Karel the Robot

Karel has been updated to run on current web browsers. Although Karel is nearly 50 years old history, it probably can be a gentle introduction to the enigma of programming for 8–12 years old children. For people over 12 I can recommend Greenfoot for introductory programming classes. (December 2023)

November 26, 2002

It has been aimed to be a teaching aid for children who wish to learn programming. We can probably guess that the legend of mínotaurus or the idea of cybernetic mouse in labyrinth lays somewhere in the background. The children should teach Karel the robot, how to avoid walls and how he can mark path which has walked through. Or anything more simple – at the beginning, there is usually a program "pirouette" – endlessly recursive "turn_left". Karel learns to wander across his yard and the children learn somewhat by the way programming. And why just Karel? – although the idea of this program comes from abroad, Karel the robot is called after the Czech dramatist Karel Čapek, who used the word robot for the first time in his drama R.U.R.

Programming courses with Karel the robot have been published in our country in the beginning of eighties by Ruda Pecinovský and Tomáš Bartovský (probably in the VTM journal). That time, I implemented Karel under RT11 and CP/M and finally at Ondra computer (according to Rudas comments and requirements). When I wished to learn javascript several months ago, I remembered my old good software and wrote it again in javascript.

You may download Karel, unzip into special directory, eventually localize to your language and run it locally. For more info see

Send me please comments or failure reports preferably by e-mail.