Count me in when you have specific tasks to launch. At the moment I need to
focus on learning enough so I can put fingers-to-keyboard and start
producing code as quickly as possible.

I irc'ed this comment yesterday and reproduce here in case you missed it: 

>>>
<matmo> tapple: nice to see you kick off the "Swiki Cleanup". I have some
ideas that I will put forward sometime soon after I complete my large-ish
reading list! But for now I have one main suggestion which is a "Beginners
Walk-Through" page. This would contain links to existing pages in the order
that the beginner would follow to get off the ground. I know there are
already page(s) aiming to do this but a more focused one would be welcome.
Ultimately I would like to see a complete training package *in* Squeak - why
not if Squeak is live up to its intented purpose and considering a large
part of the dev effort has an educational bias?
<<<

Later I came across this which is one of the most concise introductions I
have seen so far (at least if you some programming experience): 
http://wilkesjoiner.com/UsingSqueak.html
http://wilkesjoiner.com/UsingSqueak.html . Best part for me is the
monticello introduction because I naturally wondered "ok, if I start writing
my own classes where the hell do I store and manage them long term?". I was
also confused to begin with as to why Squeak seemingly had two package
managers.

While I'm giving a "newby" perspective I would like to add that even though
the concept of "applications" may be scorned upon in the Squeak/Smalltalk/OO
world, that to the beginner (albiet conditioned by current GUI/ main-stream
os standards) the absence of clear "mother" objects (ie, those that would
serve the role of "application" ("mother" being my terminology, I claim it
but you are free to quote with suitable reference (joke))) is VERY confusing
and frustrating! I cannot imagine why a programmer would create something
and then not make it *crystal clear* how to use it by providing at least one
concrete example that assumes little/no prior knowledge of the target
domain. I have seen two suggestions as a sort-of excuse for this situation
1) Use the test classes/methods 2) Squeakers/Smalltalkers rely heavily on
reading the code. Both were welcome suggestions and may be valid *once* you
are familiar with the Squeak/Smalltalk environment. Chicken&Egg, need I say
more? Well may be an example so you don't boo me for not providing a
specific example ;-) I have failed at several attempts to open a flash
player "application" (tounge-in-cheek), having tried left-click menu, code,
morphs and anything else I came across. I suspect I nearly got there on one
attempt only to discover the url I used pointed to a .swf that was not
supported in v3 flash player/component, hmmmm.

Phew! Long paragraph! So in summary: consider the paradigm shift new users,
even those with programming experience, may be experiencing and provide a
smooth transition to a *much better* paradigm, be it in text, in the form of
a tools, convention or even beginner-style menus.

I have three other points to make which, while possibly not directly related
to Matthews objective, may be worth pondering:

1) When I started trawling the web for Squeak/Smalltalk info I was amazed at
how much there is and the long history that goes with the topic/s. In fact
there is so much I am now drowning in it! So I am dazed that despite having
a keen interest, a couple of related degrees and a career in
computers/programming spanning 20+ years I seem to have had a *complete*
blindspot when it comes to Smalltalk. For sure I have seen references to it
for years and possibly even read a few paragraphs here and there, I am
familiar with OO concepts from age ~13 (ok, I am 42 if you really have to
know), I have programmed in a variety of languages on a variety of platforms
but despite all this and the heritage of smalltalk we have never really met
until last week. Maybe it is me, maybe it was my reaction to C++ ("you call
this progress!?") but I don't think so. Considering if I had never had an
interest in Ruby I probably would never had "discovered" Squeak/Smalltalk, I
googled for "programming +ruby" and "programming +smalltalk": 18,800,000
hits for the former compared to 6,270,000 for the latter... there's
something wrong here. Discuss. (sorry for the ending, just had to, lol)

2) Wow such vision! Fantastic concept/s! Such history! It just *must* have a
fantastic future, doesn't it? Amazed as I am, especially with Squeak, I
quickly started to wonder if I had missed the boat, so much so that the boat
is actually on its return journey. Sorry to be obtuse, I have no intention
to offend... but (having prepared you, my dear reader, lol), what has gone
wrong? Where is the all-singing all-dancing experience promised by Squeak?
Oh I see, it's only on offer if you are aged 16 or less (maybe much much
less). Damn kids, why should they have all the fun, with their etoys and
what-not? I jest but there is a serious point: all those aspects that are
(very honourably) put to good use in education should be pushed up-stream. I
mean this literally, to the older generation. I don't know the population
demographics in other countries but I suspect that similar to the UK the
population as a whole is growing older. Here in the UK the biggest group of
voters is set to be the over 60's. Why not upgrade Squeak/EToys and retarget
at this group who I firmly believe would welcome a better computing
experience? Next door to me are a couple in their 70's. Less than a year ago
they got broadband. I set things up for them, showed them how to start some
card games and use a web browser... but that's about it. I quickly realised
to go much further would make the experience unpleasent because of all the
many new things I would have to expose them to. The irony is they are
connected but very much still disconnected in terms of what the internet can
offer them (advice, discussions, even sharing photo's with their
grandchildren!). Imagine what a repackaged Squeak/Squeakland could offer
them if it truly offered a safe multimedia environment, transparently
connecting them to friends&family and their social groups? No web browser
issues/insecurities, no protocols to learn talk to others, drag&drop to
distribute their photo's, maybe personal help at a click of button,
auto-updated, etc, all within a single environment based on Squeak? Imagine.
(yeah, yeah, "talk is cheap" you say and I say "thinking is even cheaper,
have you counted the calories?" - don't know why I added that but I did and
now there's nothing I can do about it, shrug)
 
3) This is maybe the least related to the OP, so sorry, but I got to wonder
about all those young SqueakLanders, some of which must surely be young
adults by now. Was the experience so successful that some even started to
investigate Squeak itself further? Did any become Smalltalk programmers? Did
the programme produce any potential "BIG THINKERS"? Will we see a massive
growth in Squeak/Smalltalk interest as these enlightened individuals spread
the message? If not, why not? PS: these are just idle thoughts and if the
programme simply(?) achieved Alan Kays (et al) objectives then that,
obviously, is enough of an answer for me.

Thank you, very much, for having the patience and personal fortitude for
reading this far. I'm sure I wouldn't - lol.

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