rcb@netcom.COM (Roy Bixler) (03/08/91)
I'm trying to learn Samlltalk, because I was told that it is the only 'truly object oriented language out there'. I picked up a copy of GNU Smalltalk, went to the local computer bookstore and bought a book with a purple cover (the Purple book, I assume) called 'SMALLTALK-80 the language', by Adele Goldberg and David Robson. After digging into the GNU Smalltalk documentation, I found a comment which implied that the above Purple book should be avoided and to use the Blue book instead. Before I return the Purple book, can anyone tell me what's the advantage of using the Blue book? Maybe a better question - is the Purple book worth keeping if I buy the Blue book? Thanks for any enlightenment. (I hope this topic hasn't been beaten to death recently.) Roy Bixler rcb@netcom.com -or- (UUCP) uunet!apple!netcom!rcb
andrzej@bigsur.UUCP (Andrzej Bieszczad) (03/09/91)
In article <27324@netcom.COM>, rcb@netcom.COM (Roy Bixler) writes: |> |> I'm trying to learn Samlltalk, because I was told that it is the only |> 'truly object oriented language out there'. I picked up a copy of GNU |> Smalltalk, went to the local computer bookstore and bought a book with |> a purple cover (the Purple book, I assume) called 'SMALLTALK-80 the |> language', by Adele Goldberg and David Robson. After digging into the |> GNU Smalltalk documentation, I found a comment which implied that the |> above Purple book should be avoided and to use the Blue book instead. |> Before I return the Purple book, can anyone tell me what's the |> advantage of using the Blue book? Maybe a better question - is the |> Purple book worth keeping if I buy the Blue book? |> |> Thanks for any enlightenment. (I hope this topic hasn't been beaten |> to death recently.) |> |> Roy Bixler |> rcb@netcom.com -or- (UUCP) uunet!apple!netcom!rcb I recommend that you do not buy any of them. Instead invest in two volume "Inside Samlltalk" written by two experts: Lalonde and Pugh (check Journal Of Object Oriented Programming for details on these guys). If you join the Library of Computer and Information Sciences, you will get both books for about $60, which is an excellent deal. "Inside Smalltalk" is the best book on Smalltalk I have seen. However, be warned, it does not cover release 4 (it covers all 2.x, up to 2.5). There is no other book which would cover release 4 anyhow. -- ======================================================================== Andrzej Bieszczad | Phone: (613) 763-2259 Bell-Northern Research, Ltd. | Fax: (613) 763-3283 Dept. 7G12, P.O. Box 3511, Station C, | USENET: uunet!bnrgate!eh!andrzej Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1Y 4H7 | BitNet: andrzej@BNR.CA ========================================================================
klimas@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com (03/13/91)
In article <27324@netcom.COM>, rcb@netcom.COM (Roy Bixler) writes: > I'm trying to learn Samlltalk, because I was told that it is the only > 'truly object oriented language out there'. I picked up a copy of GNU > Smalltalk, went to the local computer bookstore and bought a book with > a purple cover (the Purple book, I assume) called 'SMALLTALK-80 the > language', by Adele Goldberg and David Robson. After digging into the > GNU Smalltalk documentation, I found a comment which implied that the > above Purple book should be avoided and to use the Blue book instead. > Before I return the Purple book, can anyone tell me what's the > advantage of using the Blue book? Maybe a better question - is the > Purple book worth keeping if I buy the Blue book? The "Blue Book" is the original book, and is no longer in print. It has been replaced by the purple book which is identical except for the lack of the section on how the ST-80 Smalltalk virtual machine works. Depending upon who you talk to, you get two different reasons why the the section on the virtual machine was dropped from the new purple book. The two most plausible answers are 1.)The current virtual machine in ST-80/Arrival is dramatically different than was described in the Blue Book and hence the information was obsolete. 2.)There was too much information on how to build virtual machines and ParcPlace was concerned about even more competitors.
johnson@cs.uiuc.EDU (Ralph Johnson) (03/15/91)
In article <3764.27dcdeca@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com>, klimas@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com writes: In explanation of why the Blue Book got replaced by the purple book, which omits the section that describes the ST-80 virtual machine: |> The two most plausible answers are |> 1.)The current virtual machine in ST-80/Arrival is dramatically |> different than was described in the Blue Book and hence the |> information was obsolete. |> |> 2.)There was too much information on how to build virtual |> machines and ParcPlace was concerned about even more |> competitors. The description in the Blue Book on how to build a virtual machine was never accurate. Nobody ever built them that way. Well, at least nobody who got a useable implementation on a nonmicrocoded machine built them that way. It was useful as an operational specification of Smalltalk, not as a description of how the implementation worked. The Blue Book description is still useful to get the "big picture" of how Smalltalk works, but it is no longer an accurate specification of the virtual machine, let alone a description of of its implementation. The best description of how Smalltalk is implemented is in the 1983 Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages conference proceedings and is by Peter Deutsch and Alan Schiffman. Ralph Johnson -- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign