On Sun, Jan 13, 2002 at 07:30:22PM -0500, Noel J. Bergman wrote:

[snip]

> > [...] except for first impressions.
> 
> First impressions count.  For a lot, in fact, if you don't get to make a
> second one.
> 
> The Squeak environment is radically different from every other IDE that a
> programmer is likely to encounter.  Everything about working with Squeak is
> different, from how to author code, to how to "load" someone else's code, to
> how to "save" your code, to how to debug a method, etc.  It is like nothing
> that a prospective Squeaker has ever seen before.  So if you don't show him
> not only how the environment works, but also show him how it corresponds
> with what he's familiar with, you've lost your shot.

Speaking as a Smalltalk neophyte, I do agree with you about the
whole first impression.  Back in early '98 when I first encountered Squeak,
when it first booted up I remember thinking: "Cool!   Uh, but what do I do
next?"  At the time there were scattered tutorials but the saving grace
for me was an old copy of Goldberg's "Smalltalk-80: The Language".  Not
only did it cover the basics of Smalltalk, it also covered how to navigate
and understand the MVC interface--which Squeak reproduced identically.
This helped me immensely.  After understanding MVC and Smalltalk, I was able
to figure out Morphic by picking apart other applications.

Oberon is somewhat similar in the "Gee, wow!...what next?" first impression,
but I had less luck finding much info on how to use it.  Trying to figure
out how to navigate Oberon's panes was "pane"-ful the first time 'round.

[snip]