Started since 1971 computer science was being introducted in french schools (6 years to 18 years). In 1985 the plan Informatique pour tous was bringing Thomson MO5 and TO7/70 computers linked in a network controlled by a PC with two 5,25 inc disk drives (later with a hard disk). What most of people like me didnt know, there was a definitive plus for technology classes : Youpi is a robotic arm with 5 liberty degrees made by JD Productique. It is controlled through the parralel port with a basic program and assembler routines on a Thomson MO5. You will find below two french interesting links :

• the réference site by Edouard Forler
• the assocation VoRoBoTics

Youyoudid was able to get a Youpi which he wanted since his young age. He wrote about it on CPCRulez. In a frist video he is controlling the arm in basic, but the movement is slow so he wanted to accelarate it with a basic compiler :

But finally thanks to the Turbo-Pascal compiler (CP/M) he is able to give a new youth to the robotic arm to let it serve a drink from a plastic bottle.