Our First Turtle Program¶

Let’s write a couple of lines of Python program to create a new turtle and start drawing a rectangle. (We’ll call the variable that refers to our first turtle alex, but we can choose another name if we follow the naming rules from the previous chapter).

import turtle             # Allows us to use turtles
alex = turtle.Turtle()    # Create a turtle, assign to alex
# Make alex draw a square
alex.forward(50) # Tell alex to move forward by 50 units
alex.left(90) # Tell alex to turn by 90 degrees
alex.forward(50)
alex.left(90)
alex.forward(50)
alex.left(90)
alex.forward(50)
alex.left(90)

(turtles)

We instruct the object alex to move, and to turn. We do this by invoking, or activating, alex‘s methods — these are the instructions that all turtles know how to respond to.