IBM Smalltalk: The Language (The Benjamin/Cummings Series in Object-Oriented Software Engineering) - Softcover

Smith, David N.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 080530908X ISBN 13: 9780805309089

Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional, 1995

Synopsis

Produced in cooperation with IBM, provides encyclopedic coverage of the Smalltalk language. Includes numerous examples to guide readers through the concepts and methods of IBM Smalltalk. Paper. DLC: Smalltalk (Computer language program)

About this title

About the Author

About David N. Smith

David N. Smith is a Senior Programmer at IBM'sT J Watson Research Center in Hawthorne, NY. He currently spends mostof his time using the Smalltalk language, both programming and writing booksabout it. In addition to his books for Addison-Wesley, he is the editor of a revised Smalltalk FAQ, hosted by the University of Illinois.

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From the Back Cover

This detailed reference book, produced in cooperation with IBM, provides encyclopedic coverage of the Smalltalk language as found in IBM'S Smalltalk and VisualAge products, while also providing an introduction to Object-Oriented Programming. Although a programming background is assumed, no prior knowledge of Smalltalk or Object-Oriented concepts is needed.

Numerous examples guide readers through the concepts and methods of IBM Smalltalk, moving from short expressions, to code fragments, to full programs. Over 350 numbered examples from the text are also available in machine-readable form. Nearly 1,000 smaller examples and over 100 figures and illustrations help to illuminate every concept. Extensive indexing and cross-referencing enable programmers to find information quickly, making this book a practical reference that answers important questions about the language.

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Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The IBM Smalltalk language is delivered in several products, as VisualAge which emphasizes visual construction of interfaces and applications, and as IBM Smalltalk which emphasizes a more traditional textual programming approach. Each comes with two levels of development support: team and individual. Each of these runs on a number of platforms, including IBM OS/2, Microsoft Windows, and AIX.

This is a language book. It describes the IBM Smalltalk language and class libraries. Like most books for other languages, this book does not describe the development environment, the compiler, editors, or debuggers, to any great degree. The environment in which Smalltalk programs are written looks, feels, and acts in different ways in VisualAge than in IBM Smalltalk, is different in the team and individual versions, and is different in look and feel across the various implementation platforms. This book concentrates on the language and core libraries, because they are common to and uniform across all products and platforms. This book thus applies to all of the IBM Smalltalk and VisualAge products.

Information specific to a platform is omitted since the book (and IBM Smalltalk) is platform independent. There are no live screen shots, no platform-specific operating system or graphics calls, and no information on installing or starting Smalltalk. Detailed information on the development environment is likewise omitted, since the subject is large, details vary by platform, and the topic deserves a book of its own. Graphics and windowing are introduced in this book, but will be described in detail in a companion volume.

It is assumed that readers know how to program in some language, know the concepts of variable, procedure, parameter, loop, array, number, and so on, and have some experience writing programs for others to use.

If you are already a Smalltalk programmer, you will know most of the material in the early chapters. However, there are some extensions and changes, and it will be worthwhile skimming these chapters. Goals

The author set out to write a book that was to be specifically for the IBM Smalltalk language. Five goals were set:
* To be a programmer's Smalltalk book, practical and for everyday use, and not a theoretical description, or an overview;
* To support all IBM Smalltalk and VisualAge platforms by including only portable interfaces, by defining and describing where portability problems are, and by not describing platform-dependent details
* To be a reference, by being complete and useful enough to be keep at hand while programming
* To emphasize examples, from short expressions to code fragments through full programs
* To make it easy to find things by indexing and cross- referencing extensively Parts

The book is divided into four parts: an introduction to concepts and features, more advanced topics, sample programs, and the encyclopedia of classes.

Chapters in Part I introduce the concepts of object- oriented programming, the beginnings of interaction with the Smalltalk system, language elements, blocks and methods, basic classes, collections, and how to write classes.

Part II describes more advanced topics, including graphics, windowing, files and streams, details on variables and scoping, memory management, exception handling, and processes.

Part III contains sample Smalltalk programs.

Part IV is an encyclopedia of Smalltalk classes. It contains more detailed information about the classes and a full description of the public interface to the classes. 080530908XP04062001

Edition details

• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 080530908X
• ISBN 13: 9780805309089
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 584