Interestingly, I'm getting a fair amount of pushback on this. Personally, I think it would be very helpful to have a live (updatable, so as to keep it current) reference page for the class library, something that developers can easily look up what they need. After all, most of the power of Pharo comes from the class library and we need to make it as accessible as possible to less experienced Pharoers (i.e., beginners).
Exploring the class library through the System Browser is very inefficient. This is further exacerbated by the fact that many classes and methods are simply not well-documented (containing a cursory remark which is just barely useful). I realize that creating a live reference page is not easy to do. In fact, it's a lot of work. But the absence of such a page is a real obstacle to Pharo acceptance. horrido wrote > Thanks. I gave your answer verbatim. I also added the following paragraph: > > The problem I find with today’s developers is that they are rather > closed-minded. They are rigid and inflexible, and not willing to adapt to > new and different ways of doing things. In my generation (circa > 1980–1990), > people didn’t have a problem with trying different technologies. That’s > why > I had no issue with learning Smalltalk 10 years ago, after I had retired > from a 20-year-long career in C systems programming and FORTRAN scientific > programming. > > > > Sven Van Caekenberghe-2 wrote >>> On 6 Oct 2017, at 14:54, horrido < > >> horrido.hobbies@ > >> > wrote: >>> >>> I received this comment from someone who complained: >>> >>> *What about the lack of documentation? From time to time I’ve checked >>> some >>> SmallTalk implementations like Squeak, GNU-Smalltalk and now Pharo. Of >>> these, only GNU-SmallTalk appears to have a free, official programming >>> guide >>> and core library reference that any serious programmer expects from a >>> language. >>> >>> https://www.gnu.org/software/smalltalk/manual-base/html_node/* >>> >>> I pointed to Pharo's documentation but then he came back with: >>> >>> *Then show me a link of the free, maintained reference documentation for >>> the >>> classes that form “the core library”, like this one for Python >>> (https://docs.python.org/3/library/index.html)* >>> >>> It's true, most Smalltalks do not have a core library reference, not >>> even >>> VisualWorks! So what is the proper response to this complaint? >> >> The first answer is that Pharo/Smalltalk is unique in that a running >> system/IDE contains _all_ source code, _all_ documentation (class, >> method, >> help, tutorial), _all_ unit tests and _all_ runnable examples in a very >> easy, accessible way. It takes some getting used to, but this is actually >> better and much more powerful than any alternative. >> >> The second answer is that there are lots of books and articles that take >> the classic/structured book/paper approach. There is >> http://books.pharo.org, http://themoosebook.org, >> http://book.seaside.st/book, http://medium.com/concerning-pharo and many >> more. >> >>> Thanks. >>> >>> >>> >>> -- >>> Sent from: http://forum.world.st/Pharo-Smalltalk-Users-f1310670.html >>> > > > > > > -- > Sent from: http://forum.world.st/Pharo-Smalltalk-Users-f1310670.html -- Sent from: http://forum.world.st/Pharo-Smalltalk-Users-f1310670.html
