The KTurtle Handbook

The KTurtle Handbook

Cies Breijs (cies AT kde DOT nl)

Anne-Marie Mahfouf (annma AT kde DOT org)

Mauricio Piacentini (piacentini AT kde DOT org)

Revision 0.8.1 beta (KDE 4.3) (2009-05-26)

Copyright © 2004, 2009 Cies Breijs

Copyright © 2004, 2007 Anne-Marie Mahfouf

Copyright © 2007 Mauricio Piacentini

KTurtle is an educational programming environment that aims to make learning how to program as easy as possible. To achieve this KTurtle makes all programming tools available from the user interface. The programming language used is TurtleScript which allows its commands to be translated.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

What is TurtleScript?
Features of KTurtle

2. Using KTurtle

The Inspector

The Toolbar

The Menubar

The File Menu
The Edit Menu
The Canvas Menu
The Run Menu
The Tools Menu
The Settings Menu
The Help Menu

The Statusbar

3. Getting Started

First steps with TurtleScript: meet the Turtle!

The Turtle Moves
More examples

4. TurtleScript Programming Reference

The Grammar of TurtleScript

Comments
Commands
Numbers
Strings
Boolean (true/false) values

Mathematical, boolean and comparing operators

Mathematical operators
Boolean (true/false) operators
Comparing operators

Moving the turtle
Where is the turtle?
The turtle has a pen
Commands to control the canvas
Commands to clean up
The turtle is a sprite
Can the turtle write?
Mathematical commands
Input and feedback though dialogs

Assignment of variables

Controlling execution

Have the turtle wait
Execute "if"
If not, in other words: "else"
The "while" loop
The "repeat" loop
The "for" loop, a counting loop
Leave a loop
Stop executing your program

Create your own commands with “learn”

5. Glossary

6. Translator's Guide to KTurtle

7. Credits and License

A. Installation

How to obtain KTurtle
Compilation and Installation

Command Index

List of Tables

4.1. Types of questions
5.1. Different types of code and their highlight color
5.2. Often used RGB combinations

Introduction