[squeak-dev] Documentation suggestion: why not a road map?

Casey Ransberger casey.obrien.r at gmail.com
Tue Apr 27 17:04:08 UTC 2010


I think we have the API reference problem basically nailed; HelpSystem handles most of that work.

The tutorial content thing is a horse of a different color though. Sun had paid tech writers to document Java. We have a very small community of volunteers. This is why I want to get in image documentation squared as soon as possible... No sense writing a book when we don't even have class comments really handled. 



On Apr 27, 2010, at 5:17 AM, Casimiro de Almeida Barreto <casimiro.barreto at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> I was wondering about documentation & adoption of smalltalk by people
> outside "our gang". One thing I remember from the beginnings of Java is
> that Sun distributed (for free) a book called Java Roadmap which covered
> the language itself and pretty much of the core libraries.
> 
> Such roadmap is nonexistent for squeak. There are several really good
> books but each book covers only specific topics or is very partial in
> its coverage of more general topics. For instance, imagine someone
> interested in a very basic thing like using Morph tree to build user
> interfaces: there's something called LayoutPolicy that's not explained
> anywhere (yes, in the Laser Game Tutorial  LayoutPolicy is presented but
> not explained) and several other things that a person with little or no
> knowledge of Smalltalk/Self or any other thing that uses Morph will not
> understand and will not find properly documented anywhere.
> 
> I would suggest that people talented in writing books & tutorials take
> the "roadmap" paradigm for the next book. It would make easier to
> attract students, teachers & new developers.
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> CdAB
> 



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