Question about usefulness of trace and other features
Andre Roberge
As I am working on a new, web-based version of RUR-PLE, I have some
question for you.
1. How useful is it to be able to see the trace (green line) left by
the robot? This is a feature that I have not seen in other "Karel the
robot" clones and am curious to find out if it is worth keeping.
2. How useful is it to be able to see the line of code about to
executed highlighted?
3. I'm thinking of having a slightly richer environment i.e. multiple
objects instead of "beepers" only. To test if an object is present,
instead of the built-in test "on_beeper()", I am thinking of having
something like
here_is("some object") so that the test would read like:
if here_is("a plant"):
pick("a plant")
Do you think this would be a useful feature? I'm thinking it would
allow to write more interesting examples picking weeds and planting
flowers instead.
Any feedback would be appreciated.
Cheers,
André
Frederic Muller
Hope all is fine on your end. I moved recently and it took me a while to
settle down. Regarding your question I personally like 1, though I am
not sure whether it is useful or not. It gives a feeling of
accomplishment I believe and therefore it's rather positive.
I am also told that LEAD one organization we're closely working with in
China is using the lines in their classes to explain stuff or have kids
draw boxes.
2. Yes very useful: it help to understand the action and reaction
principle...
3. Would indeed give more possibilities. I wonder how many teachers go
to the end of the tutorial, whether they make their own, or...?
Hope that helps.
Fred
> Andr�
>
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Andy Judkis
Andre Roberge
> 1) I think that the "snail trail" is VERY helpful. In a classroom, I can
> instantly get a sense of what someone's program is doing without having to
> wait to see it run or examine the code. And it helps students see when
> Reeborg is doing some unauthorized flying, for example.
Ok ... the new version will keep that.
> 2) I think that the code highlighting is a plus -- I don't really call
> attention to it in class, but I think it helps them understand at some
> level. It reinforces the idea that there's something step-by-step going on,
> something that (surprisingly to me) isn't intuitive for many kids.
This settles another issue for me, regarding which embedded editor to
use. Code highlighting stays in. :-)
> 3) I use RUR-PLE to introduce loops, branches, and subroutines before we
> move on to IDLE. I'm intending to put together a few simple lessons
> sometime soon to also use RUR-PLE to introduce integer and boolean
> variables, parameters/arguments, and return values from functions. I'm
> happy with on_beeper()/carries_beepers()/put_beeper() but would be happy to
> have some additional tools to work with. A scavenger hunt, for example,
> might be a great way to introduce lists. And I could see where a
> getPosition() call that returned a tuple of x,y coordinates could come in
> handy.
> The main thing though is to always keep it simple -- RUR-PLE is great for
> introducing the concepts but I wouldn't want to use it for more than the
> first week or two of programming.
Ok, I will keep this in mind.
> (Also, I have to confess that although it's a feature I asked for, I have
> never had the kids create their own robot images! I feel guilty, it seemed
> like a good idea at the time, but we don't spend enough time with RUR-PLE to
> make it worthwhile. . . )
Yes, it did seem like a good idea at the time ... but I never heard of
anyone using it. The new web-based version will be streamlined
somewhat, and will not include this feature.
Thanks for the feedback,
André