Karel the Robot was invented by Richard E. Pattis in the 1970s and named after the Czechoslovakian playwright Karel Capek, whose play RUR ("Rossum's Universal Robots") introduced the now common R-word into our vocabulary.

    Karel lives inside a computer and is capable of a few simple tasks performed into a two-dimensional world, such as putting beepers down and picking them up. Karel's behavior is controlled by a very simple true programming language resembling PASCAL.

   Simple as he is, by doing only what we tell him, Karel can teach about programming in any structured language. Karel was designed for the mainframes of the times and the microcomputer version pretended the micro was a mainframe and had to operate outside of the DOS of the times.

   TURBO HAL: the integrated environment, was developed in 1989 as an improved MS-DOS version of Karel using the exact same syntax as Pattis' version (with Pattis' blessing*). It is a tool to introduce students to structured programming, especially in beginning programming classes such as Pascal. It is designed to be low cost alternative programming simulator to Karel. It is actually free. HAL is an easy-to-use integrated environment running in MS-DOS that does not require a separate editor, compiler, linker, linker and debugger in order to create, debug and run Karel programs. HAL lives in the Borland language environment (that of Turbo Pascal) with its editor, DOS-windows and pull down environment. This software was designed by Tim Totten of Hillsborough Community College of Tampa, Florida.

   TURBO HAL has been successfully used with elementary and junior high school students. Initially a lifesize three-dimensional grid, made from a bed sheet and felt strips, is used as a 'playing board'. The students design HAL'S World by putting down the felt strips as walls and placing the beeper on the grid. The students are then given programming templates on which they write-in the primitive commands to solve the HAL problem in the 3-D World. The problem is for the students to start at a beginning point, move through the grid avoiding walls, fetch the beeper and deposit the beeper off the grid.

   If HAL hits a wall, the program crashes and must be corrected or 'debugged'. Students then become HAL, step on the grid, and march through the maze as the teachers reads off the primitive commands from the student's paper. While observing 'HAL' walking through the grid, the other students eagerly check and 'debug' their own programs to solve the problem.

   Since HAL can only make a limited number of simple moves, the students soon discover they need more primitive commands. This introduces the concept of a procedure, which has the syntax in Turbo HAL as:

   Thanks to Tim Totten during the late 80s and early 90s using a combination of the 3-D WORLD and HAL's 2-D WORLD on the computer in MS-DOS, high school and college students were successfully programming solutions to more complex mazes.

   Teachers as well as students may generate their own problems by using the HAL WORLD generator or watch HAL execute step-by-step instructions solving many different HAL problems. The 3-D WORLD is very easy to use, but the 2-D WORLD program was before WINDOWS and designed for high school or college programming students being taught by computer science teachers.

    It did not have the normal help menus of windows to explain how to use the program. To bridge the gap during the early 1990s, John Taylor developed a hypertext environment using Asymetrix Toolbook to introduce HAL to elementary and middle school teachers and students. It included sample templates for beginners and instructions on how-to-build HAL grids. From any 'page' (screen), the user could access a lesson or slide show to review or reinforce programming concepts. There was link on each screen to access the MS-DOS TURBO HAL program.

   TURBO HAL ran on low end MS-DOS machines and operates in text mode. It was used on old 5 and 1/4 inch floppy disks of 360k as well as 1.44 meg 3" disks. The software was distributed free by Hillsborough Community College or could be download from the Internet. The runtime hypertext presentation disk was available through John Taylor. It also could be run off the Internet using Asymetrix's Plug-In Neuron.

   Penny Haun introduced Turbo HAL to her Fall Term 2001 students in COP 1000 - Programming Logic. The DOS version of Turbo HAL served the college for a decade. This created a demand for a Windows version of Turbo HAL. Tim Totten was not available to develop Windows version due to administrative demands.

DOS is History; Agents Also Abandon by Microsoft

   But time marched on, the turn of the century came. In the early 2000s Windows came out with Windows XP after Windows 98. The DOS environment was still accessible.

   Then Microsoft moved to Windows 7. DOS was gone; Microsoft agents were gone including the TurboHAL agent developed by Patricia Watson and Judd the Professor representing John Taylor. 3.5 disks were also history

Finally: A Windows/Internet Version

   During the Fall 2001, CGS 2820 HTML students created several mazes for students to develop answers in COP 1000 and for public school demonstrations. Additional mazes were added by the HTML students during the Spring 2002 for the Computer Club's contest at Spring Fling. These grids are on the adjacent table.

   During October 2001 Al Falkenstein began writing using JavaScript a program to make the student's grids interactive. The first version is for the elementary students. Then he developed the advanced version for the college or high school Logic students. Links to both on-line versions are in the lower right table under Al's picture.

   The student in the elementary version may type a "1" (one) for move or "L" to turnleft in the program field. The student should write the entire program in the program field, then click "Play Program" to see if he/she has the correct solution. There are only two primitives in the elementary version.

    However, the student may use the buttons: "Move" or "TurnLeft" to navigate HAL through the maze step by step while the code is automatically written in the program field.

   The advanced version has an "Instruction" button the student should access to see how the menus are used. The student may develop his/her own maze by first double clicking on a corner to place Hal on the grid, then double clicking up to 32 corners to place beepers in the 256 corner grid. The student may place walls between corners both horizonically and vertically by single click the area between the corners.

Artist Version of
Turbo HAL

COP 2822 Students Projects-First Attempt to Make Your Own Hal Grid with JavaScript:

Al Falkenstein's Internet
      Turbo HAL Game:

Non-Programming Students:
    (Elementary Students)

Professor John Taylor of Florida State College @ Jacksonville regularly on Fridays visits local elementary schools with the TurboHAL multimedia diorama (3D) to introducce k-6 students to TurboHAL and have students learn the basic structure of sequence programming.

Access the TurboHAL abstract for a complete description of the activity requiring 30 minutes to 60 minutes of class time.

Programming Students:
(Middle School & High School Students)

Hal Mazes to Challenge You:

Newest Application:

Create your own grid, save it under you name, email address and a password. Just enter your name and password, then press the retrieve button and you may edit your work. If you enter just your user name, then your maze comes up without your solution. Others may try to solve your maze by just entering your user id. These solutions may be saved by entering a new set of data. Upon pressing the submit button, your instructor will receive a notification of the completion of your homework. However, you may start a new game by pressing the New Game button.