From Prolog and Zelda to ToonTalk

Abstract

ToonTalk looks like a video game. This is not surprising since its design and user interface were strongly influenced by games like The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Robot Odyssey. What may be more surprising is that ToonTalk is a programming language and environment based upon ideas that have evolved from Prolog over a period of nearly twenty years. ToonTalk is a synthesis of ideas from concurrent constraint programming, video games, and programming languages for children. In the spirit of Logo [3], ToonTalk is an attempt to take the best ideas in computer science and make them accessible to children. When Logo was designed over thirty years ago, the best programming language ideas could be found in the Lisp language. The design of ToonTalk is based upon the belief that the best programming language ideas can be found in concurrent logic programming and concurrent constraint programming languages like Janus, Linear Janus, FGHC, Vulcan, DOC, AKL, and Oz [4,5,6]. These languages, in turn, borrow heavily from earlier languages