Squeak Beginners Tutorial

Hiren Thacker hithacker at gmail.com
Mon Sep 25 08:29:29 UTC 2006


+1 for Morphic.

On 9/25/06, Matthew Fulmer <tapplek at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sun, Sep 24, 2006 at 10:41:23AM -0400, Chris Kassopulo wrote:
> > Cincom has a pair of tutorials that are excellent.  They are intended for
> > people with little programming and no smalltalk experience.  They contain
> > lots of graphics and lots of links to more detailed information.  You are
> > guided through developing an application that analyzes web log stats by
> > first coding in a workspace and and then moving your code to methods.  The
> > first tutorial creates the classes and methods.  In the second you develop
> > a gui for the application and package it.  Along the way you learn the
> > basics of using smalltalk.  By the end you hunger for more.
> >
> > While I'm sure you have your own ideas of content, you would do well to
> > look over their material:
> >
> > http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/userblogs/cincom/blogView?content=tutorials
>
> <personal_opinion>
>
> This is an excellent tutorial, and I hope our squeak tutorial
> can be of similar quality. However, I think this tutorial is
> unsuitable to a reader who is already familiar with blocks,
> loops, classes, and methods. If one understands these topics,
> the density of new information in the first tutorial is very
> low. Our tutorial should be much shorter and denser, since we
> are assuming that the reader already understands blocks, loops,
> classes, and methods. I did not look at the second tutorial.
>
> Also, the example of reading a log file did not seem very
> interesting or exciting to me; it is also not a typical
> application of Squeak.
>
> </personal_opinion>
>
> My idea for a demo application is a mock stock ticker. It would
> consist of two components:
>
> 1.  A data "retrieval" class. This would not retrieve real data,
>     but would make  up companies and numbers and send that data
>     to a client. It would mostly be a wrapper around a
>     Dictionary or something similar; it would be an easy first
>     class to write.  It would also serve to introduce the reader
>     to Collections and to the System Browser.
>
> 2.  A StockTickerMorph. This would take the data from the server
>     class and present it in a "scrolling ticker" widget similar
>     to the one on TV. Again the real functionality is minimal,
>     but it would illustrate how easy it is to create custom
>     animated widgets in Squeak and Morphic (I am assuming it is
>     easy).
>
> I admit that I am partial to pretty animations, and am not
> really interested in routine tasks like parsing log files.
> Also, I want to show the reader that Squeak not only makes
> "easy" things easy (log file inspection), but also makes "cool"
> things easy (animated widgets). I believe that is (or should be)
> a major selling point for Squeak.
>
> I realize I disagree with some of you about what should be in
> the tutorial, and what applications are interesting. Most of
> this disagreement can be summarized in three words: Morphic vs.
> Seaside. I am on the Morphic side, and Bakki and Chris seem to
> be on the Seaside side (Jason and Derek have not expressed an
> opinion). I cannot predict whether a beginner will be more
> interested in rich client development (Morphic), or web
> development (Seaside), and a including both in a single tutorial
> would make the tutorial broad rather than focused. Thus, I
> think that we should include one in the tutorial and save the
> other for later.
>
> Why should Morphic be in the beginners tutorial, rather than
> Seaside?
> * Morphic comes with the default Squeak image
> * Craig Latta wants a beginners tutorial on Morphic
> * Morphic is "cooler" than web development
>
> We could maintain a separate Seaside tutorial. However, we do
> not currently have the organizational capacity to focus on more
> than one project. I have said before:
>
> The reason that previous documentation efforts failed is the
> lack of focus. To succeed, we must press ahead. There is no
> "ahead" unless we set a goal and work toward it. Our current
> goal is reasonably small and well-defined. By achieving a small
> goal, we will prove to the community and to ourselves that we
> can achieve progressively bigger and better goals. Focus on the
> task at hand; everything else will come in time.
>
> > I am also willing to edit and prepare content provided by others.
>
> Welcome to the team!
>
> --
> Matthew Fulmer
>
>


-- 
Hiren J.Thacker



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