#atari 80s

Think about it: you give kids access to a computer, sit them all down at home or in a classroom and teach them how to program using kid-friendly characters and wah-lah! You’ve prepared Jimmy and Sally for a career in a future reliant on computers. They’ll be competitive in a tough job marketplace and years ahead of the generation before them. Sound like one of Google’s missions to take over the world? Well yeah, Google is out to take over the world one way or another and yeah, Google is all about coding in the classroom.

But in 1983 Atari published LOGO, the computer language for its new 16 bit models based on LISP and developed by MIT and Logo Computer Systems. At the time, BASIC was the reigning language in computers and LOGO came along to make computer languages not only functional but accessible even down to the kiddies using the family home computer. We got ahold of one of the instructional books for Atari’s 1,2,3 My Computer and Me for kids at Too Groovy Toys and were charmed at the Tortoise and the Hare references throughout (cos that’s just how fast computers were in the 80s!). Check it out:

You can also view the LOGO Introduction to programming through Turtles at AtariMania where they have a PDf doc of this.

Source:  AtariMagazines.com