FORWARD 40

LOGO just turned 40 years old! It was the first programming language that I learned, using Apple IIe computers at school. Actually, my school was lucky enough to own the robotic, punchcard-operated, turtle. If I´m not wrong, the cards were plastic made and featured bright colors. But I could be wrong since, OMG, this happened about 25 years ago! In any case, we had an incredible amount of fun playing with LOGO. I still remember the thrill when we discovered that we could re-use code! (we were drawing a text banner, so we could print repeated letters without recoding from scratch). And when the LOGO lessons were over, we fired up the computers to play Karateka, one of my favorite games ever. I was lucky enough to meet both Papert and Mechner, the respective authors of LOGO and Karateka and did my best to thank them for making my life so exciting. I don´t really think any author fully realizes the influence that her works can have on people, particularly on children. In my case, not only I ended up turning this early passion into a career but it trully opened my eyes to the possibilities of simulated worlds. Here´s to LOGO, for many more years!