Tree
What is it?
Drawing recursive trees is a standard project in programming languages like Lisp and Logo. StarLogo makes possible new types of recursive trees that are more "natural" and easier to understand. Rather than using a single turtle to draw the entire tree, the StarLogo approach "hatches" a set of new turtles to draw each level of the tree.
How to Use It
Click the `setup` button to create the root. Click the `tree` button to draw a StarLogo tree. Click on the `one step at a time` button to draw one level at a time. The `dist` slider controls the length of branches in the tree. The `angle` slider controls the angles between the branches. The `depth` slider controls the depth of the tree. The `x-coord` and `y-coord` sliders control the position of the root. The `variation` slider controls the amount of randomness in the tree placement. |
Things to Notice
Each level of the tree is drawn in parallel. That is, the program draws the trunk, then the next two branches, then the next four sub-branches, and so on. In the standard Lisp/Logo approach for drawing recursive trees, the drawing order is very different: the program draws all of the leftmost branches of the tree and then works its way over until it draws all of the rightmost branches. The StarLogo approach seems much more natural and intuitive.
Explorations
By adjusting the sliders, you can make some patterns that look more like "creatures" than trees. Try it.
StarLogo Features
In the `treestep` procedure, the "counter" for the recursion is kept as a local turtle variable, not as a local procedure variable.
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