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Documentation is definately a big part of this. The manuals are a very
good start, but need transcribing from Framemaker/PDF to a more
friendly format like the Sphinx/RestructuredText format that the
website uses so that we can generate HTML, PDF etc as well as make easy
updates<br>
<br>
(Big hint to anyone with lots of free time :) :)<br>
<br>
Specifically responding to Adam's thoughts below, if we are to think of
delegated objects as being shared parts of the original objects then in
a sense the Self 'class' is just one object. It is just that the
Outliner for an object always shows me only the local slots and not
slots shared with other objects. Give me an outliner that shows all*
the slots that a string or a morph has and I suspect the ease of
exploration of the image would improve.<br>
<br>
- Russell<br>
<br>
* well, maybe excluding delegation to the lobby<br>
<br>
Adam Spitz wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:h5djsv+ma2a@eGroups.com" type="cite"><span
style="display: none;"> </span>
<div id="ygrp-text">
<p>Here's a question I've wondered about for a while.<br>
<br>
I don't have any formal teaching experience at all, but in my
experiences as a student, watching other students around me try to
learn object-oriented programming, it seemed to me like one of the
major stumbling blocks was the difference between an object and an
instance and a class. ("No, typing Car doesn't get you an actual car -
it gets you the Car *class*. To get a car object, you have to
*instantiate* the class.") So I always thought that it ought to be
easier for a beginner to learn Self than Smalltalk. But I've never had
a classroom full of beginners to try it out on. I'd be very interested
to hear the experiences of people who've actually tried teaching Self,
especially to people who've never programmed before.<br>
<br>
Mind you, I'm still not quite satisfied with the way that a Self
"class" is made up of two different boxes on the screen (prototype +
traits). But Smalltalk has the same problem (instance + class), and
I've never managed to figure out a way to get rid of it. I'm guessing
the two-box problem is one of those carpet-bump issues. But at least we
don't have to worry about what class a class is an instance of...<br>
<br>
Adam<br>
<br>
--- In <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:self-interest%40yahoogroups.com">self-interest@<wbr>yahoogroups.<wbr>com</a>,
Michael Latta <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:lattam@..."><lattam@...></a> wrote:<br>
><br>
> The value in a system like Self, and Smalltalk, and Ruby, is the
value <br>
> to the expert user. To a programer that has mastered the language,
<br>
> the flexibility, ability to extend the language, and to implement
new <br>
> abstractions, are what make a language system stand out. With
image <br>
> based programming there is also the ease of access to the objects
and <br>
> internals that far exceeds most memory based programming <br>
> environments. But, again mostly those benefit the experienced user.<br>
> <br>
> Michael<br>
<br>
</p>
</div>
<!--End group email --> </blockquote>
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