Light-bot

Computers have to be told everything. In this game, you are in control of a special robot: Light-bot who is in charge of turning on the lights around the factory. Light-bot has lost its program, and you must tell it what to do.

This is a fun little puzzle game, which I encourage you to play this week-end. Next week for your first homework you will manipulate in a formal language another robot, picobot.

Here, the task is to tell Light-bot how to navigate to the blue tiles and to turn on the lights there. To do so the following simple commands are available:

Move forward
Turn right
Turn left
Jump (up or down)
Turn on the light

These commands can be issued by dragging them into the 'Main Method' section of the interface, where they form a list of instructions that the Light-bot will follow slavishly. The commands can also be selected by clicking. Explore the game interface.

When you have set the instructions, the GO! button start the Light-bot. If all of the blue squares have been lit by the end of your program, you will proceed to the next level. If you did not succeed, use the 'Stop' button to reset the Light-bot and edit your instructions.

Think about the strategies you use when your first attempt at a level does not succeed. How do you approach the puzzle considering the functionality of the game interface so as to effectively refine your instructions and reach a solution? When you edit the sequence of steps you are actually doing the mysterious activity that programmers call debugging.