Karel the Robot

As in many similar iPad applications, Karel can show a single window when held in portrait orientation or two if held in landscape orientation. The single or right window is the view to Karel's world. In this window you can control Karel manually or watch what the robot is doing when a program is running. There is also a left window with the program, but we'll leave it alone for now and take a look at it later.

This is what you will see if you start Karel for the first time in landscape mode:

Touch the Tutorial button in the upper right corner to open the first help Tutorial. It is the same you are just reading directly. You can open it anytime and return back with no change in Karel’s world.

Most of the window is occupied by the grid of Karel's word, the matrix of 10 x 10 fields. The blue robot is standing in the middle, around the grid there are four blue arrows, if you will touch any of them Karel will turn in the direction of the arrow or make a move. Try to control the robot and walk around his world.

On the top of the window just below the toolbar there are five circles with an icon inside. Touch the leftmost icon to put a mark (or a beeper in original Karel terminology) and next to leftmost icon to pick it up. Try to move the robot around and put down and pick up some beepers to make sure you understand how it works.

Touch the rightmost icon to put down one or more bricks. To pick them up touch next to the rightmost icon. Please note, Karel can step up or down just one level, so if you put down more than one brick at once the robot will not move out of the field.

Want to start again? Just touch the trash icon to clear up the world and put Karel in the middle again.

Now you know how to control Karel manually. Let's check and do a small exercise. Clean up the world and build the stairs on the north (top right) side as shown in the image below:

Done? Great, you are ready for lesson 2.