What is Microsoft Logo?

The Macintosh designers meant to case the qualms of computerphobes by presenting a visually oriented user interface and providing commands that resemble English. The same could be said of the Logo language. Its friendly interface and simple graphics commands, which move a turtle- shaped cursor, make Logo a natural for the Mac. Although many people view Logo as a graphics tool for children, it is actually a sophisticated programming language. Logo was developed at the MIT artificial intelligence (Al) research lab in the 1960s. It is closely related to LISP, a language widely used for Al programming, 

Logo is a list-based, procedural language of extraordinary flexibility. Unlike most programming lainguages, it treats words, numbers. and lists of words in the same way. The different forms of Logo data are simply treated as objects. Other languages require you to specify data as integers, strings, and so on, and those languages handle each data type differently. Many people are attracted to Logo because of the case with which it processes a wide variety of data types. 

Logo Computer Systems Inc. (LCSI), the Canadian company that produced the popular Apple Logo for the Apple II line, has developed a Macintosh version for Microsoft, Microsoft Logo. 

Primitives 

All Logos come with a built-in set of instructions called primitives. Primitives let you do things like load a file, add two numbers, beep the computer’s speaker, or move the turtle in various directions. For the Macintosh version of Logo, LCSI has taken a unique modular approach by providing a core group of primitives plus additional sets of specilized primitives that you can load as needed—and as memory allows. 

You can run Microsoft Logo on either a 128K or a 512K Macintosh, but certain sacrifices must be made in order to run it on a 128K machine. On a 128K Mac you quickly run out of memory, even after loading only one or two primitive sets. For example, if you have loaded the graphics primitives, you can't load the debugging primitives, and vice versa. You need a 512K Mac to take full advantage of this Language. 

Logo lets you combine a number of primitives into a newly defined primitive procedure. For example, once you type a series of instructions that cause the turtle to draw an octagon, you can name the series of instructions Octagon. After you define a procedure, you simply type the procedure’s name to execute the instructions. Logo procedures are really lists, and lists can easily be taken apart, rearranged, and put together by other Logo procedures. You can even write procedures that modify themselves. This is where the link between Logo and Al becomes evident.

Gervich, Jason. (January 1986). Of Mice and Turtles. Macworld. (pgs. 144, 148).

Download Microsoft Logo for Mac

Architecture

Motorola 68K

System Requirements

From Mac OS 1.0 up to Mac OS 6.0

Compatibility notes

• Macintosh 128K or later

Emulating this? It could probably run under: Mini vMac