[despammed] Squeak Internet-Based Training
Hrvoje Blazevic
hrvoje at despammed.com
Mon Feb 2 09:47:56 UTC 2004
On a subject of learning Smalltalk / Squeak:
What would be the recommendation for a good introductory book for
learning Smalltalk using Squeak environment, or at least having
sufficient similarity with Squeak, not to cause unnecessary frustration?
I should have probably asked this some time ago, because after checking
on Amazon, I did buy A Quick Trip to ObjectLand, and Object-Oriented
Design with Multimedia Applications.
I honestly can't figure out who is the "Quick Trip ..." written for.
After reading 160 pages I realized that I'm; a) bored to death, and b)
still can't write a program that is more substantial then 2 + 2.
Even given the fact that the book obviously concentrates more on the
Squeak environment than Smalltalk language, I find the style, and
methods (like the exercise where the reader is asked to write down all
menu choices to remember them later) unacceptable.
As for the "Object-Oriented Design..." I had much higher hopes for it,
but it appears to be inconsistent. It looked pretty well up to the page
59, (much better that the Quick Trip). Unfortunately the first exercise
(9) on page 59 requests implementation of tree traversal procedures,
without ever mentioning tree, recursion ... before. Well -- even SICP
doesn't do that!
Maybe I'm rushing in my judgment of this book, so I'll probably return
to reading it later, but there must be a better Smalltalk book out there
-- so, which is it?
-- Hrvoje
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