How to speed up python's 'turtle' function and stop it freezing at the end

1. Set turtle.speed() to fastest.
2. Use the turtle.mainloop() functionality to do work without screen refreshes.
3. Disable screen refreshing with turtle.tracer(0, 0) then at the end do turtle.update()

Python turtle goes very slowly because screen refreshes are performed after every modification is made to a turtle.

You can disable screen refreshing until all the work is done, then paint the screen, it will eliminate the millisecond delays as the screen furiously tries to update the screen from every turtle change.

For example:

import turtle
import random
import time
screen = turtle.Screen()

turtlepower = []

turtle.tracer(0, 0)
for i in range(1000):
    t = turtle.Turtle()
    t.goto(random.random()*500, random.random()*1000)
    turtlepower.append(t)

for i in range(1000):
    turtle.stamp()

turtle.update()

time.sleep(3)

This code makes a thousand turtles at random locations, and displays the picture in about 200 milliseconds.

Had you not disabled screen refreshing with turtle.tracer(0, 0) command, it would have taken several minutes as it tries to refresh the screen 3000 times.

https://docs.python.org/2/library/turtle.html#turtle.delay

For reference, turtle being slow is an existing problem. Even with speed set to max, turtle can take quite a long time on things like fractals. Nick ODell reimplemented turtle for speed here: Hide Turtle Window?

import math

class UndrawnTurtle():
def __init__(self):
    self.x, self.y, self.angle = 0.0, 0.0, 0.0
    self.pointsVisited = []
    self._visit()

def position(self):
    return self.x, self.y

def xcor(self):
    return self.x

def ycor(self):
    return self.y

def forward(self, distance):
    angle_radians = math.radians(self.angle)

    self.x += math.cos(angle_radians) * distance
    self.y += math.sin(angle_radians) * distance

    self._visit()

def backward(self, distance):
    self.forward(-distance)

def right(self, angle):
    self.angle -= angle

def left(self, angle):
    self.angle += angle

def setpos(self, x, y = None):
    """Can be passed either a tuple or two numbers."""
    if y == None:
        self.x = x[0]
        self.y = x[1]
    else:
        self.x = x
        self.y = y
    self._visit()

def _visit(self):
    """Add point to the list of points gone to by the turtle."""
    self.pointsVisited.append(self.position())

# Now for some aliases. Everything that's implemented in this class
# should be aliased the same way as the actual api.
fd = forward
bk = backward
back = backward
rt = right
lt = left
setposition = setpos
goto = setpos
pos = position

ut = UndrawnTurtle()