turtle does. The command left, for
example, turns the turtle to its own left, which may or may not be
toward the left side of the TV screen.
turtle tur turtle -- Command, one input. Abbreviation: tur
The input is the name of a turtle. You can only control one
turtle at a time, so using this command a second time releases
the turtle previously selected. The names of floor turtles
0 1 are numbers like 0 and 1. If you are using a graphics display
terminal (not just a text display trminal), you can control
display the display turtle by using the word display (or the
dpy abbreviation dpy) as the turtle name. (As usual, the word
must be preceded by a quotation mark.) If you use a graphics
primitive without selecting a turtle, Logo assumes that you
want to use the display turtle. But once you select a floor
turtle "display turtle, you must say turtle "display explicitly to switch to
the display.
LOGO PRIMITIVE PROCEDURES Page 3-9
off turtle The word off as input to the turtle command releases a floor
turtle, if you have one, or turns off the graphics display if
you have been using the display turtle. This also happens
when you leave Logo.
forward fd forward -- Command, one input. Abbreviation: fd
The input is a number, the distance you would like the turtle
to move. For a floor turtle, the unit of distance is however
far the turtle can travel in 1/30 second. For a display
turtle, the unit is one dot on the TV screen. (Note: on some
displays, one dot horizontally may not be the same length as
setscrunch one dot vertically. The setscrunch command allows you to
control the relative sizes so that squares come out square.)
The turtle moves in whatever direction it is pointing when you
use the command.
back bk back -- Command, one input. Abbreviation: bk
forward The input is a number, a distance to move, as in the forward
command. The difference is that the turtle moves backward,
i.e., in the direction exactly opposite to the way it's
pointing.
left lt left -- Command, one input. Abbreviation: lt
The input is a number, the number of degrees of angle through
which the turtle should turn counterclockwise. This command
position does not change the position of the turtle, but merely its
heading heading (the direction in which it points). The turn will be
only approximately correct for the floor turtle, because of
mechanical errors. For the display turtle, the angle will be
perfectly reproducible, although it may not look quite right
on the screen because of the difference in size between
horizontal and vertical dots. Nevertheless, a display turtle
program will work in the sense that when the turtle is
supposed to return to its starting point, it will do so.
right rt right -- Command, one input. Abbreviation: rt
The input is a number; the turtle turns through the specified
number of degrees clockwise.
penup pu penup -- Command, no inputs. Abbreviation: pu
This command tells the turtle to raise its pen from the paper,
so that it does not leave a trace when it moves. In the case
of the display turtle, there is no physical pen to move
forward back mechanically, but the effect is the same: any forward or back
commands after this point do not draw a line. The floor
turtle starts with its pen up; the display turtle starts with
its pen down. Note: the floor turtle will not move on the
carpet correctly with its pen down; put it on a smooth surface
if you want to draw pictures.
LOGO PRIMITIVE PROCEDURES Page 3-10
pendown pd pendown -- Command, no inputs. Abbreviation: pd
This command tells the turtle to lower its pen, so that later
commands will draw lines when the turtle moves.
penerase pe penerase -- Command, no inputs. Abbreviation: pe
This command tells the turtle to "lower its eraser", so that
lines previously drawn will be erased when retraced by the
turtle. It only works with the display turtle. The commands
penup pendown penerase penreverse penup, pendown, penerase, and penreverse are mutually
exclusive; whichever was most recently used is the one which
affects the turtle. (Graphics terminals which cannot
selectively erase lines, such as Tektronix displays, will
penerase pendown treat penerase as pendown.)
penreverse px penreverse -- Command, no inputs. Abbreviation: px
This command tells the display turtle to lower its "reversing
pen"; thereafter, when the turtle moves, it turns on any
points which were off, and turns off any points which were on.
penup pendown penerase penreverse The commands penup, pendown, penerase, and penreverse are
mutually exclusive; whichever was most recently used is the
one which affects the turtle. (Note: Graphics terminals
pendown which cannot penreverse will treat this command as pendown.)
penmode penmode -- Operation, no inputs.
This operation applies to the floor or the display turtle. It
penup pendown penerase outputs one of the words penup, pendown, penerase, or
penreverse penreverse, depending on the current state of the turtle's
pen.
lampon lon lampon -- Command, no inputs. Abbreviation: lon
This command applies only to the floor turtle; it turns on the
headlamps on the front of the turtle.
lampoff loff lampoff -- Command, no inputs. Abbreviation: loff
This command turns off the floor turtle's headlamps.
hitoot hit hitoot -- Command, one input. Abbreviation: hit
This command applies only to the floor turtle. It sounds the
turtle's horn at the higher of its two pitches. The input is
a number which indicates the number of quarter-seconds to toot
the horn. Note: large numbers are likely to lead to violent
behavior on the part of other computer users.
lotoot lot lotoot -- Command, one input. Abbreviation: lot
This command sounds the floor turtle's horn at the lower of
its two pitches. The input is the duration of the toot.
LOGO PRIMITIVE PROCEDURES Page 3-11
ftouch fto ftouch -- Operation (predicate), no inputs. Abbreviation: fto
This operation can be used only with the floor turtle. It has
true as its output the word true if the front of the turtle is
false touching an obstacle; otherwise it has the word false as its
output.
btouch bto btouch -- Operation (predicate), no inputs. Abbreviation: bto
This operation can be used only with the floor turtle. It has
true as its output the word true if the back of the turtle is
false touching an obstacle; otherwise it has the word false as its
output.
ltouch lto ltouch -- Operation (predicate), no inputs. Abbreviation: lto
This operation can be used only with the floor turtle. It has
true as its output the word true if the left side of the turtle is
false touching an obstacle; otherwise it has the word false as its
output.
rtouch rto rtouch -- Operation (predicate), no inputs. Abbreviation: rto
This operation can be used only with the floor turtle. It has
true as its output the word true if the right side of the turtle is
false touching an obstacle; otherwise it has the word false as its
output.
clearscreen cs clearscreen -- Command, no inputs. Abbreviation: cs
This command applies only to the display turtle. It erases
everything on the TV screen, and restores the turtle to its
initial position and heading (center of the screen, facing
toward the top edge).
wipeclean clean wipeclean -- Command, no inputs. Abbreviation: clean
This command applies only to the display turtle. It erases
everything on the TV screen, but does not change the turtle's
position or heading.
fullscreen full fullscreen -- Command, no inputs. Abbreviation: full
This command applies only to the Atari display turtle. It
eliminates the use of the bottom four lines of the screen to
display the commands you type; instead, the entire screen is
available to show the picture drawn by the turtle. However,
you can no longer see what you're typing. The command may be
used after the picture is already drawn; the part "hidden" by
the text at the bottom of the screen will become visible. On
fullscreen splitscreen other displays, fullscreen and splitscreen are equivalent;
they make the entire screen available for graphics, and text
appears on the bottom line (Gigis) or superimposed (ADMs), or
somewhere.
LOGO PRIMITIVE PROCEDURES Page 3-12
splitscreen split splitscreen -- Command, no inputs. Abbreviation: split
This command applies only to the Atari display turtle. It
restores the normal text display at the bottom of the screen,
full undoing the effect of the full command. On other displays,
fullscreen splitscreen fullscreen and splitscreen are equivalent; they make the
entire screen available for graphics, with text superimposed
in a display-dependent area.
textscreen text textscreen -- Command, no inputs. Abbreviation: text
This command applies only to the display turtle. It
temporarily removes the turtle display from the screen, making
the entire screen available for text display. The commands
fullscreen splitscreen fullscreen and splitscreen will restore the graphics display.
Note: On the Atari display, the picture on the screen is
fullscreen remembered, so that when you return to fullscreen or
splitscreen splitscreen mode, the picture returns to the screen. On other
displays, the picture is forgotten, and you return to an empty
graphics screen.
hideturtle ht hideturtle -- Command, no inputs. Abbreviation: ht
This command applies only to the display turtle. It erases
the display of the turtle itself from the screen, so that only
the lines drawn when the turtle moves are visible. The
display is faster when the turtle is hidden (only slightly
faster on the Atari, but much faster on other terminals).
Also, once a graphics program is debugged, it may be prettier
to watch without the turtle visible. (Note: On the Tektronix
display, the turtle is never visible, because the terminal
cannot erase selectively.)
showturtle st showturtle -- Command, no inputs. Abbreviation: st
This command applies only to the display turtle. It restores
hideturtle the display of the turtle, after the hideturtle command has
been used. (Note: On the Tektronix display, the turtle is
never visible.)
shownp shownp -- Operation (predicate), no inputs.
This predicate applies only to the display turtle. It outputs
true false the word true if the turtle is visible on the TV screen, false
otherwise.
pencolor penc pencolor -- Command, one input. Abbreviation: penc
This command applies only to the display turtle. Its effect
is different depending on how each type of terminal supports
color. For the Atari, the input must be an integer between 0
and 6. An input of 0 enters black-and-white display mode
(which is the turtle's initial mode), in which lines are as
thin as possible but there is no control of color. Any other
input selects color mode, in which lines are twice as thick,
LOGO PRIMITIVE PROCEDURES Page 3-13
so the effective size of the screen is smaller, but colors can
be used. There are, in color mode, three possible pen colors,
numbered 1 to 3. There are 256 possible colors, but only
setcolor three can be on the screen at a time; the setcolor command is
used to decide which pen draws in which actual color. If the
input is 4, 5, or 6, the color is that of pen 1, 2, or 3,
respectively, but lines are drawn in "fill mode": for each
point inked, all points to its right are also inked until a
point is reached which was already inked. On the Gigi, there
is only one mode, and there is no loss of resolution in using
color. The input must be between 0 and 7; 0 means black, 7
means white. The ADM, Tektronix, and Sun displays do not have
multi-color drawing.
setcolor setc setcolor -- Command, two inputs. Abbreviation: setc
This command applies only to the Atari display turtle. The
first input must be an integer between 0 and 3. If the input
is nonzero, the second input specifies the color for the pen
selected by the first input. If the first input is zero, the
second input specifies the background color for the color
graphics display. The second input is either an integer
between 0 and 15, which is a color number, or a list of two
integers, in which case the first is a color number and the
second is an intensity number, an integer between 0 and 7.
setxy setxy -- Command, two inputs.
The two inputs must be numbers. The turtle is moved to the
point on the screen whose x (horizontal) coordinate is the
first input, and whose y (vertical) coordinate is the second
input. The center of the screen, where the turtle starts, has
both coordinates zero. If the pen is down, this command draws
a line. This command applies only to the display turtle.
setheading seth setheading -- Command, one input. Abbreviation: seth
The input must be a number. The turtle's heading is set to
the input, taken in degrees. Zero points straight up, as the
turtle starts out; positive headings are clockwise from zero.
This command applies only to the display turtle.
towardsxy towardsxy -- Operation, two inputs.
This operation applies only to the display turtle. The two
inputs must be numbers, which are the x and y coordinates of a
point on the TV screen. The output is a number which is the
heading to which the turtle must be set, in order to point
towards that point from its current position. Note: this
operation does not actually move or turn the turtle. You must
setheading use it as the input to setheading if that is what you want.
xcor xcor -- Operation, no inputs.
The output is the turtle's current x (horizontal) coordinate.
LOGO PRIMITIVE PROCEDURES Page 3-14
The operation works only with the display turtle.
ycor ycor -- Operation, no inputs.
The output is the turtle's current y (vertical) coordinate.
This operation works only with the display turtle.
heading heading -- Operation, no inputs.
The output is the turtle's current heading in degrees. This
operation works only with the display turtle.
getpen getpen -- Operation, no inputs.
The output is the turtle's current pen color, or (on the
Atari) zero if in black-and-white mode. This operation works
only with the display turtle.
setscrunch setscrun setscrunch -- Command, one input. Abbreviation: setscrun
This command is used only for display turtles. The input must
be a number. The vertical component of turtle motion is
multiplied by this number before each motion is taken. If
squares come out too wide on your screen, you should increase
the number; if too tall, you should decrease it. (You can
setscrunch also use setscrunch to deform the turtle's motion on purpose,
so for example a circle program will draw an ellipse instead.)
The initial scrunch value depends on the terminal you are
using: for the Atari and the Gigi, it is around 0.8 (your
particular computer center will adjust this for the particular
TV monitors you use), but for the ADM, Tektronix, and Sun, it
is 1.0 because these terminals display the same size steps
horizontally and vertically.
scrunch scrunch -- Operation, no inputs.
This operation is used only for display turtles. It outputs a
number, which is the scrunch factor (or aspect ratio) by which
vertical motion is multiplied before it is displayed. This
setscrunch number is changed using the setscrunch command.
LOGO PRIMITIVE PROCEDURES Page 3-15
3.4 ARITHMETIC
Several procedures are available for arithmetic operations on
numbers. In all cases, the inputs to these procedures must be
numbers, except as otherwise indicated in the individual
descriptions.
In general, procedures are used in Logo by typing first the name of
the procedure, then its inputs. This is true of arithmetic
procedures also, e.g.
sum 3 2
However, for some arithmetic operations, Logo also recognizes the
infix more traditional infix notation, with the operation between the two
inputs:
3 + 2
Be warned, though, that the use of infix forms makes it difficult
for Logo to know how to group operations, unless parentheses are
used. If you stick to the standard (in Logo) prefix notation, the
grouping is always unambiguous. For example, the first two of
these three instructions are equivalent, but the third is not:
if equalp count "hello 5 [print "Yes.]
if (count "hello) = 5 [print "Yes.]
if count "hello = 5 [print "Yes.]
The reason for the error message produced by the last of those
three instructions is that Logo interprets it as
if count equalp "hello 5 [print "Yes.]
hello That is, the equality test is done first, on the word hello itself,
hello rather than first taking the count of hello as was intended.
sum + sum -- Operation, two inputs. Infix: +
The output of this procedure is the sum of the two inputs.
difference diff - difference -- Operation, two inputs. Abbreviation: diff Infix: -
The output of this procedure is the difference of the two
inputs.
product product -- Operation, two inputs. Infix:
T The output of this procedure is the product of the two inputs.
quotient / quotient -- Operation, two inputs. Infix: /
LOGO PRIMITIVE PROCEDURES Page 3-16
The output of this procedure is the quotient of the two
inputs. If both inputs are integers, the output is also an
integer; the remainder of the division is lost. If either
input is not an integer, the quotient can include a fractional
part. Therefore, these two are not the same:
quotient 2 3 quotient 2.0 3
remainder mod \ remainder -- Operation, two inputs. Abbreviation: mod Infix: \
The inputs to this procedure must be integers. The output is
also an integer, and is the remainder of dividing the first
input by the second.
maximum max maximum -- Operation, two inputs. Abbreviation: max
The output of this procedure is equal to whichever of the two
inputs is numerically greater.
minimum min minimum -- Operation, two inputs. Abbreviation: min
The output of this procedure is equal to whichever of the two
inputs is numerically smaller.
greaterp > greaterp -- Operation (predicate), two inputs. Infix: >
true The output of this procedure is the word true if the first
input is numerically strictly greater than the second input.
false Otherwise the output is the word false.
lessp < lessp -- Operation (predicate), two inputs. Infix: <
true The output of this procedure is the word true if the first
input is numerically strictly less than the second input.
false Otherwise the output is the word false.
equalp = equalp -- Operation (predicate), two inputs. Infix: =
The two inputs to this procedure may be any Logo objects. If
true they are numbers, then the output is the word true if they are
false numerically equal, false if they are numerically unequal. If
either input is not a number, then the output is the same as
is true for the procedure is: it is true if the two inputs are
false 2 2.0 identical, false if not. For example, the numbers 2 and 2.0
are numerically equal, but not identical.
numberp numberp -- Operation (predicate), one input.
true The input may be any Logo object. The output is the word true
false if the input is a number, false if not.
zerop zerop -- Operation (predicate), one input.
true The input must be a number. The output is the word true if
LOGO PRIMITIVE PROCEDURES Page 3-17
false the input is numerically equal to zero, false otherwise.
random random -- Operation, no inputs.
The output from this procedure is an integer between 0 and 9,
i.e., a single digit. It is chosen randomly, so the output
may be different each time the procedure is used.
rnd rnd -- Operation, one input.
The input must be a positive integer. The output is a
randomly selected integer between 0 and one less than the
input.
sqrt sqrt -- Operation, one input.
The input must be a nonnegative number. The output is its
square root.
pow pow -- Operation, two inputs.
The inputs must be numbers. If the first is negative, the
second must be an integer. The output is the first number
raised to the power of the second input.
sin sin -- Operation, one input.
The input must be numeric. The output is the sine of the
input, taken in degrees, not radians.
cos cos -- Operation, one input.
The input must be numeric. The output is the cosine of the
input, taken in degrees, not radians.
arctan atan arctan -- Operation, one input. Abbreviation: atan
The input must be numeric. The output is the arctangent, in
degrees, of the input.
LOGO PRIMITIVE PROCEDURES Page 3-18
3.5 CONDITIONAL EXECUTION
wordp The predicates (like wordp) which we've mentioned above can be used
to carry out some command only if a condition is met. The basic
if command for the purpose is if:
if if -- Command or operation, two or three inputs.
if The first input to the if procedure must be either the word
true false true or the word false. Typically, it is the output from a
predicate. The second and (optional) third inputs are lists
containing instruction lines. The second input is executed if
true the first input is true. The third input, if any, is executed
false if the first input is false:
to greet :person to greet :person
if equalp :person [Ronald Reagan] [print [Hi, turkey!]] \ if equalp :person [Ronald Reagan] [print [Hi, turkey!]] \
[print sentence "Hi, :person] [print sentence "Hi, :person]
end end
if In that example, the first input to if is the output from the
expression
equalp :person [Ronald Reagan] equalp :person [Ronald Reagan].
if The if procedure can be used as an operation, producing a
value. In this case, the third input is required:
print if equalp :person "Reagan ["Loser] ["Winner] print if equalp :person "Reagan ["Loser] ["Winner]
test test -- Command, one input.
true false The input must be the word true or the word false. The
iftrue command remembers its input for use in a later iftrue or
iffalse if iffalse command. This is an alternative to if which is useful
if several instructions are to be made conditional on the same
condition. The remembered truth value is local to the current
procedure, if any.
iftrue ift iftrue -- Command, one input. Abbreviation: ift
The input must be an instruction list. It is run if the most
test true recent test command saved a true value.
iffalse iff iffalse -- Command, one input. Abbreviation: iff
The input must be an instruction list. It is run if the most
test false recent test command saved a false value.
both and both -- Operation (predicate), two inputs. Abbreviation: and
true false The two inputs must both be either true or false. The output
true true is true if both inputs are true; otherwise the output is
false false.
LOGO PRIMITIVE PROCEDURES Page 3-19
either or either -- Operation (predicate), two inputs. Abbreviation: or
true false The two inputs must be either true or false. The output is
true true true if at least one of the inputs is true; otherwise the
false output is false.
not not -- Operation (predicate), one input.
true false true The input must be either true or false. The output is true if
false the input is false, and vice versa.
LOGO PRIMITIVE PROCEDURES Page 3-20
3.6 FILE INPUT AND OUTPUT
In the VMS operating system, there are two steps in reading or
opened writing files: first, the file must be opened, thereby associating
a "file descriptor" (an integer) with the file name; second, the
file descriptor is used to specify the file for each read or write
operation. Logo has primitive procedures for each of these steps.
openread openr openread -- Operation, one input. Abbreviation: openr
The input to this procedure is a word, which must be a VMS
filename. It can contain slashes to indicate directory names.
If the file can be opened for reading, the output from the
procedure is a file descriptor, which should be stored in a
variable for use in reading the file. If the file cannot be
opened, an error results.
fileread fird fileread -- Operation, one input. Abbreviation: fird
The input must be a file descriptor, previously output by
openread openread. The procedure reads one line from the file. The
output is the line, in the form of a list. (That is, the
output is the file line as if enclosed in square brackets in a
program.) If the end of the file has been reached, the output
is the empty word. If the file line contains mismatched
brackets, trouble may result.
fileword fiwd fileword -- Operation, one input. Abbreviation: fiwd
The input must be a file descriptor, open for reading. The
procedure reads one line from the file. The output is that
line, in the form of a single word, including spaces and
punctuation characters. If the end of the file has been
reached, the output is the empty list.
openwrite openw openwrite -- Operation, one input. Abbreviation: openw
The input must be a VMS filename. The file is opened for
writing (replacing any previous version), if allowed, and the
output is a file descriptor, for use by file printing commands
below. If the file cannot be opened, an error results.
fileprint fip fileprint -- Command, two inputs. Abbreviation: fip
filetype fity filetype -- Command, two inputs. Abbreviation: fity
filefprint fifp filefprint -- Command, two inputs. Abbreviation: fifp
fileftype fifty fileftype -- Command, two inputs. Abbreviation: fifty
The first input must be a file descriptor previously output by
openwrite openwrite. The second input is any object. The second input
is printed (typed, fprinted, ftyped) into the file.
close close -- Command, one input.
The input must be a file descriptor. The file is closed.
LOGO PRIMITIVE PROCEDURES Page 3-21
This must
be done when you've finished reading or writing the file.
Sample program:
make "fd openwrite "outfile make "fd openwrite "outfile
fileprint :fd "Hello. fileprint :fd "Hello.
close :fd close :fd
outfile This will create a file named outfile containing the word
Hello. Hello.
LOGO PRIMITIVE PROCEDURES Page 3-22
3.7 PROCEDURE EXIT
A procedure written by a user, in Logo, can be a command or an
operation. If it is an operation, you must, in the procedure, say
what its output should be. If it is a command, it can simply stop
at the end of the procedure, or you can explicitly make it stop
before the end.
output op output -- Command, one input. Abbreviation: op
This command is used in a user procedure which is meant to be
an operation. The input to this command becomes the output
from the user procedure. Please don't be confused by the fact
output that the user procedure is an operation, while the output
primitive procedure is a command used in that procedure.
Example:
to nickname :person to nickname :person
if equalp :person [Peter Parker] [output "Spiderman] if equalp :person [Peter Parker] [output "Spiderman]
if equalp :person [Lamont Cranston] [output "Shadow] if equalp :person [Lamont Cranston] [output "Shadow]
output first :person output first :person
end end
stop stop -- Command, no inputs.
This command is used in user procedures which are meant to be
commands. It stops the user procedure. (Note that it does
not stop all running procedures. If user procedure A runs
stop user procedure B, a stop command in procedure B returns to
procedure A, which continues after the point where procedure B
was invoked.)
toplevel top toplevel -- Command, no inputs. Abbreviation: top
This command stops all running procedures. The user at the
terminal is prompted to type another command. This can be
used when a user procedure discovers some error condition and
wants to abort the entire program, for example.
LOGO PRIMITIVE PROCEDURES Page 3-23
3.8 PROPERTY LISTS
It is possible to associate with any name a list of "properties".
A property list contains property names and property values. For
example:
pprop "bh "firstname "Brian pprop "bh "firstname "Brian
pprop "bh "lastname "Harvey pprop "bh "lastname "Harvey
The form of a property list is
[name1 val1 name2 val2 name3 val3]
Although this data structure could be created using other Logo
primitives, special property list primitives are provided because
they are faster. The property lists do not share storage with Logo
variables, so you can change the value of any property without
having to recopy the entire property list as you would ordinarily.
The following primitives manipulate property lists.
pprop pprop -- Command, three inputs.
The first input, which must be a word, is a name with which a
property list is associated. The second input, which must be
a word, is the name of a property. The third input can be any
Logo object. It becomes the value of the specified property
of the specified name.
gprop gprop -- Operation, two inputs.
Both inputs must be words. The first is a name, and the
second is a property name. The output is the value of the
indicated property of the indicated object. It is not an
error if there is no such property; the output in that case is
the empty list.
remprop remprop -- Command, two inputs.
gprop The inputs must be words, as for gprop. The specified
property is removed from the specified name.
plist plist -- Operation, one input.
The input must be a word, which is a name. The output is the
property list of the specified name. Note: the output is
actually a copy of the property list. The real property list
is not a Logo list. Any later changes to the properties of
the specified name will not change the list which was output
plist by an earlier plist.
pps pps -- Command, no inputs.
All properties of all names are listed on your terminal.
LOGO PRIMITIVE PROCEDURES Page 3-24
3.9 PAUSING
When you are debugging a complicated Logo program, it is very
helpful to be able to stop in the middle of a procedure, so that
you can give interactive commands to examine its inputs and other
local variables. This is different from stopping a procedure,
which destroys its local environment. There are three ways a
pause procedure can pause: (1) You can include the command pause in the
procedure definition, to make the procedure pause at a particular
place you choose in advance; (2) you can decide to pause a
procedure while it is running by typing the system "interrupt"
character (this is control-C at Lincoln-Sudbury but is different on
other systems); or (3) you can arrange for an error in the
processing of the procedure to pause instead of stopping as it
usually does.
Note that when you type the system "quit" character (control-G at
Lincoln-Sudbury) Logo does not pause, but returns to toplevel. All
information about the local state of your active procedures is
lost.
When you are paused, Logo accepts instructions from your terminal
as it does at toplevel, but local variables can be examined or
modified. To let you know that you are paused, Logo prompts with
-* * the characters "-*" instead of just "*" as usual. It is possible
to pause within a procedure within a pause; in this case your
--* prompt is "--*" to indicate two levels of pause. This can be
continued to higher levels.
To get out of a pause, there are three things you can do. You can
toplevel give the command toplevel, which stops all pending procedures and
stop returns to interactive top level. You can give the command stop or
output the command output with an input, which will terminate the current
procedure (without or with an output respectively) and return to
continue its calling procedure. Or you can give the command continue, which
will resume the procedure at the point where you paused.
pause pause -- Command, no inputs.
This command is meaningful only within a procedure. It causes
a pause.
continue co continue -- Command, no inputs. Abbreviation: co
This command is meaningful only when typed during an
interactive pause. It continues the current procedure from
where it was paused.
errpause errpause -- Command, no inputs.
This command tells Logo that any errors which happen during
procedure execution from now on should cause a pause, rather
than a return to toplevel.
LOGO PRIMITIVE PROCEDURES Page 3-25
errquit errquit -- Command, no inputs.
This command tells Logo that any errors which happen during
procedure execution from now on should return to toplevel,
rather than pausing. This is the initial state of affairs
when you start Logo.
setqpause setqpause -- Command, no inputs.
This command tells Logo that from now on, the system quit
character should pause, and the system interrupt character
should return to toplevel. This is the reverse of the usual
interpretation. This command is provided for people whose
systems or keyboards make one of these characters easier to
type than the other. In particular, under Eunice there is
only an interrupt character, not a quit character.
setipause setipause -- Command, no inputs.
This command tells Logo that from now on, the system interrupt
character should pause, and the system quit character should
return to toplevel. This is the initial state of affairs when
you start Logo.
LOGO PRIMITIVE PROCEDURES Page 3-26
3.10 MISCELLANEOUS PRIMITIVES
The remaining primitives are one of a kind, or very obscure, or
both.
goodbye bye goodbye -- Command, no inputs. Abbreviation: bye
This command is used to leave Logo. It is the only way out,
unless there is a bug somewhere.
thing thing -- Operation, one input.
The input must be a word, and must be the name of a variable.
The output is the value of the variable. These are
equivalent:
:foo :foo
thing "foo thing "foo
namep namep -- Operation (predicate), one input.
true The input must be a word. The output is true if that word is
false the name of a variable which has a value assigned to it, false
otherwise.
wait wait -- Command, one input.
The input must be a positive integer. Logo waits that many
seconds before continuing.
trace trace -- Command, no inputs.
This command is used for debugging your Logo programs. After
you use this command, every time a user-defined procedure
starts or stops, a message is typed at your terminal naming
the procedure and its inputs or its output, if any. The
message is indented according to the depth in procedure calls.
untrace untrace -- Command, no inputs.
trace This command turns off the trace messages started by the trace
command.
run run -- Command or operation, one input.
The input must be a list, containing a Logo instruction line.
The list is run as if you typed it directly to Logo. Example:
to while :condition :cmd to while :condition :cmd
if not run :condition [stop] if not run :condition [stop]
run :cmd run :cmd
while :condition :cmd while :condition :cmd
end end
LOGO PRIMITIVE PROCEDURES Page 3-27
make "number 1 make "number 1
while [:number < 5] [print :number; make "number :number+1] while [:number < 5] [print :number; make "number :number+1]
run The run procedure can be used as an operation, if its input is
a Logo expression which produces a value, instead of a
complete instruction:
print run [sum 2 3] print run [sum 2 3]
repeat repeat -- Command, two inputs.
The first input must be a positive number. The second is an
run instruction list, as for the run command. The list is run
repeatedly, the number of times specified by the first input:
repeat 5 [print "hello] repeat 5 [print "hello]
repcount repcount -- Operation, no inputs.
repeat This operation may be used only within the range of a repeat
command. It outputs the number of repetitions which have been
done, including the current one. That is, it outputs 1 the
first time through, 2 the second time, and so on.
break break -- Command, no inputs.
if This command is only meaningful within the range of an if
repeat command within the range of a repeat command. It terminates
the repeat immediately. If used in other contexts, the
results may be strange.
cbreak cbreak -- Command, one input.
on off The input must be either the word on or the word off. If the
on input is on, your terminal is placed in cbreak mode, which
means that what you type is made available to your program
every character, rather than every line. This must be done
readchar before the readchar procedure, below, will work. This
facility is good for writing video game programs or text
editors. While in cbreak mode, echo is turned off also.
readchar rc readchar -- Operation, no inputs. Abbreviation: rc
This operation waits for you to type a single character at
your terminal. The output is a word containing only that
character. This works only if you have turned on cbreak mode;
see above.
keyp keyp -- Operation (predicate), no inputs.
true This procedure outputs true if there is a character waiting to
be read from the terminal, if you are in cbreak mode. If not,
true it outputs true if there is an entire line waiting to be read.
oflush oflush -- Command, no inputs.
LOGO PRIMITIVE PROCEDURES Page 3-28
Normally, when you tell Logo to print something, the printing
is not done right away. Instead, Logo remembers everything
you tell it to print, and the printing is done all at once the
next time Logo is waiting for you to type something. This
arrangement makes Logo much faster than it would be if
oflush everything were printed immediately. The oflush command tells
Logo to print whatever you've previously asked for right away,
without waiting.
help help -- Command, no inputs.
This command types at your terminal a brief message about Logo
and how to use it.
describe describe -- Command, one input.
The input must be the name of a Logo primitive procedure. A
brief explanation of that primitive is typed at your terminal.
If the input begins with the character "?" then describe will
list all the primitive procedures which contain the rest of
the input as a substring. If the input is just the character
"?", describe will list the names of ALL the LOGO primitive
procedures. This use of "?" is handy for trying to remember
the name of a primitive procedure so that you can use describe
again without the "?" to obtain its description.
Examples:
describe "print
describes the primitive procedure 'print'
describe "?pri
lists the names of all primitive procedures which contain
the string "pri", e.g. print, fprint, fileprint, and
filefprint
describe "?
lists the name of all the LOGO primitive procedures
go go -- Command, one input.
This command can be used only inside a procedure. The input
must be a number. The same number must appear at the
beginning of some line in the same procedure. (This line
number is otherwise ignored.) The next command executed will
be the one on the indicated line in the definition. Note:
there is always a better way to do it. If you have previously
programmed in BASIC, your only hope of ever really learning
go how to program computers is NEVER EVER to use the go command!
debquit debquit -- Command, no inputs.
This command is meant to be used only for debugging Logo
itself. It is explained here only for completeness. After
LOGO PRIMITIVE PROCEDURES Page 3-29
this command is used, the QUIT signal is not caught by Logo,
so it will cause a core dump.
memtrace memtrace -- Command, no inputs.
This command is meant to be used only for debugging Logo
itself. It is explained here only for completeness. After
this command is used, every allocation or deallocation of
memory, and every character parsed by the interpreter, types
an incomprehensible message at your terminal.
yaccdebug yaccdebug -- Command, no inputs.
This command is meant to be used only for debugging Logo
itself. It is explained here only for completeness. After
this command is used, every state transition in the yacc
parser types an incomprehensible message at your terminal.
CHAPTER 4
THE LOGO LIBRARY
The LOGO library contains Logo procedures which are available to
pots all users. They are listed by pots, and can be thought of as
pseudo-primitives which happen to be written in Logo. Some of
these procedures are only useful in conjunction with the teaching
units used in Introduction to Computers, but others are generally
useful. This manual does not fully document the Logo library,
because it changes too often. Look through the library directory
listp home pos setpos yourself if you want. The procedures listp, home, pos, setpos,
towards setx sety towards, setx, and sety in the library are provided for partial
compatibility with Apple Logo.
The library is identified by the logical LOGO$LIBRARY. Library
show routines may be inspected using the show command (but they may not
be erased or changed). Most library procedures are well commented,
pots so that if you execute the pots command to list them out and then
show use the show command to read the descriptive comment, you should be
able to figure out the correct use of the library procedures.
"" Page Index-1
INDEX
3-17 3-16arctan, 3-17 greaterp, 3-16
Arithmetic, 3-15
3-14 heading, 3-14
3-9 3-28back, 3-9 help, 3-28
3-18 3-12both, 3-18 hideturtle, 3-12
3-27 3-10break, 3-27 hitoot, 3-10
3-11btouch, 3-11
3-5 3-18butfirst, 3-5 if, 3-18
3-6 3-18butlast, 3-6 iffalse, 3-18
3-18 iftrue, 3-18
3-27cbreak, 3-27 Infix notation, 3-15
Characters, 2-3 Input/output
3-11clearscreen, 3-11 file, 3-20
3-20close, 3-20 Inputs, Multiple, 2-2
Comments, 2-3 Interrupt character, 2-1
3-6Conditional execution, 3-18 is, 3-6
3-24 3-7continue, 3-24 item, 3-7
3-17cos, 3-17
3-6 3-27count, 3-6 keyp, 3-27
3-28 3-10debquit, 3-28 lampoff, 3-10
3-28 3-10describe, 3-28 lampon, 3-10
3-15 3-5difference, 3-15 last, 3-5
3-9Dynamic scoping, 2-7 left, 3-9
3-16 lessp, 3-16
3-2 3-5edit, 3-2 list, 3-5
3-18either, 3-18 Lists, 2-5
3-6emptyp, 3-6 bracketed, 2-6
3-16 2-7equalp, 3-16 local, 2-7
3-3 3-10erase, 3-3 lotoot, 3-10
3-24 3-5errpause, 3-24 lput, 3-5
3-25 3-11errquit, 3-25 ltouch, 3-11
3-20 2-6filefprint, 3-20 make, 2-6
3-20 3-16fileftype, 3-20 maximum, 3-16
3-20 3-7fileprint, 3-20 memberp, 3-7
3-20 3-29fileread, 3-20 memtrace, 3-29
3-20 3-16filetype, 3-20 minimum, 3-16
3-20fileword, 3-20 Multi-instruction lines, 2-3
3-5first, 3-5 Multi-line instructions, 2-3
3-9forward, 3-9
3-4 3-26fprint, 3-4 namep, 3-26
3-5 3-19fput, 3-5 not, 3-19
3-10 3-16ftouch, 3-10 numberp, 3-16
3-4ftype, 3-4 Numbers, 2-4
3-11fullscreen, 3-11 scientific notation, 2-5
signed, 2-5
3-14getpen, 3-14
3-28 3-27go, 3-28 oflush, 3-27
3-26 3-20goodbye, 3-26 openread, 3-20
3-23 3-20gprop, 3-23 openwrite, 3-20
"" Page Index-2
3-22 3-6output, 3-22 sentencep, 3-6
Output of a procedure, 2-2 Sentences, 2-5
3-13 setcolor, 3-13
3-24 3-13pause, 3-24 setheading, 3-13
3-25Pausing, 3-24 setipause, 3-25
3-12 3-25pencolor, 3-12 setqpause, 3-25
3-9 3-14pendown, 3-9 setscrunch, 3-14
3-10 3-13penerase, 3-10 setxy, 3-13
3-10 3-3penmode, 3-10 show, 3-3
3-10 3-12penreverse, 3-10 shownp, 3-12
3-9 3-12penup, 3-9 showturtle, 3-12
3-23 3-17plist, 3-23 sin, 3-17
3-3 3-11pots, 3-3 splitscreen, 3-11
3-17 3-17pow, 3-17 sqrt, 3-17
3-23pprop, 3-23 Starting LOGO, 2-1
3-23 3-22pps, 3-23 stop, 3-22
3-15Predicate, 2-2 sum, 3-15
Predicates, 3-18 Syntax, 2-1
3-4print, 3-4 System quit character
procedure see Interrupt character
defined, 1-1
3-18 definition, 1-1 test, 3-18
3-12 primitive, 1-1 textscreen, 3-12
3-26Procedure definition mode, 2-1 thing, 3-26
3-2Procedure exit, 3-22 to, 3-2
3-22Procedures toplevel, 3-22
3-13 definition of, 3-2 towardsxy, 3-13
3-15 3-26product, 3-15 trace, 3-26
3-8Prompts, 2-1 turtle, 3-8
Property lists, 3-23 Turtle graphics, 3-8
3-4 type, 3-4
Quit character
3-26 see Interrupt character untrace, 3-26
Quotation mark, 2-4
3-15quotient, 3-15 Variables, 2-6
assignment, 2-6
3-17random, 3-17 global, 2-7
3-27readchar, 3-27 local, 2-7
3-4readlist, 3-4
3-16 3-26remainder, 3-16 wait, 3-26
3-23 3-11remprop, 3-23 wipeclean, 3-11
3-27 3-4repcount, 3-27 word, 3-4
3-27 3-6repeat, 3-27 wordp, 3-6
3-4request, 3-4 Words, 2-3
3-9right, 3-9
3-17 3-13rnd, 3-17 xcor, 3-13
3-11rtouch, 3-11
3-26 3-29run, 3-26 yaccdebug, 3-29
3-14 ycor, 3-14
3-14scrunch, 3-14
3-4 3-16sentence, 3-4 zerop, 3-16
