November 2010 - Oberon - mailman3.inf.ethz.ch

PlugIn Oberon for Windows
by Alexander Iljin 04 Feb '11

04 Feb '11

Hello! I'm trying to run ETH PlugIn Oberon for Windows v2.5, downloaded from ftp://ftp.inf.ethz.ch/pub/ETHOberon/Win95NT/PlugIn/ : WinOberon.zip + WinOberonFix.zip Unfortunately, it randomly crashes on startup (more often than not). The included debugger shows that there is an "access violation" happening in (Win32.)Threads.CheckStacks. The same crash happens for v2.4 and for v2.5 without the *Fix.zip installed. It is likely that the problem stems from the "sp=0" value, possibly at the SYSTEM.GET(sp, p) call. If I'm correct, then the problem might be caused by Windows 7 permission issues in Kernel32.GetThreadContext call. That's just a wild guess, though, for I don't know how to check it. And it's strange that once out of 10 tries the exception does not happen and the system runs normally. When it does crash, I see the main window appearing, maximizing itself, fully painting, and then Windows asks me if I'd like to report the bug to the developers. I'm running Windows 7 Professional. The Debugger's "Action - Show Trap" output: Debugger started Oberon ready access violation Threads.CheckStacks PC = 5406 bottom = 40960000 cont = 0404D98H ЮЏдъ.ontext (I5Lъ.ontext) p = 0 sp = 0 t = 01607A40H I5Lъ.э°@ (I5Lъ.hread) Kernel.GC PC = 4377 excp = 0409438H I5Lъ.xcpFrm i = 0 m = 00H (I5Lъ.oduleDesc) p = 4219104 ptr = 0404E38H I5Lъ.xceptionRecord (I5Lъ.lockPtr) ptradr = 4200560 Oberon.GC PC = 6411 me = 01607CA0H I5Lъ.и% (I5Lъ.askDesc) Oberon.OLoop PC = 13214 M = 0457558H I5Lъ.nputMsg V = 016A1660H I5Lъ.nputMsg (I5Lъ.iewerDesc) lastTask = 01607CA0H I5Lъ.и% (I5Lъ.askDesc) time = 1084556749 Threads.Wrapper PC = 3780 excp = 04044D8H I5Lъ.xcpFrm id = 3892 par = 0 pt = 00H (I5Lъ.hread) t = 01607A40H I5Lъ.э°@ (I5Lъ.hread) wrapper = Threads.Wrapper PC = 3486 Unknown EIP = 077A21174H EBP = 0270FF94H Unknown EIP = 0778DB3F5H EBP = 0270FFD4H Unknown EIP = 0778DB3C8H EBP = 0270FFECH Is there a fix available? Is there anyone working feverishly on the solution? Alternatively, what can I run if I don't want to reboot or install virtual machines? Can Aos run as a Windows 7 app? ---=====--- Alexander

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dawn simulator alarm
by Aubrey.McIntosh＠Alumni.UTexas.Net 29 Nov '10

29 Nov '10

I wrote a prototype for a dawn simulator alarm. This is a screen saver that draws the screen in black until the start time, then increases the brightness to (255, 255, 127) over a half hour. It is only minimally changed from one of the Obx examples. It has a pretty simple model; current brightness, max brightness, start time. So I can have documents with names such as Dawn_5_30AM_Sunny.odc or Dawn_7AM_Cloudy.odc. I did run it this morning. I woke up about 20 minutes into the brightening with a gentle yellow glow in the room, and felt peacefully awake. I have no clue if this is from the dawn alarm's action or hopeful anticipation. I would like to have the entire screen be totally black when the brightness is 0. At the moment, there are various windows toolbars, the Viewer or Dialog frame, and such that emit light and thus thwart a good sleeping environment. Does anyone have code to draw a totally black screen under Blackbox control? -- -- Aubrey McIntosh, Ph.D. 1502 Devon Circle Austin TX 78723-1814 http://home.grandecom.net/~amcintosh/aubrey/Search/

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testt
by Jan Verhoeven 27 Nov '10

27 Nov '10

Hi there, I need some assistance. I compiled a short program with the obc compiler. I changed the executable (byte code) manually and now I want to see if it will run on a Linux machine that has no obc installed. Here is the tar file http://fruttenboel.verhoeven272.nl/obc/data/testt.tgz Download it, unpack it and run the executable './testt' This is the source of testt.m: MODULE testt; IMPORT Out; BEGIN Out.String ("Hi there!"); Out.Ln END testt. So your hard disk should be safe... -- Met vriendelijke groeten, Jan Verhoeven http://www.verhoeven272.nl

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Re: [Oberon] Oberon Digest, Vol 82, Issue 3
by scruty at users.sourceforge.net 25 Nov '10

25 Nov '10

> convention - he uses OfeWhatever. What's the "Ofe" stand for? Oberon 4ever :) I love the minimalism of Oberon-07.

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obc GetEnv - Got it!
by Duke Normandin 24 Nov '10

24 Nov '10

Hi.... I had an out-dated OBC pdf doc file. I now see: [quote] PROCEDURE GetEnv * (name : ARRAY OF CHAR; VAR s : ARRAY OF CHAR) IS "Args_GetEnv"; fetch an environment variable into a string buffer [/quote] -- Duke

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Building a CGI module
by Duke Normandin 22 Nov '10

22 Nov '10

Hello folks.... I want to port a Perl CGI module to Oberon-2. To do so, I need a way to get to various "Environment Variables". I don't see anything in OBC that will do that. I haven't checked oo2c yet. Was wondering whether or not one of you fine people had an Oberon module that dealt with these same variables? -- Duke

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Nitikin book examples
by Duke Normandin 22 Nov '10

22 Nov '10

Hello Oberon World! Working my way through Nitikin's book. A couple of questions for those of you who have, or have read his book: 1. What the heck is the significance of his Module/Procedure naming convention - he uses OfeWhatever. What's the "Ofe" stand for? Just curious. 2. The examples in the book are biased toward the NO system. I'm using a non-Oberon compiler, so although the code compiles after a few compiler-specific tweaks, the Do* paradigm doesn't work from the Linux CLI. How do I get around that? TIA... -- Duke

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Re: [Oberon] NO still lives a little bit
by Frans-Pieter Vonck 22 Nov '10

22 Nov '10

Hello Duke and others, for me the personal pages of Jan and Niklaus are sources of deep inspiration. Their accounts of computer life read like novels. They give us hope for a less complicated world where man is master of desktop. And for everything else...indeed there is Belgian beer ans Swiss chocolate. Salut, Frans-Pieter > On Sun, 21 Nov 2010, Frans-Pieter Vonck wrote: > > Hello Frans-Pieter ... > > >> Jan Verhoeven and I are trying to find out which oberon compiler is best >> for learning basic programming skills. He is looking into obc and I'm >> checking out NO on linux. >> Jan made a page on the gcd yesterday. >> http://verhoeven272.nl/cgi-bin/FS?fruttenboel%2Fobc&The+obc+Oberon+compiler… > > Oh NO! You _know_ Jan V.? You're in _big_ trouble now! Interpol has > been looking for him for some time now. He likes nothing better than > to go to Belgium and drink that good (and cheap?) beer they are famous > for. There has been talk that he brings some back home in his laptop > cases - 5 or 6 of them - which all have BIG Mocka stickers on > them. The cops think that he is a coffee mfg representative. You hang > around _him_ too long, and it's more than Oberon and Modula that you > will be in trouble with. ;D maybe Les May can confirm that? I should > go on Google Maps, and plot where the Oberon hackers are > concentrated. I bet that there's a pile of trouble in the Low > Countries and the U.K. :) Of course those guys in Switzerland and > Germany, they all have had _too much_ Lowenbrau, a long time ago. They > just stare at their computer screens and ask, "WTF happened?" ;D > > Seriously, for me it's a close race between "obc" and "oo2c". These > two compilers will work on almost all platforms. LNO is nice - but > you're stuck _in_ LNO. Learning Oberon in LNO, is learning to program > LNO - that's it! that's all! It's nice if you want to extend LNO - > which is cool too, if LNO satisfies all your needs. > > POW is also very nice on XP - but I almost never boot into my XP > partition. I therefore have _zero_ security problems, etc. Too bad POW > is not available on *nix. BTW, Donald Daniel does a great job with his > great tutorial for Oberon, a la oo2c: > > http://www.waltzballs.org/other/prog.html > -- > Duke > > -- > Oberon(a)lists.inf.ethz.ch mailing list for ETH Oberon and related systems > https://lists.inf.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/oberon > Frans-Pieter Vonck Jesse Owenshof 69 1034WT Amsterdam 020-5374854 06 40343011

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OBC: Oxford Oberon Compiler (was NO still lives a little bit)
by Les May 21 Nov '10

21 Nov '10

OBC is very nice and works a treat on Debian Linux. But beware that it has a few differences from Oberon 2. In the function LEN(a, n), n takes the value 1 for the first dimension and 2 for the second dimension of a 2d array. The Oberon 2 compiler in POW would require n to take the values of 0 and 1. The Reiser and Wirth book is not much help here as the relevant section is confusing presumably due to a misprint (page 113). Les May

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Re: [Oberon] NO still lives a little bit
by Frans-Pieter Vonck 21 Nov '10

21 Nov '10

Hi, Jan Verhoeven and I are trying to find out which oberon compiler is best for learning basic programming skills. He is looking into obc and I'm checking out NO on linux. Jan made a page on the gcd yesterday. http://verhoeven272.nl/cgi-bin/FS?fruttenboel%2Fobc&The+obc+Oberon+compiler… Greets, F.P. > > Hi, > > just for the record. I'm still alive and use WinAos with WinXP. > That means I use NO with tiled viewers. Mainly for managing my work in a > document with outlines, checkboxes and a lot of coloring. > Perhaps I will give it a try sometime to install Bluebottle on my > notebook. The last try didn't work. Perhaps because it doesn't have IDE > anymore. It's a Fujitsu/Siemens Amilo. > > Regards, Edgar > > Am 20.11.2010 16:10, schrieb Duke Normandin: >> On Sat, 20 Nov 2010, Michaelian Ennis wrote: >> >>> On Sat, Nov 20, 2010 at 9:10 AM, Duke Normandin<dukeofperl(a)ml1.net> >>> wrote: >>> >>>> 1. What the heck is the significance of his Module/Procedure naming >>>> convention - he uses OfeWhatever. What's the "Ofe" stand for? Just >>>> curious. >>> I've tried unsuccessfully in the past to contact him about that. If >>> you do find (or figure) out what this is please do post it. >> Whew! I'm not alone... :) >> > > > -- > Oberon(a)lists.inf.ethz.ch mailing list for ETH Oberon and related systems > https://lists.inf.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/oberon > Frans-Pieter Vonck Jesse Owenshof 69 1034WT Amsterdam 020-5374854 06 40343011

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