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Introduction

Python Turtle

Python is a highly popular programming language, used by many large organisations.
Facebook, NASA, IBM, Google and Yahoo among others all use it extensively.
It is considered by many to be one of the easiest languages to pick up.

One of the big attractions of Python is that many 'libraries' are available to provide it with extra functionality.
A library is a set of extra functions that help perform different types of task. There are libraries for advanced maths, graph drawing, graphics, game writing, random numbers and so forth.
We're going to use a fun library called 'Turtle', which allows for the convenient drawing of lines and shapes.

Let's get started

Load up the Python Development, called IDLE.
You'll be presented with the Python Shell window, which looks like this…

With the mouse in the shell window, type the following at the >>> Prompt.
Hit enter after each line.
(Note: Make sure you write Screen with a capital letter!

import turtle
wn=turtle.Screen()
wn.bgcolor("lightgreen")
wn.title("Turtle Power")

A graphics window (currently empty) will appear that we can draw into.
We've called our screen object, "wn". Every time we want Python to control somthing to do with this window, we'll need to put wn. in front of the command.
We also changed the background colour, and put a title on the window.
Let's add a "turtle" to the screen. We can move this arounnd the screen to draw shapes and patterns. We'll call our turtle, "Tess".

tess=turtle.Turtle()
tess.color("hotpink")
tess.pensize(5)
tess.shape("turtle")

When we created a tess object, we then went on to set some of her properties - colour, thickness of the lines she'll draw and how she appears on the screen.
Incidentally, a full colour list can be found here.
We could add other turtle objects too, if we wanted, and have several drawing shapes on the screen. We might have a look at that later on.
Next, lets start to draw. Type…

tess.forward(100)
tess.left(90)
tess.forward(100)
tess.left(90)
tess.forward(100)
tess.left(90)
tess.forward(100)
tess.left(90)

Your turtle should have traced a square shape for you.

Your turn

Try it

Tip: You can move the turtle back to the centre, and clear the screen at any time by using the commands…

tess.home()
tess.clear()

Experiment with drawing lines until you're confident, then try the badge task.

Badge it

Silver: Draw a red triangle, (screenshot the result, and upload the image file to BourneToLearn)
Gold: Draw a pentagon, where each side is a different colour,
Platinum: Create second turtle on the screen, and call it tom. Have this draw a black square, and the other turtle draw a green square, so that they look like this…

Write interpreter commands to draw a grid two squares tall and two squares wide (like the Windows logo). Each square should be a different colour.

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