Shelly – a programming language to draw in the browser

Ah, this brings back memories from my childhood. The first programming language I ever used was Logo <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Logo_(programming_language)" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Logo_(programming_language)</a>. This was sometime back in 2002-2003 when I was 7 or 8 years old. We had very basic PCs in my school, many of which were purely DOS based.<p>This is a great tool to teach kids programming!

I was looking to file some issues with the project but couldn&#x27;t find a repo. Guess I&#x27;m too used to expecting things to be open source.<p>Anyway, I&#x27;m hoping the authors see this. I tried Shelly for a while and here&#x27;s what I think:<p>1. The tutorial needs background. Its text displayed over more text and that&#x27;s tough to read. For the first point in the tutorial, I couldn&#x27;t locate where it was visually and had to carefully read what the various parts of the screen were saying.<p>2. Make the editor stop complaining while I&#x27;m writing something. Its too aggressive and made me immediately think of <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.redd.it&#x2F;nygb741tho951.gif" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.redd.it&#x2F;nygb741tho951.gif</a>.<p>Overall, I like the concept. I&#x27;d have wished the syntax was more like javascript so someone learning this could more easily translate their skills to other parts of the web, but I guess we have to compromise that for the nostalgia and simple commands like `right 90` etc. I love this!

I wonder why there&#x27;s not a single reference to Logo (see the Wikipedia topic mentioned in another topic) to be found?

Shelly looks cool, thanks.<p>There was a discussion on HN a few years back about Seymour Papert’s Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas (1980), which may be relevant if you&#x27;re interested in the history of Turtle and Logo. [1]<p>I&#x27;ve been collecting resources for self-directed programming&#x2F;learning that kids can use for at-home, project-based learning. Some family members are looking for ideas for their children.<p>I&#x27;ll playtest it with a young learner and see how far they get through the tutorial.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=18361665" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=18361665</a><p>[edited for clarity]

What a blast from the past! Logo was my first exposure to programming in elementary school (1981-1986). This was fun to play with and the tutorial is well done. I was surprised by the lack of any kind of &quot;run&quot; button, but I think this was a good choice for this kind of learning environment. Neat!

Looks like a Turtle Zofka I had in my basic school really long time ago :) Even the instructions fit! :D<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;archiv.inet.sk&#x2F;images&#x2F;user&#x2F;pastierik&#x2F;kancelaria&#x2F;zofka_2.png" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;archiv.inet.sk&#x2F;images&#x2F;user&#x2F;pastierik&#x2F;kancelaria&#x2F;zofk...</a>

Very interesting! I remember programming Logo turtle instructions on iMac G3s. I do wish the author would have provided a repository or at least some information on how it was built. Usually HN users are more interested in how it works than using the actual tool or application.

This looks really great and obviously brings back lots of happy memories!<p>One little thing - is the opacity scale the wrong way round? I would expect high opacity to mean it&#x27;s not very transparent and low opacity to mean it&#x27;s mostly transparent.

Fun! <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;shelly.dev&#x2F;p&#x2F;0ecb4ea6c4ef" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;shelly.dev&#x2F;p&#x2F;0ecb4ea6c4ef</a> It can&#x27;t go beyond level 5 as it has a cap of 50k instructions.

Remembering my childhood. Shelly looks same as Logo. The second language that I learnt after GW-Basic at my school. Thanks to the creator. Will undoubtedly teach this language to my 8 years old nephew. :)

This is really fun, thanks for sharing this with the world. Kids should find this so I&#x27;d try to make sure schools&#x2F;teachers find out about your product. Thanks

This is awesome !! Are there any cool drawings I can take inspiration from ?

Can we please stop calling every new set of rules “a programming language”?

I&#x27;ll make the mandatory comment about how this is a case typically better served by a good library than a DSL.<p>This language is very niche, it will never get good support, tooling, doc, and maintenance.<p>I know making languages are fun, but unless fun is the main goal and adoption is not, craft a good lib with a clean and simple API.<p>Adopting this DSL would not be reasonable on the long run.