1. Get a copy of the first or second edition of Karel the
Robot, by Richard E. Pattis.
Pattis, R. (1981). Karel the Robot: A Gentle Introduction to the Art of
Programming. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
ISBN 0471089281
OR
Pattis, R. & Others (1995). Karel the Robot: A Gentle Introduction to the Art of
Programming, Second Edition. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
ISBN 0471597252
The book is readily available at online bookstores and can be found in many libraries. (Don't use Bergin's Karel++ or Karel J. Robot)
2. Download and unzip this copy of HAL, Tim Totten's shareware Karel interpreter. You can use it to test your solutions to many of the problems in the book. It also has many solved examples. Unfortunately, it's an old DOS program, but it runs just fine under Windows. Your biggest problem will be that the editor uses the old Wordstar/Turbo Pascal command keys. The only combination that you really have to know is CTRL-K-D to exit the editor and save your file. If you want to know more than that, click here for a more detailed summary. Or, since Karel programs are just text files, you should also be able to edit them with Notepad or just about any text editor. Just be sure to save them with the "hal" extension and give them the same name as the world (wol) file that contains the problem with which the given program is associated. All of this will make a lot more sense after you download the interpreter and run some sample programs.
3. Read and study the book through to the end of chapter 5, working at least the minimal problem set indicated by Pattis in the first edition, plus chapter 5, problem 11:
KAREL MINIMAL PROBLEM SET FOR 1st EDITION (problems are at the end of each chapter)
Ch 2, Problems 1, 2, & 5
Ch 3, Problems 1, 3, 5, & 6
Ch 4, Problems 1, 6, 7, & 9
Ch 5, Problems 2, 3, 7, 9, & 11
This problem set was not indicated in the second edition, and some problems were moved, so I have listed the equivalent set below:
KAREL MINIMAL PROBLEM SET FOR 2nd EDITION
Ch 2, Problems 1, 2, & 6
Ch 3, Problems 1, 3, 5, & 6
Ch 4, Problems 1, 6, 7, & 9
Ch 5, Problems 2, 3, 10, 14, & 16
The book is a slim volume (about 125 pages) that Pattis suggests can be accomplished in the equivalent of 4 to 5 one-hour meetings of a typical undergraduate Intro to Computer Science.
4. If you have a successful experience with Karel the Robot, after using HAL to test your solutions to problems 2.5, 3.5, 4.6, and 5.11 (this is 1st edition numbering -- you must use it for your programs to correspond correctly with HAL), email them to me and I will evaluate them for admission to the course. Be sure to name your files P25.hal, P35.hal, P46.hal, and P511.hal (even if you are using the 2nd edition of Karel) or they won't work properly in HAL. This shouldn't be too much of a problem because "starter" files with those names are actually already included in the download. They just don't have the code typed into them.
5. Don't send me your solutions until you know that they run correctly in HAL. Also, although I'm happy to answer the odd question or two, please don't ask me to give feedback or otherwise "teach" you to solve the problems. That's the entire point of this exercise -- if you experience difficulty with it, then you need to take a programming class on-campus.