Smalltalk-80

What Hacker News says

1. massungSep 2024
   On the programming side:

   * Thinking Forth by Leo Brodie

   * Lisp In Small Pieces by Christian Queinnec

   * Compilers (the Dragon Book) by Aho, Sethi, and Ullman

   * Smalltalk-80 (the Blue Book) by Goldberg and Robson

   But on the non-technical side, the book that probably had the biggest impact on my career was "What Color Is Your Parachute" by Richard Bolles. It is what convinced me I could transfer my skills from video game dev into another field and how to come up with a plan to do so.

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2. linguaeDec 2020
   I used The Art of Prolog, Second Edition by Leon Sterling and Ehud Shapiro (https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/art-prolog-second-edition), which is available for free using the "Open Access" link, and also Smalltalk-80: The Language and Its Implementation by Adele Goldberg and David Robson (http://stephane.ducasse.free.fr/FreeBooks/BlueBook/Bluebook....), which is also available legally for free with permission (see http://stephane.ducasse.free.fr/FreeBooks.html for other freely-available Smalltalk books that are out of print).
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3. scrootJun 2019
   If you haven't yet, I'd recommend reading the "Blue Book" (Smalltalk-80: The Language and its Implementation) by Goldberg. It has a very holistic approach and, as such, is one of the most accessible and pleasant books describing a computing/programing environment one can find.
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4. smalltalker4Apr 2017
   Pharo By Example was recently updated for Pharo 5: http://files.pharo.org/books/updated-pharo-by-example/

   As for that list, Smalltalk-80: the Language and its Implementation (the "blue book") is phenomenal. One of the co-authors is Adele Goldberg herself, and the last few chapters (26-30) contain the blueprint for a basic, canonical VM using Smalltalk itself as the implementation language (referred to as the "blue book VM").

   I think The Art and Science of Smalltalk is quite good also, but outdated and VisualWorks-specific. The section on MVC is particularly interesting, especially if your understanding of it was shaped by RoR and other web frameworks.

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5. xrangeAug 2015
   Maybe start with "Smalltalk 80: The Language", and just read the first three chapters:

   http://stephane.ducasse.free.fr/FreeBooks/BlueBook/Bluebook....

   Also available for $1.89 (plus shipping) used from Amazon:

   http://www.amazon.com/Smalltalk-80-Language-Adele-Goldberg/d...

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6. throwaway344May 2014
   One of my all-time favorite programming books, about Smalltalk, is Smalltalk-80. http://www.amazon.com/dp/0201113716/

   That may be interest to those who want to investigate more.

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