[Newbies] Does anyone offer a squeak training course?

[Mark Bailey]

<< Does that book cover the features of the development environment itself? Is it the white or the blue Guzdial book? >>

There is a bit of overlap, in terms of the subjects covered, but I think a good place to start is the 'white' book, "Squeak: Object-Oriented Design with Multimedia Applications" by Mark Guzdial (2001). It is based on the 2.8 release. You can get a free copy of it here:

	http://www.iam.unibe.ch/~ducasse/FreeBooks.html

<< I've found with other communities surrounding a long-running (old) technology that everyone sort of takes for granted "how easy it is to use the tool". However, folks brand new to both Squeak and Smalltalk, while at the same time being well experienced in other languages, are often presented with advice like "read the source code". Come on, give me a break. You need a guide telling you how to use source code control, create and modify classes, run stuff, and refactor stuff. >>

I agree. I learned a lot by exploring the code but only after I had a structured introduction (PARC Place books, for example). I don't have to return to these books any more but I still learn a lot by reading a new one.

I hope that this advice is helpful to the original requester.

Mark