Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Seymour Papert has died

media.mit.edu

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 145 posts

Re: Seymour Papert has died

#51

Post by vram22 »

gbin wrote: post #23

Python has a "logo inspired" turtle in the standard lib: https://docs.python.org/3.5/library/turtle.html We played with it with my son and it brought back memories from the 80s when the French government made a big push on Logo in the schools.

>Python has a "logo inspired" turtle in the standard lib

Yes. Here is an example of its use, that I wrote a while ago:

http://jugad2.blogspot.in/2016/01/simple-drawing-program-wit...

Re: Seymour Papert has died

#52

Post by abecedarius »

richard_todd wrote: post #20

For many years, I completely associated Logo with "turtle graphics" -- like it was a toy for kids to learn programming ideas. I only realized a couple years ago that it's a pretty capable language. The best references I found are a 3-volume set that covers using Logo for symbolic computation, making compilers, a diff tool, etc. PDF/HTML at https://people.eecs.berkeley.edu/~bh/v1-toc2.html

My favorite Logo-for-relative-grownups work is https://www.amazon.com/Turtle-Geometry-Mathematics-Artificia... -- yes, with the same coauthor as SICP. It's about math more than CS, and it's really good: by the last chapter you're figuring out motion in general relativity. It has a spirit of DIY exploration unlike any other math book I'd seen at the time.

Re: Seymour Papert has died

#54

Post by japhyr »

I grew up in the late 70s and early 80s. I first learned about programming from my father, who worked at DEC during its prime. To this day I deeply appreciate him sharing his love of the field with me from ayoung age. My first computer-related memories are learning to program in BASIC on a kit computer we had in our unfinished basement. I loved learning in a cold basement cellar surrounded by pieces of electronic gear in a makeshit office.

My second earliest memory about computers centers around learning Logo on an Apple II (I believe) in third grade. I remember exactly what Seymour describes: being shown the basics, and then being free to explore by making the turtle do what I wanted it to. I remember sketching designs in a notebook and then asking enough questions about angles and distances to be able to implement my designs.

I think my love of programming comes from an equal mix of people like my father who I could learn from directly, and people like Seymour who created systems that made it possible to learn independently.

Re: Seymour Papert has died

#56

Post by wslh »

sitkack wrote: post #34
wallflower wrote: post #28

RIP, Seymour Papert. Scratch is the spiritual successor to Logo. As Scratch becomes more and more popular, it has been sad to say that there is a tension between the spirit of Scratch and commercialization. Scratch is all about exploration and making mistakes and experiential learning. However, there is a deluge of companies who are trying to create curriculums for Scratch that fit into the traditional School lesson…

When we learned Logo, the teacher was learning right along with us. What a teacher can do, is encourage metacognition, so when a child either gets or not-gets something, they can organize it in their mind. I like scratch, but it seems so Bubble Gum. Logo on an Apple II had a beautiful austerity to it.

And I think the best Logo implementation was on the TI 99/4A. It is called "TI Logo" and includes sprites. Full manual here: ftp://club100.org/programming/LOGO/TI%20LOGO%20(phm3109).pdf

Re: Seymour Papert has died

#57

Post by sgt101 »

He said “the fundamental fact about learning: Anything is easy if you can assimilate it to your collection of models. If you can’t, anything can be painfully difficult.” This is very revealing about the actual nature of learning, human and machine, and it's something that the ML community has simply ignored.

Re: Seymour Papert has died

#58

Post by beefman »

sctb wrote: post #49
brudgers wrote: post #18

Announcement on front page of the Logo Foundation: http://el.media.mit.edu/logo-foundation/

Thanks, we updated the link from https://twitter.com/LogoFoundation/status/760057041687830528 .

Better but not great because the new link is not specific to this story. This is a better link

http://www.media.mit.edu/people/in-memory/papert

It was submitted but incorrectly marked as a dupe

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12204756

Re: Seymour Papert has died

#59

Post by japhyr »

I grew up in the late 70s and early 80s. I first learned about programming from my father, who worked at DEC during its prime. To this day I deeply appreciate him sharing his love of the field with me from ayoung age. My first computer-related memories are learning to program in BASIC on a kit computer we had in our unfinished basement. I loved learning in a cold basement cellar surrounded by pieces of electronic gear in a makeshift office.

My second earliest memory about computers centers around learning Logo on an Apple II (I believe) in third grade. I remember exactly what Seymour describes: being shown the basics, and then being free to explore by making the turtle do what I wanted it to. I remember sketching designs in a notebook and then asking enough questions about angles and distances to be able to implement my designs.

I think my love of programming comes from an equal mix of people like my father who I could learn from directly, and people like Seymour who created systems that made it possible to learn independently.

Re: Seymour Papert has died

#60

Post by 314 »

As a child of the 80s logo was one of the first languages that I learned. Although the relative motion was difficult to understand, and functions seemed to be impossibly hard - they worked eventually. 15 years later when I encountered functional programming for the first time I remember the shock and awe that somebody had the foresight to plantvthose seeds so long in advance.

Later still I became a teacher, and learning about constructivism for the first time I encountered Seymour's published body of work. So mindblowing. The passion and the vision inspired my career.

RIP Seymour, you will be missed, but after what you have given to the world you will never be forgotten.

Post reply on HN