There are two regular channels for GNU Smalltalk users: ##smalltalk and #gnu-smalltalk on Freenode (irc.freenode.net).

I have written this guide for ##smalltalk in the spirit of #lisp's. Following the advice here is the easiest way to get help from ##smalltalk or #gnu-smalltalk.

First, are you in the right place?

What's this about a programming language? I'm just looking for casual conversation.

Join #defocus instead.

Picking a Smalltalk implementation

Most of us use GNU Smalltalk, or "GST" to regulars. GNU Smalltalk has been quite active for the last several months, so your implementation's package is probably out-of-date. It runs on GNU/Linux, Darwin (i.e. Mac OS X, both PPC and X86), Windows with Cygwin, and should work on *BSD. Check the download site and download an alpha version, which we recommend for all new users.

Little Smalltalk is also free and may be a great way to learn how Smalltalk itself works. If you have Java, you can look at a Java applet and play right in your browser without installing anything.

We might be more interested in Strongtalk one day, but aren't now, because it only worked on Windows last time anyone checked. There's a longer list on Smalltalk.org; most implementations are proprietary though and, as far as I know, we don't play with proprietary Smalltalks, or anyway talk about it elsewhere (see above).

Getting a tutorial

GST comes with a tutorial; it's in doc/gst.info in the distribution. Just run info -f on it or C-u C-h i in Emacs. The tutorial is also online, but this version is quite out of date for the 2.95/3.0 series, which we recommend you use.

In addition, GST's high-quality documentation (base class documentation found in doc/gst-base.info) and source (kernel/ contains all the base classes themselves) is a great way to learn just about everything you might want to know about Smalltalk. When in doubt, see how GST does things.

Stef's Free Online Smalltalk Books is the perennial source of useful books on Smalltalk.