Just what are you using for material

I like writing and coding, but creating new content takes a lot of time, time that I would rather spend guiding (i.e., coaching, training, and consulting). If there is good content to leverage, I will. I've spent a fair bit of time on both sides of creation and delivery of content. Some of my prior jobs:

• technical writer
• training developer
• software developer
• consultant
• trainer

One of my goals for withaguide.com is to keep costs low for me and my students. I'm also a big believer in open-source content. My initial plan was to use the book Squeak by Example as a textbook. I love this book. You can purchase it for about $20 off Lulu and it is a nice, perfect-bound paperback. Even better, you can download the PDF directly from the authors. Heck, they even let you use the source material they used for developing the book to create your own content. Fantastic.

If you can afford the book, I highly recommend purchasing it. I also recommend downloading the book whether you can afford it or not. I even carry a copy with me on my PDA.

Unfortunately, the book is really aimed at people who already know how to program in something. One of the authors of Squeak by Example also wrote another great book: Squeak: Learn Programming with Robots. I'm leaning toward using this book as a starting point. It approaches Smalltalk a lot like Logo was taught in the 80s, using direct scripting and turtle graphics. The only drawback to this book is that it is traditionally published, so it costs about $40 and until recently it wasn't available under and open-source license. I've heard that is changing, which is terrific news.

Again, if you can afford the book, I recommend it highly.

Before the robots book went open-source, I thought I would have to write a book. One that didn't assume you knew programming, and that taught an approachable language like Smalltalk. I wrote a few chapters and drew up some diagrams. I'll probably publish the work in progress here soon.

I've also done a lot of work writing and teaching about Java. Java is a great, practical environment for getting work done. It isn't my favorite language but it is certainly popular and there are tons of libraries. I really didn't want to use Java as a first language, but there is no shortage of books available that do. The summer of 2008, I saw a new release of a truly open book for learning Java: Introduction to Programming Using Java.

I really like this book as well. I liked it so much that I wrote the author and asked if he minded if I "translated" it to Smalltalk. He was very helpful and provided me with his original source material to help me along. I'm done with the first two chapters (maybe only 5-7 of the chapters will really translate, the later chapters are probably too specific to Java). Anyway, I'm planning to use these chapters as well. I'll definitely be serializing the content of these chapters here to get your feedback. (Eventually, I'd like to publish the results on Lulu, but I'd like to teach the material a few times first.)