Squeak: A Quick Trip to ObjectLand - Softcover

Korienek, Gene; Wrensch, Tom; Dechow, Douglas R.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0201731142 ISBN 13: 9780201731149

Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional, 2001

Synopsis

With Squeak, developers have a free, complete, portable, high-performance, open source Smalltalk-80 implementation whose virtual machine is written entirely in Smalltalk, making it simple to debug, analyze, and change your code. This book's unique format and bite-size structure makes it easy to learn Squeak -- regardless of your previous experience with objects. Squeak: A Quick Trip to ObjectLand overcomes the traditional Smalltalk learning curve by presenting Squeak in the format of a running conversation between a programmer and an imaginary "Object Wizard." You'll start with the basics of object development, then learn key Squeak concepts that let you write real software almost immediately. Next, build your skills incrementally, mastering numbers, debugging and testing, the class hierarchy, collections, Booleans and blocks, conditional execution, iteration and recursion, streams and files, and more. For every developer who wishes to learn Squeak -- regardless of previous experience.

About this title

About the Author

Gene Korienek is Chief Scientist at 3 Sigma Robotics. As a Smalltalk expert, he has consulted and designed code for many Fortune 100 companies.

Tom Wrensch has been in the computer profession for twenty years and has developed, taught, and mentored in Smalltalk for multiple organizations. Tom and Gene are coauthors of A Quick Trip to ObjectLand: Object-Oriented Programming with Smalltalk/V® (Prentice-Hall, 1994).

Doug Dechow is an experienced software engineer proficient in Squeak, Smalltalk, JAVA, and C++. He is currently a doctoral student in the Computer Science Department at Oregon State University.

0201731142AB11052001

From the Back Cover

The Squeak programming language, an open and portable Smalltalk-80 implementation, is gaining wide acceptance as an agile solution for high quality computation. This tutorial provides a complete introduction to Squeak and advanced topics for programmers interested in mastering the language and implementing programming solutions with it.

Both informative and conversational, this unique how-to guide follows a dialogue between programmer Jim and a Wizard from ObjectLand--allowing the reader to easily understand and implement solutions using Squeak's object-oriented paradigm. Beginning with an overview of object-oriented fundamentals, Squeak--A Quick Trip to ObjectLand then builds on the basics and progresses to more complex language concepts. Throughout the book, topics, goals, and "words of wisdom" are clearly outlined, allowing any programmer to gain a complete understanding of the Squeak programming environment at their own pace.

Topic coverage includes:

• An overview of fundamental object-oriented concepts: object, class, message, method, and more
• The basic building blocks of the Squeak programming language
• Successful strategies for debugging and testing
• Booleans and blocks
• Iteration and recursion
• Code writing: style, comment, convention
• A glimpse into the future of Squeak

With Squeak--A Quick Trip to ObjectLand, developers have the most unique learning environment available for this practical, productive, and portable programming environment.

0201731142B11052001

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

We have read our share of programming-language books and have learned much and little. The style used by conventional programming-language books is a blend between that of a reference book and that of a code-examples book, with some explanatory comments squeezed in between. When approaching the creation of this book, we never considered writing it in a conventional format. The unconventional nature of Smalltalk demands a novel approach. So, we wrote the book in the form of dialogues involving a human named Jim, who has reasons to converse about the nuances of the object-oriented paradigm, Smalltalk programming, and the Squeak environment. The dialogues take place between Jim and the Objective Wizard (an outspoken, outlandish, and outstanding object) in some chapters, and between Jim and the Objective Librarian (a well-spoken and reflective object) in other chapters.It bears noting that the setting for this book is the virtual world of ObjectLand. However, since, as of yet, humans are unable to enter ObjectLand, you will want to keep in mind that ObjectLand's real-world analogue is Squeak.The intent of this book is to teach the reader to solve problems in the object-oriented paradigm and to implement solutions using the object-oriented programming language called Smalltalk in the Squeak environment. It must be read from start to finish and read completely. As you read it, you will soon realize that it is not a reference book. It is more like a storybook with To Do Lists. Read it as you would read a story. It has a plot; it has character; it's meant to entertain.The other big difference between this book and conventional programming books is that you should have a current version of Squeak running in a computer next to you while you are reading. You can participate in the story, and the To Do Lists ask you to complete tasks to reinforce the chapters' information.The conversation between Jim and the Objective Wizard contains English sentences interspersed with Smalltalk code. You can easily recognize the Smalltalk code because it is always in a different typeface--this one.This book can be read in about 15 sittings. That's one chapter per sitting. The completion of the To Do Lists is mandatory. A To Do List appears at the conclusion of each chapter. You will notice that the completed To Do code is not included with the book. The reason for this is that we all know you will look at it as soon as a To Do task gets difficult. We don't want you to look at our solutions to these tasks. We want you to work through the difficulties and reap the learning rewards. If you really want to see our solutions, then check the "About the Authors" section to find out where we are.Learning Smalltalk and the Squeak environment can be a tricky task, but after teaching introductory and advanced Smalltalk classes for a few years, we have figured out how people learn to use Smalltalk. We have found this book's approach to be an extremely effective path to understanding the object-oriented concepts and gaining skill in solving problems by writing squeaky clean code--in Squeak. Try it, it works!Once you have completed this book, you probably will not need it again. You will have been introduced to the cast of characters and will have learned the story. You will need a more advanced book. We suggest that you continue your journey up the Smalltalk learning curve by rambling through the list of texts for further reading that we've included in the back of this book--or perhaps, look for a future ObjectLand book someday.Gene KorienekTom WrenschDoug DechowAugust 2001 0201731142P11262001

Edition details

• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0201731142
• ISBN 13: 9780201731149
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 305