Turtles all the way down

• Simon Davy
• @bloodearnest ...

Background

Want to be able to:

• traffic simulation with many turtles
• games ...

Inspired by last year’s education track

• STEM ambassador, hard to get kids engaged
• core mechanic
• computer science

What I’ve done

• 50 turtles doing a random walk - too much CPU
• https://github.com/AllTheWayDown/TurGLES - use GPU - can now do 1000 easily, can handle 50000 on a modern powerful laptop!
• turtle.py - 1 file, 4100+ lines, no tests
• https://github.com/AllTheWayDown/NinjaTurtle - reimplementation, not finished
• still needed - collision detection, sensors, time sliced execution env, high level API for user
• https://github.com/AllTheWayDown/turtlepower
• asteroids in turtle language
• don’t want to have to teach classes for students

Plans

• TurGLES - better ES2 renderer, drawing, borders, undo
• NinjaTurtle - more tests, faster maths
• TurtlePower - just getting started, build engine, APIs, work w both stdlib and Ninja/TurGLES
• Usage: aim usable form early 2014, work w teachers for some example lesson plans, real world testing in local schools!
• sprinting on Monday