What is this?

Karel The Robot is a simple teaching environment for imperative programming basics. The original idea was developed in the 1970s by Richard Pattis at Stanford University.

How do I learn this?

I am in the process of recording a lecture series on Karel The Robot.

Where do I download the system?

Click this download link. If for some reason this doesn't work, click karel.jar in the list above, then Raw or View Raw.

How do I start the system?

Karel The Robot requires Java 7 or newer to run. Make sure you have Java installed!

On most operating systems, you can simply run a jar by double-clicking on it.

If double-clicking does not start the system, open a terminal inside the download folder and write:

java -jar karel.jar

How do I save my code?

The code is automatically saved to a new file each time you click the start button. The save folder is named karel, and it is located in your home directory. The full path is displayed in the title bar.

Keyboard Shortcuts

F1    moveForward();
F2    turnLeft();
F3    turnAround();
F4    turnRight();
F5    pickBeeper();
F6    dropBeeper();

F7    onBeeper()
F8    beeperAhead()
F9    leftIsClear()
F10   frontIsClear()
F11   rightIsClear()

F12   start / step into / reset

Tab            auto-indent
Ctrl Space     auto-complete
Ctrl D         delete line

Ctrl C         copy
Ctrl X         cut
Ctrl V         paste

Ctrl Z         undo
Ctrl Y         redo