Is There a "Dive Into Smalltalk" Book

Question

I want to learn Smalltalk (particularly Squeak), but all the websites and books I've come across either assume I'm new to programming or spend forever getting acquainted with all the minutiae of the system.

When I picked up Python, Dive Into Python was my Bible for months. It had a great, straightforward way of teaching me how to apply all the programming concepts I already knew in Python. It would show you pythonic code while it also taught you all of Python's constructs and data types.

Is there a similar book for Smalltalk?

Answer 1

I have found a very interesting book called "squeakbyexample". The page seems to be down, but you can check out the book at this link.

Also, you can take a look at the documentation

Answer 2

Here's a big list (from the wikipedia page actually):

http://stephane.ducasse.free.fr/FreeBooks.html

Answer 3

After familiarising yourself with the basics, I'd recommend Smalltalk Best Practice Patterns for learning the idioms of the language. I found this a profound text when starting out not just for learning Smalltalk but understanding the true essence of OO.

Cheers,
Matt

Answer 4

If you already know how to program, you can't beat the original Smalltalk Blue Book, published in in 1983, titled Smalltalk-80: The Language and Its Implementation, by Goldberg and Robson. Three-quarters of the book is devoted to explanation and discussion of the predefined class hierarchy, and by learning that you will grok Smalltalk deeply.

Answer 5

I would recommend smalltalk with style [PDF]
(you can find it on the http://stephane.ducasse.free.fr/FreeBooks.html website like Loki mentioned)

It helped me not too long ago, and I think it will suite you as well.

it shows you the preferred programming style (hence the "with style" in the title) whilst teaching you how to use the language and its features.

Answer 6

I don't know an exact Smalltalk equivalent of "Dive Into Python". The closest that comes to mind is "Object Oriented Programming" by Peter Coad and Jill Nicola.

Although formally it isn't even a Smalltalk tutorial (OO tutorial with examples in Smalltalk and C++), it is in fact quite a good practical introduction to Smalltalk. What is important is that it shares an important quality of DIP: getting to the useful stuff by example instead of giving the reader long detailed lectures about particular language constructs.

It is also a good book, fun to read and a good refresher on basic principles of object oriented programming.

Answer 7

I wanted to reply to @norman-ramsey but I just registered and I don't have enough reputation to reply (??).

The Blue Book is actually available for free: http://stephane.ducasse.free.fr/FreeBooks/BlueBook/

It got old in some respects though, I wouldn't go into much detail about Bitblt ... morphic is not there, etc. Some details might differ, but the general idea is there.

He looks like he wants a hands-on experience, and I think http://www.squeakbyexample.org/ is the way to go. Download away.

Cheers.

Answer 8

For me it was "On to Smalltalk, my experiences with Squeak by Example weren't that good.