The TUTOR Language

The TUTOR Language

by Bruce Arne Sherwood

Now available to everyone; presented here through the generosity and permission of the Author:

Bruce Arne Sherwood

Below is the Table of Contents linking you pdf documents containing the various chapters. Alternatively, you may be
interested in the whole book in page-by-page or side-by-side (2-up) format. Joe Stanton has also contributed the OCR version of the The TUTOR Language which is a bit smaller (~14MB).

• Cover and Table of Contents
• Chapter 1 – Introduction
  • How to use this book
  • Sample PLATO Lessons
  • The PLATO Keyboard
  • Basic Aspects of TUTOR
• Chapter 2 – More on Creating Displays
  • Coarse Grid and Fine Grid
  • The -box-, -vector-, and -circle- Commands
  • Large-size Writing: -size- and -rotate-
  • Animations (Moving Displays): -erase- and -pause-
  • -pause-, -time-, and -catchup-
  • The -mode- Command
  • Automated Display Generation
• Chapter 3 – Building Your Own Tools: The -do- Command
• Chapter 4 – Doing Calculations in TUTOR
  • Giving Names to Variables: -define-
  • Repeated Operations: The Iterative -do-
  • Showing the Value of a Variable
  • Passing Arguments to Subroutines
• Chapter 5 – Sequencing of Units Within a Lesson
  • Summary of Sequencing Commands
  • The -helpop- Command: “Help on Page”
  • The -imain- Command
• Chapter 6 – Conditional Commands
  • Logical Expressions
  • The Conditional -write- Command (-writec-)
  • The Conditional -calc- Commands: -calcc- and -calcs-
  • The Conditional -mode- Command
  • The -goto- Command
  • The Conditional Iterative -do-
  • The -if- and -else- Commands
• Chapter 7 – Judging Student Responses
  • Student Specification of Numerical Parameters
  • Student Specification of Non-Numerical Parameters
  • Difference Between Numeric and Alphabetic Information
  • More On -answer- and -wrong- (Including -list- and -specs-)
  • Building Dialogs With -concept- and -vocabs-
  • Numbering Vocabulary Words
  • The -judge-Command
  • Finding Key Words: The -match- and -storen- Commands
  • Numerical and Algebraic Judging: -ansv- and -wrongv-
  • Handling Scientific Units: -ansu-, -wrongu-, and -storeu-
  • The -exact- and exactc- Commands
  • The -answerc- Command: A Language Drill
  • Summary
• Chapter 8 – More About Judging
  • Stages in Processing the -arrow- Command
  • Repeated Execution of -join-
  • Judging Commands Terminate Regular State
  • The -goto- is a Regular Command
  • Interactions of -arrow- with -size-, -rotate-, -long-, -jkey-, and -copy-
  • Applications of -jkey-, and -ans-
  • Modifying the Response: -bump- and -put-
  • Manipulating Character Strings
  • Catching Every Key: -pause-, -keytype-, and -group-
  • Touching the Screen
  • Summary
• Chapter 9 – Additional Display Features
  • More on the -write-Command
  • Extensions to the Basic Character Set
  • The “initial entry unity” (ieu)
  • Smooth Animations Using Special Characters
  • Creating a New Character Set
  • Micro Tables
  • The Graphing Commands: Plotting Graphs with Scaling and Labeling
  • Summary of Line-drawing Commands: -draw-, -gdraw-, -rdraw-
  • The -window- Command
  • More on Erasing: The -eraseu- Command
  • Keeping Things on the Screen: “inhibit erase”
  • Interaction of “inhibit erase” with -restart-
  • The -char- and -plot- Commands
  • The -dot- Command
• Chapter 10 – Additional Calculation Topics
  • Defining Your Own Functions
  • Arrays
  • Segmented Variables
  • Branching Within a Unit: -branch- and -doto-
  • Array Operations
  • Integer Variables and Bit Manipulation
  • Byte Manipulation
  • Vertical Segments
  • Alphanumeric to Numeric: The -compute- Command
  • The -find- Command
  • The -exit- Command
• Chapter 11 – Manipulating Data Bases
  • The -common- Command
  • The Swapping Process
  • Common Variables and the Swapping Process
  • The -storage- Command
  • Using -datasets-
  • Sorting Lists
• Chapter 12 – Miscellany
  • Other Terminal Capabilities
  • Student Response Data
  • Additional Tools for Teaching Foreign Languages
  • Routers and -jumpout-
  • Instructor Mode
  • Special “terms”