Learning Smalltalk
Volume Number: 10
Issue Number: 10
Column Tag: Smalltalk
Learning Smalltalk by Examples 
Smalltalk - coming of age and offering an alternative to C and C++
By R. L. Peskin and S. S. Walther, Landgrove Associates, Flemington,
New Jersey
Note: Source code files accompanying article are located on MacTech CD-ROM orsource code disks.
This is the first in a series of articles aimed at those who want to learn something
about programming in Smalltalk. Our overall objective is to convey the ease and
flexibility of Smalltalk programming to those who may be used to programming in
more traditional languages and environments. The approach will be practical; learning
by example. We will be using the SmalltalkAgents™ system as the vehicle to illustrate
our examples.
The Wire Project
The Wire example is a simple tool to determine the shortest length of wire
running between an arbitrarily selected set of points. (If you aren’t into wire routing,
the same sort of analysis applies to routing a salesperson between cities.) Kent Beck
and Ward Cunningham first introduced us to this example at the Tektronix, Inc.