In this book, Smalltalk pioneer and guru, Kent Beck, weaves together a collection of his "landmark" articles from leading IT trade journals--The Smalltalk Report, JOOP, and Object Magazine. Written for Smalltalk programmers, this book is designed to help readers become more effective Smalltalk developers and object technology users. It is filled with insider tips, advanced techniques, and proven strategies on getting the most out of the Smalltalk language. Some specific topics covered are patterns, garbage collection, the use of CRC cards, and much more.

"Kent Beck can pack more practical experience into one pithy maxim than most writers can do in a whole page." --James Rumbaugh

Written for Smalltalk programmers, this book is designed to help readers become more effective Smalltalk developers and object technology users.

1. Foreword; 2. Preface; 3. Introduction; Part I. The Smalltalk Report: 4. Why study Smalltalk idioms?; 5. The dreaded super; 6. Abstract control idioms; 7. ValueModel idioms; 8. Collection idioms: standard classes; 9. An Objectworks/Smalltalk 4.1 wrapper idiom; 10. A short introduction to pattern language; 11. Instance-specific behavior: how and why; 12. Instance-specific behavior: Digitalk implementation and the deeper meaning of it all; 13. To accessor or not to accessor?; 14. Inheritance: the rest of the story; 15. Helper methods avoid unwanted inheritance; 16. It's not just the case; 17. Where do objects come from? Part 2; 18. Where do objects come from? from variables and methods; 19. Birds, bees, and browsers - obvious sources of objects; 20. Using patterns: design; 21. Simple Smalltalk testing; 22. Architectural prototype: television remote control; 23. Demand loading for Visual Works; 24. Garbage collection revealed; 25. What? what happened to garbage collection; 26. Super +1; 27. Clean code: pipe dream or state of mind?; 28. A modest meta proposal; 29. Use of variables: temps; 30. Variables of the world; 31. Farewell and a wood pile; Part II. Object Magazine: 32. Development environments; 33. Whole lotta Smalltalk: the technology; 34. CRC: finding objects the easy way; 35. Distributed Smalltalk; 36. Patterns 101; Part III. JOOP: 36. Constructing abstractions for object-oriented applications; Part 4. Other papers: 37. A diagram for OO programs, OOPSLA 1986; 38. A laboratory for teaching OO thinking, OOPSLA '89; 39. Playground: a programming language for children of all ages, OOPSLA '89; 40. Think like an object, UNIX Review, Oct. 1991; 41. Writing more valuable objects with patterns, Dr. Dobbs, Feb 1993.