Hi Logo enthusiasts

[David_Raftery@xxxx]

Hi everyone,

I signed up with the group this morning. I just finished reading 
Wendy's long post from 2/23/2001 on the cybercourse and thought I 
beter join up since my name is mentioned several times in her post
:-) 
I have been involved with Logo since I bought my Atari ST back in 
1986 (Digital Research Logo was the only programming language 
available for it in the beginning). I came to realize how powerful 
Logo is. I currently have MicroWorlds Pro, Terrapin Logo and Mach 
Turtles Logo installed on my computer. I have two children, a 10 year 
old son and a 6 year old daughter. I have introduced them both to
Logo 
but I don't want to push Logo on them. I want to let them discover it 
for themselves. So they are my audience!

I think the MWcybercourse is a great idea. I will be happy to help in 
my spare time. Some ideas I'll throw out are:

The Open Source movement is a great idea and has done a tremendous 
good for computing in general. Examples are Linux, Python and Squeak 
smalltalk. Do you think it would be good for the MWcybercourse to be 
"open source"? If at some later date a book comes out of this
project, 
all our contibuted material would be freely available to use in the 
book and any money that comes in after publishing it could be donated 
to a worthy group (maybe the Logo Foundation ?)

I am excited about the concept of creating Active Essays with MW
logo. 
Maybe we could explore this and provide examples of how to build them.

Apple's Hypercard product is a precursor of MW logo. Many books have 
beeen written on the subject. I am sure many hypercard ideas are 
transferable to MW logo.

The Python language is in the early stages of a project called 
Computer Programming for everyone (CP4E). They plan to develop course 
materials to teach children how to program in Python. I'm sure we can 
translate some of their ideas into logo.

A great book I have been reading on MicroWorlds is "MicroWorlds 2 
Hypermedia Project Development & Logo Scripting" by Sharon Yoder and 
available from ISTE Publications. The documentation that comes with
MW Logo Pro leaves a lot to be desired. I am one of those people who 
hates online documentation. I need a book in my hands to flip pages 
in.

My interests are more in the area of list procesing than turtle 
graphics, but I'll be happy to help wherever there is a need.

Feel free to use the collaborative web site for this MWcybercourse 
project as needed; the URL is http://www.wikiweb.com/~Logo/Start I 
added a link to create a page on MWcybercourse where people can start 
discussions. I do not own this site, I am merely the administrator for 
this logo wiki. 
The site is provided as a free service by wikiweb.com . Anyone can 
create their own wiki at this site for other discussions (sports, 
computing, whatever).

For those of you who haven't visited a wiki site yet, a little 
introduction. A wiki is a collaborative web site where any visitor
can edit existing pages and easily create new pages. You do not have 
to know HTML to use a wiki. When you select the edit page link, an 
edit window appears in your browser and you can edit the contents of 
the page. To create a hpertext link to a new or existing page, you 
type the name of the page as 2 or more words run together without 
spaces and surrounded by asterisks. Examples of links are : *NewPage*, 
*RecentVisitors*, *MyNewPageOnLogo*. When you finish editing the
page, click the save link and you will see your text as a web page. 
More detailed editing instructions cann be found on the wiki site. If 
people wish, I can post more information on using the wiki here or on 
LogoForum.

It's going to be fun and rewarding working with you all.
Have a great weekend.
Dave

Home: draftery@xxxx
Work: david_raftery@xxxx
Wikis: http://www.wikiweb.com/~Logo/Start
http://www.wikiweb.com/~RafteryFamilyWiki/Start