Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
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From: knight@mrco.carleton.ca (Alan Knight)
Subject: Re: Beginner
Message-ID: <knight.784691648@tina.mrco.carleton.ca>
Sender: news@cunews.carleton.ca (News Administrator)
Reply-To: knight@mrco.carleton.ca (Alan Knight)
Organization: Carleton University
References: <3a2v8a$17u@cronkite.seas.gwu.edu>
Date: Sun, 13 Nov 1994 01:54:08 GMT
Lines: 28

In <3a2v8a$17u@cronkite.seas.gwu.edu> chouman@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu (Muhieddine M. Chouman) writes:
>Hi I am new to OO and to programming in general.  I took
>one course that dealt with OO design. What the best way
>to learn Smalltallk for someone who doesn't have programing
>experience.  Do I have to learn the traditional languages before
>I start learning the OO programing like smalltalk.
>Please let me know.

Wilf LaLonde's book "Discovering Smalltalk" is written as an
introductory programming text. It's supposed to be very good.
Disclaimer: Wilf LaLonde is one of the owners of the company I work
for. It's written for Smalltalk/V Windows 16-bit version, which is
probably the cheapest non-free Smalltalk around (I think
SmalltalkAgents is second). In any case, I think you could use the
book reasonably effectively with another dialect.

Since you are at a university, you probably have access to some very
cheap tools. ParcPlace has a very good site licensing arrangement with
universisties. If your university is part of it, I think you can get
it free. If they're not part of it, consider joining. I expect IBM has
a pretty good educational deal too. I don't know about the other
vendors. It'd be worth checking.

-- 
 Alan Knight                | The Object People
 knight@acm.org             | Smalltalk and OO Training and Consulting
 alan_knight@mindlink.bc.ca | 509-885 Meadowlands Dr.
 +1 613 225 8812            | Ottawa, Canada, K2C 3N2
