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This document provides a tutorial introduction to the Smalltalk language in general, and the GNU Smalltalk implementation in particular. It does not provide exhaustive coverage of every feature of the language and its libraries; instead, it attempts to introduce a critical mass of ideas and techniques to get the Smalltalk novice moving in the right direction.
This manual assumes that the reader is acquainted with the basics of computer science, and has reasonable proficiency with a procedural language such as C. It also assumes that the reader is already familiar with the usual janitorial tasks associated with programming: editing, moving files, and so forth.
| • Getting started: | Starting to explore GNU Smalltalk | |
| • Some classes: | Using some of the Smalltalk classes | |
| • The hierarchy: | The Smalltalk class hierarchy | |
| • Creating classes: | Creating a new class of objects | |
| • Creating subclasses: | Adding subclasses to another class | |
| • Code blocks (I): | Control structures in Smalltalk | |
| • Code blocks (II): | Guess what? More control structures | |
| • Debugging: | Things go bad in Smalltalk too! | |
| • More subclassing: | Coexisting in the class hierarchy | |
| • Streams: | A powerful abstraction useful in scripts | |
| • Exception handling: | More sophisticated error handling | |
| • Behind the scenes: | Some nice stuff from the Smalltalk innards | |
| • And now: | Some final words | |
| • The syntax: | For the most die-hard computer scientists |
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