[Squeak] Need for GUI-Building-Tool
Andrew C. Greenberg
werdna at mucow.com
Mon Jul 15 15:41:59 UTC 2002
On Monday, July 15, 2002, at 05:33 AM, Chris Burkert wrote:
>> Documentation, that's what we need.
>
> !!! YES !!!
> Nothing against Wikis, but many links are dead, much of the Information
> is to old or written for Insiders. Forget about good or even existing
> ClassComments ... most Squeakers believe the System is describing itself
> and don't write some words ... I don't think that Squeak describes
> itself !
Actually, Squeak does an awesome job of describing itself. It's
introspection and code examination tools are awesome (its a bit of a
reach to say unparalleled, but they are awesome). Squeak is also, for
the most part, extremely well-written -- once you know how to code
Smalltalk\, you know how to read it. Virtually any answer you might
want to a system question is best, and most effectively found in the
code.
The problem is documentation, I agree, but I think it is not necessarily
the documentation or lack of it for particular features (although those
kinds of tutorials are also quite valuable).
In my view, Squeak needs better documentation that teaches "how to fish"
rather than "giving readers a fish," so that they readers may more
quickly take the step from newbie user to intermediate code browser more
effectively. Squeak will tell you most of what you need to know, once
you know where to look for things. BUT, too much of that functionality
is hidden for lack of documentation.
This could be a chapter in an overall tutorial of exceptional value, and
one of these days -- if nobody else will soon -- I'm going to write it.
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