StarLogo is an

agent-based An agent-based model (ABM) is a computational model for simulating the actions and interactions of autonomous agents (both individual or collective entities such as organizations or groups) in order to understand the behavior of a system and wha ...

simulation language A computer simulation language is used to describe the operation of a simulation on a computer.Fritzson, Peter, and Vadim Engelson.Modelica—A unified object-oriented language for system modeling and simulation" European Conference on Object-Orie ...

developed by

Mitchel Resnick Mitchel Resnick (born June 12, 1956) is Lego Papert Professor of Learning Research, Director of the Okawa Center, and Director of the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab. , Resnick serves as h ...

, Eric Klopfer, and others at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

(MIT) Media Lab and Scheller Teacher Education Program in

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

. It is an extension of the

Logo A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name it represents as in a wordma ...

programming language A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Most programming languages are text-based formal languages, but they may also be graphical. They are a kind of computer language. The description of a programming ...

, a

dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of Linguistics, linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety (linguisti ...

Lisp A lisp is a speech impairment in which a person misarticulates sibilants (, , , , , , , ). These misarticulations often result in unclear speech. Types * A frontal lisp occurs when the tongue is placed anterior to the target. Interdental lisping ...

. Designed for

education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Va ...

, StarLogo can be used by students to model or

simulate A simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time. Simulations require the use of Conceptual model, models; the model represents the key characteristics or behaviors of the selected system or proc ...

the behavior of decentralized systems. The first StarLogo ran on a

Connection Machine A Connection Machine (CM) is a member of a series of massively parallel supercomputers that grew out of doctoral research on alternatives to the traditional von Neumann architecture of computers by Danny Hillis at Massachusetts Institute of Techno ...

2 parallel computer. A subsequent version ran on

Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and ...

computers. It was later renamed MacStarLogo, and now is named MacStarLogo Classic. The current StarLogo is written in the language

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

and works on most computers. StarLogo is also available in a version named ''OpenStarLogo''. Its source code is available online, but the license under which it is released is not an

open-source license An open-source license is a type of license for computer software and other products that allows the source code, blueprint or design to be used, modified and/or shared under defined terms and conditions. This allows end users and commercial compa ...

according to

The Open Source Definition ''The Open Source Definition'' is a document published by the Open Source Initiative, to determine whether a software license can be labeled with the open-source certification mark. The definition was taken from the exact text of the Debian Free ...

, because of restrictions on the commercial use of the code.

TNG version

''StarLogo TNG'' (The Next Generation) version 1.0 was released in July 2008. It provides a 3D world using OpenGL graphics and a block-based graphical language to increase ease of use and learnability. It is written in C and Java. StarLogo TNG uses ''blocks'' to put together puzzle-like pieces. StarLogo TNG reads the blocks in the order that they fit together, and sets the program in the Spaceland view. StarLogo is a primary influence for the ''Kedama'' particle system, programmed by Yoshiki Oshima, found in the

Etoys EToy or EToys may refer to: * Etoy, Switzerland, a small town * Etoys (programming language), an educational programming language * eToys.com, a Dot-com era company/website * etoy, a conceptual art group * Electronic toys, typically built for and ...

educational programming environment and language, which can be viewed as a Logo done originally in

Squeak Squeak is an object-oriented, class-based, and reflective programming language. It was derived from Smalltalk-80 by a group that included some of Smalltalk-80's original developers, initially at Apple Computer, then at Walt Disney Imagineering, ...

Smalltalk Smalltalk is an object-oriented, dynamically typed reflective programming language. It was designed and created in part for educational use, specifically for constructionist learning, at the Learning Research Group (LRG) of Xerox PARC by Alan Ka ...

Nova version

The latest version of StarLogo, ''StarLogo Nova'', was released in beta form in the summer of 2014. StarLogo Nova takes the blocks language and 3D visualization engine of StarLogo TNG and brings them to the

web browser A web browser is application software for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's screen. Browsers are used on ...

. StarLogo Nova's execution engine is built on the

Adobe Flash Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash and FutureSplash) is a multimedia Computing platform, software platform used for production of Flash animation, animations, rich web applications, application software, desktop applications, mobile apps, mo ...

runtime and includes a purpose-built instancing rendering engine, using the Adobe Molehill 3D graphics

application programming interface An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how t ...

(API), able to render tens of thousands of independently moving agents on current hardware. The programming area is built on ScriptBlocks, a

JavaScript JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language that is one of the core technologies of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. As of 2022, 98% of Website, websites use JavaScript on the Client (computing), client side ...

-based blocks

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

. As of 2019, StarLogo Nova under development by the MIT Scheller Teacher Education Program, directed by Eric Klopfer, with lead designer and developer Daniel Wendel. StarLogo Nova introduces several notable design changes relative to TNG, particularly with the introduction of a ''World'' agent, reminiscent of StarLogo 2.2's ''Observer''. In StarLogo Nova, any command can be run by any agent, but each ''breed'' has its own program and can have its own set of breed-specific ''traits''. This brings StarLogo Nova closer to an

object-oriented programming Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a programming paradigm based on the concept of "objects", which can contain data and code. The data is in the form of fields (often known as attributes or ''properties''), and the code is in the form of pr ...

design, in an effort to improve the ease with which students can transfer skills in StarLogo Nova to other, more mainstream languages. Other changes include the use of embedded arguments for blocks (similar to the language Scratch), ''What You See Is What You Get'' (WYSIWYG) editing of the simulation interface, and splitting the collision primitive into its component halves, with each breed having collision code on its own program page.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Agent-based programming languages Educational programming languages Logo programming language family Pedagogic integrated development environments

TNG version

Nova version

See also

References

External links