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Squeak: Learn Programming with Robots (Technology in Action) (Paperback)

~ Stéphane Ducasse (Author)
Key Phrases: micro browser, pica color, variable pica, Squeak Alice, Class Bot Browser, Modify Script (more...)

4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Are you completely new to programming? Do you want to have fun learning to program?

Squeak: Learn Programming with Robots will teach you core programming concepts based on simple, visual problems that involve manipulation of robots, or "turtles." You will learn basic programming concepts like loops, abstractions, composition, and conditionals.

Each chapter is structured so that it can be turned into a one- or two-hour lab session. And while the structured content explains solid principles of object-oriented programming, you'll just have fun going through the sequence of easy examples with the turtle.

And be sure to check out BotsInc, the companion learning environment for this book.

About the Author

Stéphane Ducasse obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis and his habilitation at the University of Paris 6. He was recipient of the SNF 2002 Professeur Boursier Award. He is now a professor at the Université de Savoie. Ducasse has written several books in French and English.

Ducasse's fields of interests include reflective systems design, object-oriented language design, software component composition, application implementation and design, and object-oriented application reengineering. He is the main developer of the Moose reengineering environment. Ducasse also loves programming in Smalltalk and serves as president of the European Smalltalk User Group. He is committed to the Squeak community.

Product Details

Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Apress; 1 edition (June 20, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1590594916
ISBN-13: 978-1590594919
Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7 x 1.1 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #393,008 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Popular in this category: (What's this?)
#84 in Books > Computers & Internet > Computer Science > Artificial Intelligence > Robotics

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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!

Inside This Book (learn more)

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
micro browser, pica color, variable pica, squeak application, pica draws, pica east, expression pica, pica square, variables pica, yellow color object, unary message, named pica, squeak cool, bunny move, self halt, paint editor, message selector, tread length, conditional message, bunny turn, transcript window, absolute moves, self color, message square, smaller golden rectangle

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Squeak Alice, Class Bot Browser, Modify Script, Quick Reference, Bot Figure

Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!

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	68% buy the item featured on this page: Squeak: Learn Programming with Robots (Technology in Action) 4.8 out of 5 stars (5) $32.57
	17% buy Scratch Programming for Teens 5.0 out of 5 stars (1) $19.79
	7% buy Smalltalk, Objects, and Design 4.6 out of 5 stars (16) $20.36
	4% buy The Design Patterns Smalltalk Companion 4.9 out of 5 stars (11) $33.61

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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent intro to the nature of programming, July 27, 2005

By	Trygve Reenskaug (Oslo, Norway) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I whole-heartedly recommend this book for introducing the novice to the nature of computing. I am giving a copy to my 14 year old grandson to introduce him to the fascinating world of programming. He lives 500 km away from me, so he will largely be on his own. I do not expect this to be a problem because the book is perfect for self study.

I want my grandson to learn the essence of computing without spending time on things that he will have to unlearn later or that prove to be blind alleys on his road to computer proficiency . This book is ideal for this purpose. It will let him experience the basic notions of computing in carefully graded steps. Each step tells him how to do fun experiments in the provided environment where he directs a robot/turtle to draw interesting patterns on the screen. The 22 steps take him from a simple sequence of commands to the creation of elaborate simulations; ending at the point where my grandson should start creating his own classes and subclasses.

The experiments are all done in Squeak, a dialect of Smalltalk. It could be argued that my grandson had better learn Java or some other mainstream language. I believe Smalltalk is a better choice because it is simpler, cleaner, and more immediate. The basic concepts are universal and my grandson can easily switch to some other language after he has mastered the fundamentals.

The book is written in a fluent, idiomatic English. It is written in the first person; the writer speaks directly to the reader. This writing style combined with the examples being concrete makes for the smooth communication of what are really abstract ideas.

Anybody wanting to understand more than e-mail and text processing could not do better than to install the free robotic environment on their computer and work through the book’s text and examples.

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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Effective teaching of the ideas of programming, October 29, 2006

By	brian d foy (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews

This book actually teaching computer programming, rather than teaching a computer programming language. It has to use something, and Smalltalk (Squeak) is gentle enough that it doesn't get in the way of the topic.

St�phane Ducasse, a prolific writer about object-oriented programming, says in his preface: "The material for this book was originally developed by my wife, who is a physics and mathematics teacher in a French school where the students are between eleven and fifteen years old". Indeed, the pains taken to make object-oriented programming understandable to someone with no background are quite apparent, and they certainly pay off. The author has more than met his goal "to teach you object-oriented programming, because this paradigm provides an excellent metaphor for teaching programming".

Instead of teaching Smalltalk, the computer language he uses, he's actually teaching programming. Smalltalk, originally designed as a teaching language, has minimal syntatic issues and it very simple once the student knows a few basic rules. The reader of this book doesn't have to know much to start workign though, since the author distributes a working Squeak environment that's ready to use. He's already provided a "Bot factory" and a working (virtual) robot to which the reader can send commands, much like the LOGO language and its turtle. Without getting caught in the details of object or class design, the readers start out simply by interacting with objects and sending them messages to control their behavior.

As the reader learns more about what the robot knows how to do, the author devises trickier problems for the reader to solve. These usually involve causing the robot to move in such a way as to draw out a pattern. In doing so, the reader is actually writing programs that control the robots behavior to accomplish the goal. Although the language is really SmallTalk, the author effectively hides most of that through the use of the robot's little language.

The Squeak environment the author distributes is easy to use for anyone with a basic idea of computers (i.e. mouse and keyboard, click here, and so on). It's easy to install because you only need to download it and click on the file. From there, you see the Squeak environment and a ready-to-use robot. Move the mouse near the robot and a speech bubble with a blinking cursor appears. Type a command and the robot responds. Easy peasy.

If you are already a computer programmer, or have some experience with computer programming and want to learn Smalltalk, this book is probably too basic for you. However, if you go to the authors web page (Amazon tends to edit links from reviews, so google the author's name) you'll find links to many free Smalltalk books that you can download as PDFs.

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5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars nifty development environment, July 24, 2005

By	W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

The use of an Integrated Development Environment [IDE] for a user to learn a language in, and to then program within, is well known. Microsoft has made powerful IDEs for its languages. And the open source Eclipse can be used for Java. Along these lines, Ducasse offers his book. It teaches Smalltalk using the Squeak IDE.

The twist is that Squeak uses the visual metaphors of robots and robot factory, to convey the crucial concepts of objects/classes. As Ducasse explains, Squeak can be directed at an audience that is perhaps of high school age or even younger. So a clear visual feedback between example code and what the student sees then happen is vital, given her limited background and possibly limited attention span.

Squeak uses Smalltalk in part because that is a very minimalist language. If you come from C++, Java or C#, you may be struck by its simplicity, compared to the oodles of classes and notational intricacies of those languages. Which of course also makes it easier for a young student to learn Smalltalk or Squeak itself.

I wonder a little about the book itself, though. A motivated high school student could easily use it. But for some younger students? In that situation, it may well be that the book could be best directed at a teacher, who can then instruct from it.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful book to start you in the right direction.
This book uses Smalltalk to teach the basics of object oriented programming on Mac or PC. Before getting my hands on this book I have to say I was having trouble grasping the... Read more

Published on October 8, 2007 by Paul Bennett

5.0 out of 5 stars Good stuff!
I've used this book and the BotsInc environment to show my 12-yr old daughter how much fun writing software can be and it's been a wild success! Read more

Published on September 6, 2005 by Robert M. Courchaine

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