I quite like the Deitel books for learning a language. Very practical books. These books are 
targeted at 1st year undergrads and for others trying to get up to speed on a language. 

I believe Mark's books are level 2 or mid degree level.

Gary

14/01/02 16:11:48, "Noel J. Bergman" <noel at devtech.com> wrote:

>It is unfortunate that a comment about the lack of something that would
>encourage more programmers use Squeak is somehow perceived as an attack.  As
>for my observation about the lack of really good tutorials geared to take
>people from newbie to master, I base that upon the current lack of such
>things.  And yes, I check the swiki.  Including today.
>
>> [...] 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.
>
>And you don't just show something once when you are teach.  You introduce
>it, you present it, you reinforce it with examples, you summarize, you
>provide the student with suitable problems to solve, and you provide
>detailed solutions to those problems.
>
>> have you looked at Guzdial's text book?
>
>Yes, of course -- if you mean the one I think you do.  Looked at, and read
>(the online version ... if the hardcopy is substantially different, I
>wouldn't know).  Nice book.  Topical.  But more of a reference than an
>introductory book.  Better if you already know Squeak than to serve the
>tutorial/teaching function.  Noel Rappin's section comes closest, as is its
>intent.  John Maloney's Morphic tutorial is also nice, but it doesn't build
>well upon the previous chapter.  After that ...
>
>Consider, for example, the chapter of the book that you helped contribute.
>Can you honestly tell me that an average Squeak newbie can go off and write
>new networking applications based upon that chapter?  There isn't a single
>real code usage example in the entire chapter, much less a comprehensive
>teaching of the subject.  It is a high level and historical overview of the
>subject.
>
>There is a lot of disjoint content of varying quality all over the Squeak
>community.  That is not, however, the same thing as a coherent,
>well-structured, tutorial that starts from the beginning, follows a
>well-known paradigm such as the "introduce, present, summarize" cycle, and
>builds upon each cycle as it moves towards mastery while reinforcing
>previous topics throughout.
>
>	---  Noel
>
>
>