August 2021 - Oberon - mailman3.inf.ethz.ch

Re: [Oberon] Emulators
by Jörg 14 Feb '22

14 Feb '22

Wojtek > How can I proceed, in practical terms, to use your JS emulator for development? Perhaps we should start discussing, WHAT you want to change. At the moment I see three different levels of HW modifications: easy, more difficult, impossible. Basically, see an emulator as virtualization. In virtualization you have a host machine (where the emulator runs on) and a guest machine (this is the FPGA board). I ignore „containers“ at the moment Easy: if you want to extend the RISC-5 instruction set in Verilog (eg add an autoincrement instruction) the modification of the emulator is rather straight forward. I neglect the fact that you have to modify the Oberon-07 compiler to use this new instruction, because this is not important for the emulator. More difficult: if you want to add IO mapped HW (eg Ethernet or Wifi) or memory mapped HW (eg color display) to your FPGA and the host machine has an equivalent of this HW, with a little bit of effort the emulator can be modified to map the IO register commands or new memory layout to the corresponding host HW. Impossible: if you want to add HW to your FPGA and the host machine does not have an equivalent HW (eg a neutrino sensor) then it‘s impossible for the emulator to mimic the new FPGA HW. br Jörg

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Wanted: Oberon Syntax in TextMate, Sublime Text or Atom Grammar
by Treutwein Bernhard 01 Jan '22

01 Jan '22

Does somebody have grammars for Oberon / Oberon-2 / Component Pascal / Active Oberon as grammar for TextMate / Sublime Text / Atom Background: Github wrongly classifies Oberon / Oberon-2 / Component Pascal / Active Oberon as Modula-2. I opened quite some tiome ago an issue in the github/linguist project (https://github.com/github/linguist/issues/3888) and they don't accept EBNF grammars. -- Bernhard Treutwein

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Re: [Oberon] _Compiler_Construction_ by Niklaus Wirth
by peter＠easthope.ca 17 Nov '21

17 Nov '21

P.s. for interest. From: peter(a)easthope.ca Date: Thu, 07 Jan 2021 08:37:22 -0800 > Currently the cheapest copy of _Compiler_Construction_ is 43.09 US$, > delivery in the USA included. Appears the copy posted at 43.09 US$ was sold that day. Subsequently the vendor listed another copy at 105.61 $US. The book market can be as volatile as the stock market. Regards, ... P. L. -- Tel: +1 604 670 0140 Bcc: peter at easthope. ca

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Eigen Compiler Suite
by Florian Negele 24 Sep '21

24 Sep '21

Dear all, I would like to introduce you to the Eigen Compiler Suite, a software development toolchain that features a fully compliant Oberon-2 front-end: https://ecs.openbrace.org/ Its latest development version is available for evaluation via the News link in the Download section and requires registration for now. The compiler is free software and runs natively on Windows, OS X, as well as Linux-based systems while targeting several hardware architectures and runtime environments. Although the included Oberon library is still in its infancy and there are only few bindings to external interfaces, the implementation of the language itself and its documentation are rather mature and thus suitable for programming embedded systems. Thank you for your attention, Florian Negele

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Re (2): Accessibility of FPGA configuration to V5 system.
by peter＠easthope.ca 30 Aug '21

30 Aug '21

From: "Skulski, Wojciech" <skulski(a)pas.rochester.edu> Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2021 14:47:14 +0000 > I am not sure how all this is related to the V5 system > configuration. For me it was a wild excursion of imagination, instigated by thought of the V5 system. =8~) Many biologists tend to a very descriptive approach to their work. Compared to the mathematical and mechanistic concepts of engineers, computer scientists and physicists. I accept that this mailing list isn't the "right place" for the topic. What if there is no "right place". Can happen with a topic at the edge. If our species remains in a century or two, neuroscientists might recognize the work of Niklaus Wirth, Paul Reed and others as an early precursor of understanding of the nervous system. Let's not rule it out. =8~) Again, apology for the digression. Regards, ... P.L. -- 48.7693 N 123.3053 W mobile: +1 778 951 5147 VoIP: +1 604 670 0140

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Re (2): Re (n): Accessibility of FPGA configuration to V5 system.
by peter＠easthope.ca 30 Aug '21

30 Aug '21

From: gray <gray(a)grayraven.org> Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2021 15:49:04 +0400 > I guess as of today the best still utterly simplistic approach ... Overview of the vast subject here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nervous_system_network_models > ... of artificially implementing something like a nervous system would be > neural networks. Model a brain as a machine of static configuration? Another approach is to model development beginning where neural cells first differentiate. In gastrulation, there is no neural cell. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastrulation Later the neural groove appears. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organogenesis#Organs_produced_by_the_germ_lay… I imagine modelling the process where the neural groove or first neuron appears. WIth current knowledge, one neuron is fairly understandable. =8~) As neurons are added, connectivity is possible and the process becomes interesting. Learning proceeds as neurons are added. A serious literature search will find whether anyone has tackled that. Thanks for tolerating the digression. Regards, ... P.L. -- 48.7693 N 123.3053 W mobile: +1 778 951 5147 VoIP: +1 604 670 0140

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Re (n): Accessibility of FPGA configuration to V5 system.
by peter＠easthope.ca 30 Aug '21

30 Aug '21

Apologies for a digression. From: Michael Schierl schierlm at gmx.de, Sat Jul 24 19:29:45 CEST 2021 > It would be possible to build a RISC machine that can change while the > OS is running. The current version does not provide that capability. > ... > That is a bit like using EPROM (single E!) chips for firmware but not > providing any way to expose it to UV light, effectively making it a > one-time programmable ROM. Thanks Michael. In a biological nervous system, growth (hardware growth) occurs concurrently with learning (somewhat analogous to software execution?). Development is concurrent hardware growth and learning. The first three sentences of Prof. Wirth's Lola-2: A Logic Description Language. https://people.inf.ethz.ch/wirth/Lola/index.html https://people.inf.ethz.ch/wirth/Lola/Lola2.pdf "Lola is a notation (language) for specifying digital circuits (logic). In many ways it resembles a programming language. However, Lola texts describe static circuits rather than dynamic processes." A modified Lola2 might represent a nervous system at one instant. That wouldn't represent development. A nervous system development might be represented by a language integrating logic description and software description? Has anyone encountered work on this topic? Thx, ... P.L. -- 48.7693 N 123.3053 W mobile: +1 778 951 5147 VoIP: +1 604 670 0140

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Re: [Oberon] Erratic Mouse Behaviour in A2
by peter＠easthope.ca 23 Aug '21

23 Aug '21

From: Treutwein Bernhard <Bernhard.Treutwein(a)Verwaltung.Uni-Muenchen.DE> Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2021 12:54:59 +0000 > In my Linux32/a2 "installation" my mouse behaves erratically, cursor > jumps. Connecting the same mouse to Windows 10 and using Win64/a2 > work without problems. Bernhard, (1) Does the pointer move when the mouse is not touched? I'd expect that to be a software bug or hardware defect. A few problems appeared to creep in with the renaming of numeric types. http://cas.inf.ethz.ch/news/1 (2) Alternatively, is there a delay between moving the mouse and moving the pointer? The phenomenon occurs here at times. A limitation of the implementation; the machine is temporarily too busy to update the pointer? Regards, ... P.L. -- 48.7693 N, 123.3053 W tel: +1 604 670 0140

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Re: [Oberon] [A2 - General Discussion - msg18] RE: Generating ISO from last revision and some questions...
by peter＠easthope.ca 19 Aug '21

19 Aug '21

Hi, Replying here for general interest. From: redmine(a)cas.inf.ethz.ch Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2021 10:16:36 +0200 > afaik, the contents of OCP moved to the repository of this project > and can be found at this "location.": > http://cas.inf.ethz.ch/projects/a2/repository/show/trunk/ocp Thanks. I hadn't encountered A2Documentation.pdf until now. Wiki pages formerly at the OCP site now might be found at archive.org. This document isn't exactly the wiki pages but much of the information appears familiar. At the end of the document under heading Developers is year 2009 and five names. Prof. Friedrich remains involved. Some of the others might have moved on. Regards, ... Peter E. -- 48.7693 N 123.3053 W tel: +1 604 670 0140

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Error 9 from Partitions.Show in ETH Oberon.
by peter＠easthope.ca 18 Aug '21

18 Aug '21

Hi, In ETH Oberon, Partitions.Show gives this. ==== Disk: IDE0, 3093MB = 6335280 * 512, CHS: 6704*15*63, FUJITSU MPC3032AT, mntcnt=3 IDE0#00 0 6335280 3093MB --- (Whole disk) IDE0#01 2048 204800 100MB 11 Win 95/98, FAT32 IDE0#02 206848 204800 100MB 76 * Native Oberon, Aos [mounted] IDE0#03 411648 204800 100MB 76 Native Oberon, Aos [mounted] IDE0#04 616448 204800 100MB 76 Native Oberon, Aos [mounted] IDE0#05 822528 5499648 2685MB --- (Free) Disk: IDE2, 497MB = 1018080 * 512, removable, CHS: 1010*16*63, SAMSUNG CF/ATA, mntcnt=0 ReadPartitions: error 9 Disk: Diskette0, GetSize: no media, removable, mntcnt=0 ==== Partitions.WriteErrorMessage describes seven errors with terms such as "media changed". For other errors, only the number is reported. In this case "9". Using gparted, I created a new partition table on the CF and still get error 9. The magnetic medium where the table is stored has failed? Any tips beyond "Replace the CF card."? Thx, ... P.L. -- 48.7693 N 123.3053 W tel: +1 604 670 0140

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