Hi,
  Um, I think this is already there.  If I start up a fresh 2.4c image 
I get a number of windows, which, if fully read, cover most of the
getting startup process.

One window is a light yellow titled Getting Started....  This includes 
a link to click to get the ReadMe.txt, or, read the same file on the
swiki.  The ReadMe.txt does cover how to run the UI, though I don't
see that you have to be in a pane to actually type there.  It does not 
talk about flaps though.  You start in MVC and not morphic so flaps
won't work.  All the key operations are listed under the Help menu and 
this is reference in the ReadMe.txt file.  What's not there is what
cooresponds to the Mac Cmd key.  My unix keyboard seems to like alt
just like your windows keyboard does.  I seem to remember that the
Swiki documents which special key cooresponds to the Cmd key.

Another window is kind of a dark yellow and it's title is Welcome To...
In here is a nice overview of the neat features of Squeak and some
simple demos.  

The Swiki does have pointers to online SmallTalk resources and
tutorials, though, none of these substitute for a book.

Squeak, in spite of being compact, is a big system.  I also have
floundered a bit trying to find how to get started on some tasks.
Today's question was how to generate the source for the 3d plugin,
which, thanks to the Squeak mailing list archives turned out to be
'B3DEnginePlugin translateB3D' but it took a while to find it.

As Dan and others have pointed out the selector finder is a goldmine.
It does a good job pointing you in the right direction.  The other
thing which works well is the class finder, in a class browser middle
click in the upper left hand pane and give it a bit of a class name.
Things are named such that after one or two tries I almost always get
a response which starts me down the right path.  

Hopefully this helps...

cheers

bruce


Joachim Durchholz writes:
 > Andres Valloud wrote:
 > > 
 > > Hi.
 > > 
 > > > 3) Cut&paste from Squeak to the outside world and back.
 > > 
 > > This works, in Squeak cut-copy-paste are alt + x-c-v instead of ctrl.
 > 
 > 1) Why this difference? (This question probably doesn't go to Squeak in
 > general but to Andreas Raab.)
 > 2) Right on Squeak's start-up screen, there should be a large window
 > detailing how to use it. Or, to keep the footprint small, a reference to
 > a WWW resource that can be downloaded, will automatically open, and stay
 > on the Squeak desktop for later reference.
 > This should cover not only Cut&Paste, but all the mechanics of using
 > Squeak. Like: How to use the scroll bars, what to do if there is no
 > horizontal scroll bar but the text is wider than the window, what a
 > "flap" is, that one must move the cursor over the pane that one wants to
 > type into, and all those little things that are different from Windows
 > (or any other windowing system).
 > Another reference should give hints about using the system (i.e. the
 > standard tutorial about Smalltalk). What I was missing here was some
 > bird's eye view of the system: How to go about using Morphic, what
 > classes (and method categories) to inspect first, and similar stuff.
 > (Maybe it would be a good idea to incorporate some "read me first"
 > mechanism into the browsers themselves, so that each class author is
 > responsible for providing these hints. Just musing...)
 > 
 > Regards,
 > Joachim
 > -- 
 > Please don't send unsolicited ads.
 > 
 > 

-- 
Reality is 80m polygons - Alvy Ray Smith
Bruce O'Neel - beoneel at mindspring.com 
http://homepage.iprolink.ch/~bioneel/beo/beo.html - daily stuff