Book on Smalltalk for a beginner

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Book on Smalltalk for a beginner

Annick Fron-2
Hi

Could anybody cite a book on Smalltalk for a beginner ?
I have old pointers.
Annick
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Re: Book on Smalltalk for a beginner

squeakman
"Smalltalk by Example" by Alec Sharp


On Thu, Nov 14, 2013 at 9:23 AM, Annick Fron <[hidden email]> wrote:
Hi

Could anybody cite a book on Smalltalk for a beginner ?
I have old pointers.
Annick
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Re: Book on Smalltalk for a beginner

jarober
In reply to this post by Annick Fron-2
Not a book, but I did do an intro series of screencasts using ProfStef with Pharo:



On Nov 14, 2013, at 9:23 AM, Annick Fron <[hidden email]> wrote:

Hi

Could anybody cite a book on Smalltalk for a beginner ?
I have old pointers.
Annick
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Re: Book on Smalltalk for a beginner

jtuchel
In reply to this post by Annick Fron-2
Annick,

The books are still the same, even if your list is 10 years old ;-)

I'd recommend The Art and Science of Smalltalk by Simon Lewis together with Smalltalk Objects and Esign by Chamond Liu.

Joachim

Annick Fron <[hidden email]> schrieb:

>Hi
>
>Could anybody cite a book on Smalltalk for a beginner ?
>I have old pointers.
>Annick
>_______________________________________________
>vwnc mailing list
>[hidden email]
>http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/vwnc
>

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Re: Book on Smalltalk for a beginner

cdavidshaffer
In reply to this post by Annick Fron-2

On Nov 14, 2013, at 9:23 AM, Annick Fron wrote:

Hi

Could anybody cite a book on Smalltalk for a beginner ?
I have old pointers.
Annick


All of the books are old so your pointers might still be valid. Many of the books are available for free at:


Here are my recommendations:

For new highschool age and above with little or no programming experience prerequisite:
Smalltalk by Example -- Alec Sharp
A Little Smalltalk -- Timmothy Budd
Joy of Smalltalk -- Ivan Tomek (originally a Workspace Smalltalk walkthrough, released as a free book)

For someone with some programming experience but new to Smalltalk:
Smalltalk: An Introduction to Application Development using VisualWorks -- Hopkins and Horan (dated but still good book)
Smalltalk With Style -- Klimas and Skublics (every Smalltalker reads this at some point -- great "style" guide)
Smalltalk Best Practice Patterns -- Kent Beck (another must read 2nd book)
Smalltalk, Objects and Design -- Chamond Liu (a good read for a college student trying to "get objects")
On to Smalltalk -- Patrick Winston (thin, compares Smalltalk to C or Java, can't remember)

For young budding programmers there is :
Squeak: Learn Programming with Robots -- Stef Ducasse (good book but approach is opinionated, my kids liked it)

Newer books:
The Pharo/Squeak folks have done a nice job with "Pharo/Squeak by Example" which are also free on the above site.  I don't consider these as introduction to programming books but they are nice resources for developers making the change to Pharo/Squeak.

Hope that helps.

David



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Re: Book on Smalltalk for a beginner

jWarrior
In reply to this post by squeakman
On 11/14/2013 9:42 AM, Frank Lynch wrote:
"Smalltalk by Example" by Alec Sharp

Agreed.

Many other good Smalltalk books available here: http://stephane.ducasse.free.fr/FreeBooks.html


On Thu, Nov 14, 2013 at 9:23 AM, Annick Fron <[hidden email]> wrote:
Hi

Could anybody cite a book on Smalltalk for a beginner ?
I have old pointers.
Annick
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-- 
Donald [|]

Joel Cairo: "You always have a very smooth explanation."
Sam Spade: "What do you want me to do? Learn to stutter?"
- The Maltese Falcon

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Re: Book on Smalltalk for a beginner

Annick
In reply to this post by cdavidshaffer
Thanks to you all

Le 14 nov. 2013 à 16:11, David Shaffer <[hidden email]> a écrit :


On Nov 14, 2013, at 9:23 AM, Annick Fron wrote:

Hi

Could anybody cite a book on Smalltalk for a beginner ?
I have old pointers.
Annick


All of the books are old so your pointers might still be valid. Many of the books are available for free at:


Here are my recommendations:

For new highschool age and above with little or no programming experience prerequisite:
Smalltalk by Example -- Alec Sharp
A Little Smalltalk -- Timmothy Budd
Joy of Smalltalk -- Ivan Tomek (originally a Workspace Smalltalk walkthrough, released as a free book)

For someone with some programming experience but new to Smalltalk:
Smalltalk: An Introduction to Application Development using VisualWorks -- Hopkins and Horan (dated but still good book)
Smalltalk With Style -- Klimas and Skublics (every Smalltalker reads this at some point -- great "style" guide)
Smalltalk Best Practice Patterns -- Kent Beck (another must read 2nd book)
Smalltalk, Objects and Design -- Chamond Liu (a good read for a college student trying to "get objects")
On to Smalltalk -- Patrick Winston (thin, compares Smalltalk to C or Java, can't remember)

For young budding programmers there is :
Squeak: Learn Programming with Robots -- Stef Ducasse (good book but approach is opinionated, my kids liked it)

Newer books:
The Pharo/Squeak folks have done a nice job with "Pharo/Squeak by Example" which are also free on the above site.  I don't consider these as introduction to programming books but they are nice resources for developers making the change to Pharo/Squeak.

Hope that helps.

David


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Re: Book on Smalltalk for a beginner

Gary Peterson-2
In reply to this post by jarober
Hi James -- are your casts available in text/pdf/etc format? Or maybe audio transcripts with the shots?  Just a bit harder to find the time for the screencasts, although a good format when time is available.
 
Thank you,
 
Gary P
 
 
 
 
 
 
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, November 14, 2013 9:04 AM
Subject: Re: [vwnc] Book on Smalltalk for a beginner

Not a book, but I did do an intro series of screencasts using ProfStef with Pharo:



On Nov 14, 2013, at 9:23 AM, Annick Fron <[hidden email]> wrote:

Hi

Could anybody cite a book on Smalltalk for a beginner ?
I have old pointers.
Annick
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Re: Book on Smalltalk for a beginner

jarober
No, they are video only.  I try to keep each one under 5 minutes, and they usually hit around 2 minutes


On Nov 14, 2013, at 11:34 PM, Gary Peterson <[hidden email]> wrote:

Hi James -- are your casts available in text/pdf/etc format? Or maybe audio transcripts with the shots?  Just a bit harder to find the time for the screencasts, although a good format when time is available.
 
Thank you,
 
Gary P
 
 
 
 
 
 
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, November 14, 2013 9:04 AM
Subject: Re: [vwnc] Book on Smalltalk for a beginner

Not a book, but I did do an intro series of screencasts using ProfStef with Pharo:



On Nov 14, 2013, at 9:23 AM, Annick Fron <[hidden email]> wrote:

Hi

Could anybody cite a book on Smalltalk for a beginner ?
I have old pointers.
Annick
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Re: Book on Smalltalk for a beginner

Vincent Lesbros-2
In reply to this post by Gary Peterson-2
Indispensable :

Smalltalk-80 - The Language and its implementation :



(back to basics)





2013/11/15 Gary Peterson <[hidden email]>
Hi James -- are your casts available in text/pdf/etc format? Or maybe audio transcripts with the shots?  Just a bit harder to find the time for the screencasts, although a good format when time is available.
 
Thank you,
 
Gary P
 
 
 
 
 
 
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, November 14, 2013 9:04 AM
Subject: Re: [vwnc] Book on Smalltalk for a beginner

Not a book, but I did do an intro series of screencasts using ProfStef with Pharo:



On Nov 14, 2013, at 9:23 AM, Annick Fron <[hidden email]> wrote:

Hi

Could anybody cite a book on Smalltalk for a beginner ?
I have old pointers.
Annick
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Re: Book on Smalltalk for a beginner

Niall Ross
In reply to this post by cdavidshaffer
Dear Annick,

David Shaffer wrote:

>Smalltalk Best Practice Patterns -- Kent Beck (another must read 2nd book)
>
I agree.  If whoever you're advising has only time to read two books
then, after the first one has explained how to write Smalltalk code,
this is a great short readable book on how to write better Smalltalk.  
(And if they only have time to read one short book, after learning the
syntax from a slide or a friend, then they could do worse than make it
the one.)

             Yours faithfully
                   Niall Ross

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Re: Book on Smalltalk for a beginner

Dennis Schetinin
My suggestion (it could be probably considered and extreme one) is: No books are actually needed! Smalltalk is a live and highly interactive system. And the best way to learn and understand it is to play with it. Just open VW or Pharo, run through interactive tutorial and then go on with any programming project you like, just read the code in the image as often as possible. And somewhere in the middle of the process, read Kent Beck's Smalltalk Best Practice Patterns. The next logical step would be TDD.

Books recommended are great, but I would (and I actually did) read them after playing with Smalltalk for some time. 


--

Best regards,


Dennis Schetinin



2013/11/18 Niall Ross <[hidden email]>
Dear Annick,


David Shaffer wrote:

Smalltalk Best Practice Patterns -- Kent Beck (another must read 2nd book)

I agree.  If whoever you're advising has only time to read two books then, after the first one has explained how to write Smalltalk code, this is a great short readable book on how to write better Smalltalk.  (And if they only have time to read one short book, after learning the syntax from a slide or a friend, then they could do worse than make it the one.)

            Yours faithfully
                  Niall Ross


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