At 10:40 PM 10/7/98 -0400, you wrote:

>Lack of documentation is (IMHO) more of a problem

I remember somewhere (in one of those earlier SqueakIntro Window?) someone
has said that one of the goals in Squeak is to make it a self described
object thru hypertext.  In my opinion, after spending some time working in
Squeak, even judging based on the current state of Squeak, it is already
very readable and quite easy to follow.  I particular like little tools like
the question mark for class documentation (which majority of the classes has
put comments in this pane);  the consistent usage of category (although I
think some of the new classes in 2.2 has diverted a little bit) for easy
navigation and method location (e.g. public access, instance creation etc.);
the 'explain' menu option etc etc.   But to me, the biggest documentation in
Squeak is its complete openness of its class sources, its VM, its system
(e.g. Compiler, Encoder) etc.  These are something that I dearly miss in IBM
Smalltalk.

Of course you have to have certain knowledge in Smalltalk in order to know
how to poke around the system.  So for beginner, there are supplementary
on-line document and tutorials available in Squeak central web site in UIUC.
These tutorials can be improved, I agreed. 

As a side note, I would have to say that Squeak is not only good for
learning Smalltalk/OO but a good live document for computer science in
general.  I think Squeak would be an ideal environment to teach, demo,
explore and even change/extend for any computer science class ranging from
graphics, compiler, electronic music, internet programming, networking, ....
and you name it.. and I won't be surprise that one day when I open my Squeak
image,  I don't ever need to open up any applications (e.g. Word, netscape,
Eudora) since I can do all these from within Squeak.  

In short, I would very much like to see the future improvement of Squeak
documentation focus on within rather than external.
--
Mark Wai
Wator Innovision
mailto: mwai at ibm.net or:[ mwai at frontiersa.com] 
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