January 2016 - Oberon - mailman3.inf.ethz.ch

Variadic functions or procedures, VARARG ...
by Lars 27 Jan '16

27 Jan '16

Hi, I can't find any information on Variadic functions for oberon or how one would interface to a C function that is variadic. Does oberon use any trick to support this, or it forbids you from using variadic or interfacing with variadic? Just to recap what variadic means, it's a function like this: PROCEDURE Something(param1: INTEGER; otherparams...) The ... means multiple parameters. In freepascal I believe this is known as VARARGS whereas C and golang call it variadic function. I'm guessing this is forbidden because oberon prefers everything to be fixed and known up front, and variadic functions go against the psychic programmer philosophy of huge design up front and knowning everything about everything. i.e. define the exact amount of parameters up front, or go home and you aren't welcome here... or something like that. But how would oberon interact with a C library with variadic function accepting multiple parameters? Varidiac functions have been proven to be extremely useful in Golang although they are one of those double edged swords that is extremely useful, until someone uses it for abuse. So I am guessing oberon outright forbids it... Any information would be helpful. Would also be nice to hear Wirth's comments on it in one of his books or articles since he refuses to communicate with Human DNA and only communicates with Wine and Cheese eating non spinach alien DNA's. (this is a serious question about variadic function support in oberon, but the email most definitely contains some humor worth every nickle)

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A2
by Søren Renner 27 Jan '16

27 Jan '16

Come on people! It is the current year! Not only that but it is now the current decade, century and even millenium! Let's all get excited about the hep new a-go-go Oberon operating system, A2! I certainly use it! In fact, I seem to be just about the only one outside ETHZ who does! But that can't be really true. So come on. Let's put on a show!

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Book on A2
by Srinivas Nayak 27 Jan '16

27 Jan '16

Dear All, Is there any good book describing the architecture of A2? I would like to see how the GUI event loop and preemptions works together. With thanks and best regards, Yours sincerely, Srinivas Nayak Home: http://www.mathmeth.com/sn/ Blog: http://srinivas-nayak.blogspot.in/

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Re (2): Experimental Oberon released
by peter＠easthope.ca 27 Jan '16

27 Jan '16

From: Hans Klaver <hklaver(a)dds.nl>, Tue, 26 Jan 2016 01:47:57 +0100 > "md" stands for Markdown, which is a simple way to markup a > plain text file without using HTML. OK, thanks. Now I found https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/GitHub_Flavored_Markdown . > Apart from using a web browser to let github.com convert the > README.md file to an HTML web page you could use e.g. > Notebooks ( http://www.notebooksapp.com/ios/markdown/ ) > to see the formatted view of a .md file Notebooks sounds to be a Windows application whereas I have Oberon and Linux. The only browser immediately available here, Epiphany, doesn't recognize *.md. Merely saves a copy of the file. > I use Notebooks (which has free trial versions for Mac and PC, and > also a version for iOS) to make and arrange plain text notes ... In a text editor, README.md appears to be nothing but HTML. If README.md is saved as README.html, then Epiphany opens it directly. In fact Desktops.OpenDoc in Oberon will open it; although with empty scroll boxes. From: "R. P. de Jong" <rdjong(a)mac.com> > Thanks for publishing this, and the professional documentation! Ditto! The reference to touchscreen is really cogent. The personal workstation is no longer a desktop machine. It is a handy or tablet with a touchscreen. Thanks^2, ... Lyall E. -- 123456789 123456789 123456789 123456789 123456789 123456789 123456789 12 Tel +1 360 639 0202 http://easthope.ca/Peter.html Bcc: peter at easthope. ca

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Experimental Oberon released
by Andreas Pirklbauer 26 Jan '16

26 Jan '16

An experimental version of Original Oberon 2013 (called "Experimental Oberon") has been released on GitHub: https://github.com/andreaspirklbauer/Oberon-experimental Installation instructions for Experimental Oberon are provided in the README file: https://github.com/andreaspirklbauer/Oberon-experimental/blob/master/README… A document describing the differences between Experimental Oberon and Original Oberon can be found in the Documentation folder: https://github.com/andreaspirklbauer/Oberon-experimental/blob/master/Docume… The Documentation folder also contains a few demo videos (screen recordings), for example: https://github.com/andreaspirklbauer/Oberon-experimental/blob/master/Docume… https://github.com/andreaspirklbauer/Oberon-experimental/blob/master/Docume… If your browser cannot display these videos (or if GitHub prevents you from viewing such large files), you can click on the 'Raw' button to download the videos to your computer. The source code of Experimental Oberon can be found in the Sources folder: https://github.com/andreaspirklbauer/Oberon-experimental/tree/master/Sources Note: This version of Oberon has been released for purely experimental (and hobby) purposes. You can freely re-use it so long as you state the origin of the code. Andreas P.

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Compiling Original Oberon in (Unix)Aos?
by Eric Scharff 26 Jan '16

26 Jan '16

(Sorry once again for a newbie question) Short version: How can I compile a non A2 (either Oberon or Oberon-2) module in Aos? I'm trying to compile a basic hello world in UnixAos: MODULE E1 IN Oberon; IMPORT Texts, Oberon; VAR W :Texts.Writer; PROCEDURE Hi*;BEGIN Texts.WriteString(W, "Hola"); Texts.WriteLn(W); Texts.Append(Oberon.Log, W.buf)END Hi; BEGIN Texts.OpenWriter(W);END E1. I'm trying to build this from within the "Oberon" subsystem. Under the "Compile" menu is Builder.Compile * and PC.Compile * Launching "Builder.Compile *" or "Compiler.Compile *" launches the Oberon Portable Compiler, which fails (it doesn't seem to understand the Active Oberon Syntax) Building with PC.Compile doesn't fare any better, but I get a different error: Parallel Compiler / prki386 code generator installedcompiling E1 ... not done pos 35 err 152 Oberon-Texts symbol file of imported module not found pos 43 err 152 Oberon-Oberon symbol file of imported module not found

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Easier typing of capital letter keywords in Oberon
by Eric Scharff 26 Jan '16

26 Jan '16

So, in my tinkering with both Native Oberon and Project Oberon 2013, I have to say I really like Oberon (the language), but as a newbie, the environment is tricky. The most obvious thing for me is that Oberon doesn't seem to recognize my caps lock key. I know it sounds trivial, but it's leading to a huge ergonomic issue for me. typing PROCEDURE or INTEGER (and the other keywords) while holding down the shift key is extremely uncomfortable. Typing <caps-lock>integer<caps-lock) would be an improvement (all lower case typing), but still has extra keystrokes. Really, I'd like to type all of the capitalized keywords in lower case, and then apply a filter to my document to automatically capitalize, and run such a trigger when I Edit.Store a file. Does such a thing exist? Do other folks run into this problem? What are recommended solutions?

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Re: [Oberon] Experimental Oberon released
by peter＠easthope.ca 26 Jan '16

26 Jan '16

From: Andreas Pirklbauer, Sat, 23 Jan 2016 12:16:16 +0000 > Installation instructions for Experimental Oberon are provided in the README file: > https://github.com/andreaspirklbauer/Oberon-experimental/blob/master/README… Thanks for woking on this. Until now I've never tried to read a *.md file. How do you recommend it be read. A text editor is a last resort but there must be something better. Thanks again, ... Lyall E. -- 123456789 123456789 123456789 123456789 123456789 123456789 123456789 12 Tel +1 360 639 0202 http://easthope.ca/Peter.html Bcc: peter at easthope. ca

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Project Oberon for Mac
by R. P. de Jong 25 Jan '16

25 Jan '16

Hi All, I would like to inform you that a new "Project Oberon, Revised Edition 2013" product has just been released. It is aimed to make Oberon available for Mac owners who don’t want to tinker or boot into Windows to get it running, like myself. Development started early this year after i re-discovered Oberon. The first step has been to create a (disposable, temporary) Oberon compiler as a port from Wirth's Oberon compiler to Apple's Swift language. As expected, after a few iterations the Oberon compiler could reproduce itself. The system was brought to life step by step from the bottom up, using ad hoc trap handlers and ASSERTs, LEDs, switches and temporary “output facilities”. Relatively much time was spent on the Mac code, which, though written in Swift, is set up in modules, like an Oberon program. Some more details are on the web site: http://www.reactive-instruments.eu . The application will be free in the Mac App Store (currently propagating though Apple’s stores network to all countries). Hope people like it and that it contributes to making the Oberon system more widely known. Roel P. de Jong.

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Re: [Oberon] Pepino, a new FPGA board for Oberon RISC
by Ken Boak 25 Jan '16

25 Jan '16

Magnus, This is great news - just what I have been looking for. It certainly ticks all the right boxes. I've placed an order for the 2MB LX25 version. Is the logic analyser buffer shield available yet? best wishes from UK Ken >

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