Dolphin Smalltalk Education Centre

If you need help with Dolphin Smalltalk you've come to the right place. The material here ranges from beginner's tutorials through to more advanced reference documentation. If you are new to Dolphin then you should probably progress through the sections below in the order presented. Otherwise just feel free to dive right in as you require.

An online version of the Education Centre is also available on the Object Arts website. This may contain more up to date material than is available here. You can visit the online centre at: http://www.object-arts.com/Education.htm.

This Education Centre was last updated on 21 July 1998.

Beginner's Guide to Dolphin Smalltalk

If you are new to Dolphin (or Smalltalk itself) then you should start here. This guide will take you through your first experiences with the system and will aim to teach you the Smalltalk language if you don't already know it. Even if you do, the latter chapters introduce some Dolphin specific features that you'll need to have at your fingertips before continuing with the Tutorials below.

Dolphin Tutorials

These tutorials guide you through the development of a number of sample applications in Dolphin Smalltalk. They are intended for those who already know the language and base classes and follow on from the Beginner's Guide described above. The tutorials will show you how to apply your existing knowledge to the classes and frameworks that are unique to Dolphin.

Smalltalk Patterns

Once you have completed the Dolphin tutorials you'll have a fair idea how to go about building applications in Dolphin. To help you further we have produced a set of reference documentation in the form of a network of Pattern sheets. When you want to know how to solve a particular programming problem simply choose an appropriate entry pattern and follow the steps it suggests. Each Pattern sheet links to others in a hierarchy and you can choose to follow these links as deeply as required depending on your current level of knowledge.

Although the Patterns are tailored to Dolphin Smalltalk, many of them will be applicable to programming in other Smalltalks or indeed other object oriented languages in general.

Reference Overviews

Some topics require more detail than can easily be given in a Pattern sheet. To help with these we have produced reference material on a number of overview topics for the base Dolphin system.

Add-on Products Reference

A number of add-on packages are available to enhance the basic Dolphin development system and you may purchase these products from Object Arts Ltd. The reference manuals for these products are available here.