This page contains descriptions of the basic turtle commands available in Kojo.

While looking at the turtle commands, it is helpful to remember that a turtle has the following properties related to how it moves and draws:

• position - the location on the canvas where the turtle is sitting. This location is specified by two numbers - the x coordinate and the y coordinate. As you move the mouse pointer within the drawing canvas, you will see these two numbers at the bottom-left of the Kojo window.
• heading - the direction in which the turtle’s nose is pointing:
  • East (at the right of the screen) is at 0°
  • North (at the top of the screen) is at 90°
  • West (at the left of the screen) is at 180°
  • South (at the bottom of the screen) is at 270°
• pen up/down state - whether the turtle’s pen is down (for drawing as it moves) or up (for just moving without drawing).
• pen color - the color of the lines drawn by the pen.
• pen thickness - the thickness of the lines drawn by the pen.
• fill color - the color that fills areas enclosed by the lines drawn by the pen.

Basic Commands

Click on a command below to go to its description.
Most descriptions include sample code. Copy & paste and then run the sample code for a command in Kojo for a better understanding of that command.

• clear
• cleari
• forward
• penUp and penDown
• hop
• right
• left
• setPenColor
• setFillColor
• setPenThickness
• setBackground
• savePosHe
• restorePosHe
• write
• setPenFontSize
• setPenFont
• setPosition
• setHeading
• lineTo
• beginShape
• vertex
• curveVertex
• vertexRt
• curveVertexRt
• quadraticVertex
• bezierVertex
• endShape
• setSpeed
• invisible and visible
• repeat
• repeatFor
• def

clear

clear() - clears the drawing canvas and resets the internal state of the turtle to the following:

• position becomes (0, 0).
• heading becomes 90°.
• pen goes down.
• pen color become red.
• pen thickness becomes 2.
• fill color becomes null (no fill).
• speed becomes slow.

cleari

cleari() - clears the drawing canvas as described above, and then hides the turtle (i.e. makes it invisible).

forward

forward(numSteps) - Moves the turtle forward in the direction of its nose - by the given number of steps. The turtle draws a line as it moves if its pen is down. The pen is down by default after a clear(). See example below:

clear()
// draw a line that is 100 steps long
forward(100) 
          
// and another line that is 200 steps long
forward(200)

penUp and penDown

penUp() - Pulls the turtle’s pen up. Any forward after this will not draw a line (till the next penDown).
penDown() - Puts the turtle’s pen down.

hop

hop(numSteps) - Moves the turtle forward by the given number of steps with the pen up, so that no line is drawn. The pen is put down after the hop. See example below:

clear()
hop(10)
forward(10)
hop(10)
forward(10)

right

right comes in two variants:
right(angle) - turns the direction of the turtle’s nose (i.e. the turtle’s heading) right by the given angle.
right(angle, radius) - makes the turtle move right on the boundary of a circle with the given radius, till the turtle’s nose has turned through the given angle. If the pen is down, the turtle draws an arc with the given angular extent and radius. See example below:

clear()
// turn the turtle right by 90° at its current position
right(90)
// make the turtle draw a blue quarter circle of radius 100 to the right
setPenColor(blue)
right(90, 100)
// make the turtle draw a green semi circle of radius 150 to the right
setPenColor(green)
right(180, 150)

left

left also comes in two variants, and is very similar to right, except that it turns the turtle to the left. See example below:

clear()
// turn the turtle left by 90° at its current position
left(90)
// make the turtle draw a blue quarter circle of radius 100 to the left
setPenColor(blue)
left(90, 100)
// make the turtle draw a green semi circle of radius 150 to the left
setPenColor(green)
left(180, 150)

setPenColor

setPenColor(color) - sets the color of the turtle’s pen. From this point on in the program, any lines drawn by the turtle have this color.

setFillColor

setFillColor(color) - sets the color of the fill area of the turtle’s pen. From this point on in the program, any areas drawn by the turtle have this fill color.

setPenThickness

setPenThickness(width) - sets the thickness of the turtle’s pen. From this point on in the program, any lines drawn by the turtle have this thickness.

setBackground

setBackground(color) - paints the background of the canvas the specified color.

savePosHe

savePosHe() - saves the position and heading of the turtle. At a later point in the program, the turtle can be brought to the saved position and heading using the restorePosHe() command. See example below:

clear()
// draw a square with lines at the corners
repeat(4) {
    // draw a side of the square
    forward(100)
    // save position and heading
    savePosHe()
    // draw a corner line
    left(45)
    forward(30)
    // restore position and heading to draw the rest of the square
    restorePosHe()
    right(90)
}

restorePosHe

restorePosHe - restores the position and heading of the turtle based on the most recent savePosHe()

write

write("text") - writes the given text at the turtle’s current position, oriented as per the turtle’s current heading. See example below:

clear()
hop(50)
right(45)
write("Hello World")

setPenFontSize

setPenFontSize(size) - sets the size of the font used for writing text. See example below:

clear()
setPenFontSize(30)
hop(50)
right(45)
write("Hello World")

setPenFont

setPenFont(font) - sets the font used for writing text. See example below:

clear()
setPenFont(Font("Consolas", 30))
hop(50)
right(45)
write("Hello World")

setPosition

setPosition(x, y) - sets the turtle’s position to the given (x, y).

setHeading

setHeading(angle) - sets the direction of the turtle’s nose to the given angle. 0 is East, 90 is North, etc.

lineTo

lineTo(x, y) - moves the turtle to the given (x, y), drawing a line in the process. So this command essentially draws a line from the turtle’s current position to the given (x, y).

setSpeed

setSpeed(speed) - sets the turtle’s speed to the given speed, which can be one of slow, medium, fast, or superFast.

beginShape

beginShape() - Starts the definition of a shape made out of vertices. Vertices can be added to the shape using the following commands:

• vertex(x, y) - adds a vertex to the shape at the given (x, y).
• vertexRt(r, theta) - adds a vertex to the shape at the given (r, theta).
• curveVertex(x, y) - adds a curve-vertex to the shape at the given (x, y).
• curveVertexRt(r, theta) - adds a curve-vertex to the shape at the given (r, theta).
• quadraticVertex(cx, cy, x2, y2) - adds a quadratic-bezier curve-vertex to the shape using the given control and second vertex coordinates (with one control point).
• bezierVertex(cx1, cy1, cx2, cy2, x2, y2) - adds a bezier curve-vertex to the shape using the given control and second vertex coordinates (with two control points).

endShape

endShape() - Finishes the definition of a shape made out of vertices, and draws the shape. A shape definition is started with a beginShape(), and vertices are added to the shape using the various vertex commands described in the beginShape() section above.

invisible and visible

invisible() - hides the turtle.
visible() - makes a hidden turtle visible again.

repeat

repeat(n) { code } - repeats the given code n number of times. This helps you to do the same thing over and over again.

clear()
repeat(4) {
    forward(100)
    right(90)
}

repeatFor

repeatFor(sequence) { element => code } - repeats the given code multiple times, once for each element of the given sequence. The current sequence element is available to your code - to help you do something slightly different based on the current element.

clear()
setSpeed(fast)
repeatFor(10 to 100) { n =>
    // n is the current element of the sequence that you are going through
    forward(n)
    right(91)
}

def

def newCommand(inputs) { code } - creates a new command that takes the specified inputs and carries out commands as defined in the given code. See example below:

// create a new command named square1 that 
// always draws squares of size 100
def square1() {
    repeat(4) {
        forward(100)
        right(90)
    }
}

// create a new command named square2 that 
// draws squares of the given size
def square2(size: Int) {
    repeat(4) {
        forward(size)
        right(90)
    }
}

clear()
// now use the newly defined commands
square1()
square2(50)
square2(25)