Mike;

One distinction you'll have to consider is that Smalltalk comes in several
hues.  Squeak is perhaps the brightest of those (in many ways) but even
Squeak has various shadings, particularly between the Squeak.org version and
the Squeakland.org version.  The Squeakland version is particularly nurtured
as a teaching tool and may well be the best place for the completely
unencumbered to begin.  For that purpose, the "Powerful Ideas" book by BJ
Allen-Conn and Kim Rose could be very useful (link below).

If you want to jump right into "nitty-gritty" Smalltalk, "Squeak: A Quick
Trip to Objectland" by Gene Korienek, Tom Wrensch and Doug Dechow is quite
good, though some dislike its style.  "Squeak: Object Oriented Design with
Multimedia Applications" by Mark Guzdial is an exceptionally good book for
getting off the ground with Squeak, with a special focus on some of Squeak's
coolest features.  Note, though, that Squeak development moves faster than a
printing press, so you'll want to stick to the version of Squeak included
with either book until you've mastered the basics.

For links to the above books, and samples of most, go to
http://www.squeakland.org/sqmedia/books/squeakerbooks.html.

For general Smalltalk coverage the books Stef has made available on his
website [http://www.iam.unibe.ch/~ducasse/FreeBooks.html] include several
good tutorials, though much of that material predates Squeak.

I hope that helps!

Gary Fisher



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Flippin" <webmaster at blindmindseye.com>
To: <squeak-dev at lists.squeakfoundation.org>
Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2004 10:11 PM
Subject: Learning Smalltalk


> Could anyone recommend a good book for people who have never been
> exposed to smalltalk?
>