Designed for computer science instruction, Turing is simply the easiest, most fun, and most effective way of teaching programming concepts.
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Frequently Asked Questions about Turing
(Non Technical)

There is a list of questions, followed by the questions and the answers.

General
Licensing
Turing 4.0
Holt Software

General

1. What is Turing?
2. What is Object Oriented Turing?
3. What is OOT?
4. Does platforms does it run on?
5. How compatible are Turing and Object Oriented Turing?
6. Do I need to use Object Oriented Programming to teach Object Oriented Turing?
7. What textbooks are available for teaching Turing?
8. What is the latest version of Turing?

Licensing

1. What is the Ontario Ministry of Education License?
2. What about updates for the Ontario Ministry of Education License?
3. Can I give Turing to my students?
4. Can students purchase the software for home use?
5. How do Turing site licenses work?

Turing 4.0

1. What is Turing 4.0?
2. How do I get Turing 4.0?
3. Why doesn't the Ministry/OESS distribute Turing 4.0?
4. How do students purchasing Turing for home use get Turing 4.0?
5. Where's the debugger?
6. Where's the Sprite module?
7. How do I access the GUI module?
8. When are updates coming?
9. I've found a bug! What to I do?

Holt Software

1. Who is Holt Software?
2. What is Holt Software's presence on the internet?

General

What is Turing?

Turing is a general purpose programming language designed to facilitate the teaching of computing concepts. Its main strengths are its clarity that help make programs easy to write and understand and its easy-to-use graphics that allow even introductory students to add graphics to their programs while mastering programming concepts.
For a complete introduction to Turing, click here.

What is Object Oriented Turing?

Object Oriented Turing is a set of extensions to the original Turing that allowed for extra features such as classes and inheritance, concurrency, direct access to the hardware, etc. As of September 2001, "Object Oriented Turing" has been renamed "Turing" and the original Turing has been renamed "Classic Turing".

What is OOT?

OOT is the nickname for Object Oriented Turing. Previous versions were known as WinOOT (for Microsoft Windows) and MacOOT (for Apple Macintosh).

What platforms does it run on?

Turing runs under:

• Microsoft Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP
• MacOS System 7.1 and greater (under Classic in MacOS X)
• Linux

How compatible are Turing and Object Oriented Turing?

Using the old nomenclature for a moment, Object Oriented Turing (OOT) is a fairly clean superset of the original Turing. This means that most programs written for the original Turing will operate under OOT. The differences are mostly in terms of graphics. Under OOT, the color numbers have been given predefined names. This means, for example, if you defined a constant called "red" in your program to represent color 10, you will need to remove the declaration, as OOT already has a red representing color number 10.
There are some other minor differences in terms of screen size, etc, but there are more related to running under Windows as opposed to DOS.

The most important thing to note it that you do not have to change the vast majority of your curriculum in order to use Object Oriented Turing. Textbooks using Turing will require only minor changes to use OOT.

Do I need to use Object Oriented Programming to teach Object Oriented Turing?

Absolutely not. Object Oriented Turing is a superset of Turing and the vast majority of programs written in "Classic Turing", will operate under Object Oriented Turing with no change.

The most important thing to note it that you do not have to change the vast majority of your curriculum in order to use Object Oriented Turing. Textbooks using Turing will require only minor changes to use OOT.

Of coure, using OOT does allow you to teach Object Oriented Programming when you desire. This is becoming more common in grade 12.

What textbooks are available for teaching Turing?

Here is the set that Holt Software publishes.

What is the latest version of Turing?

Microsoft Windows	3.1.1 or 4.0.0
Apple Macintosh	1.5.1

Note that the Windows version 3.1.1 is complete and stable. Windows version 4.0.0 is a new rewrite with a nicer, easier-to-use interface but does not yet have all the features available in 3.1.1 (namely debugger and Sprite module).

Licensing

What is the Ontario Ministry of Education License?

The Ontario Ministry of Education has licensed Object Oriented Turing for Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh for all publicly-funded high schools. The software can be obtained by contacting your OESS representative who has CDs for both versions. You can find out who your representative is by checking the OSAPAC web site at www.osapac.org. This license does not include a student redistribution license, which can be purchased separately.

What about updates for the Ontario Ministry of Education License?

The Ministry has indicated that it prefers updates once per year, in April. The latest version of the software will be made available to the Ministry in April and the Ministry will make it available to schools a little later. While the license to use the software continues indefinitely, the Ministry has contracted with Holt Software to provide updates for the next 3 years (2002, 2003 & 2004).

Updates to the software in the Ministry updates can be found on the Turing Technical Support page.

Can I give Turing to my students?

A special student redistribution license is required in order to be allowed to redistribute the software to your students. This license is a one-time site license based on the rough size of your computer labs. Purchasing this license allows you to duplicate any Turing CD you have and redistribute it to your students free of charge (a nominal cost is allowed as long as you're not making a profit). Pricing for the license can be found here.

Otherwise students who wish to use the software at home must purchase the software separately at a cost of $75.00 (includes the 800 page reference manual). The order forms to make a purchase can be found here.

Can students purchase the software for home use?

Yes. The Turing software is available for $75.00 (includes the 800 page Reference Manual). The order forms to make a purchase can be found here.

How do Turing site licenses work?

Turing is licensed to schools on a price that depends on the number of computers being used to teach computer science. Once licensed, you can install Turing on each machine or on a network (or multiple networks), as required. The license covers all platforms, so if you have both machines running Windows and machines running MacOS, you simply request both versions when you license.

The license allows the Turing software to be taken home by teachers for lesson preparation purposes.

Turing 4.0

What is Turing 4.0?

Turing 4.0 is the successor to Object Oriented Turing 3.1.1. It is a complete rewrite of Turing's front and back end. The Turing language is completely unchanged, but the editor and the running Windows are quite different. For a complete set of the difference, new features, features yet to be added, etc., read the release notes.

How do I get Turing 4.0?

If your school is in Ontario and has licensed Turing in the past, or if you have a current Object Oriented Turing license, then you will have already been sent Turing 4.0 in September 2001. If you believe that you should have a copy and cannot find it, contact Holt Software.

Why doesn't the Ministry/OESS distribute Turing 4.0?

The Ministry prefers to update its software once per year, in April. Next April, the Ministry will receive the latest version of the software and start distributing it to schools via the OESS software representatives.

How do students purchasing Turing for home use get Turing 4.0?

An installer will be made available over the net that will allow any student with a purchased version of the software to install Turing 4.0. We are attempting to eliminate the last three known bugs before providing a student distribution. We expect an installer to be available near the end of November.

Where's the debugger?

As mentioned in the release notes, certain features weren't included in the initial release of Turing 4.0. These features will reappear in subsequent releases. If you have urgent need of the debugger, continue to use Turing 3.1.1.

Where's the Sprite module?

As mentioned in the release notes, certain features weren't included in the initial release of Turing 4.0. These features will reappear in subsequent releases. If you have urgent need of the Sprite module, continue to use Turing 3.1.1.

How do I access the GUI module?

The GUI module has changed location. The import line should be changed from

     import GUI in "%oot/lib/GUI"

to

     import GUI in "%oot/support/lib/GUI"

When are updates coming?

There is an update currently available on our Technical Support Page. Check there for further updates.

I've found a bug! What to I do?

If Turing crashes, it writes a file called panic.log. E-mailing this log to west@hsa.on.ca would be greatly appreciated. The more information that we receive, the faster bugs can be fixed. If there are features that you would like to see that aren't already mentioned as coming in the release notes, please email me with your suggestions.

If there is a bug that cannot be immediately fixed that impairs your classes, please switch to Object Oriented Turing 3.1.1. We are endeavouring to make certain that Turing 4.0 is as bug-free as Turing 3.1.1, but it will take a little testing. Schools have a very large variety of hardware and students and our beta-testers could not catch every variation that exists in our schools.

Holt Software

Who is Holt Software?

Holt Software is a full service solutions source for educational programming, developing software and curriculum materials across the educational user spectrum. For the last 16 years, the Holt Software team has been designing compilers, interpreters and programming environments for educators and publishing computer science textbooks for secondary schools, colleges and universities.
Holt Software also develops and distributes the Turing programming language used extensively in high schools.

What is Holt Software's presence on the internet?

Holt Software's web site can be found at www.holtsoft.com.