"Ghost in the Machine" <cangelich@famvid.com> wrote:

There might also be problems because the source is in a ZIP'd file and early versions of Oberon had ARC files?

The zip program for older releases is at: ftp://ftp.inf.ethz.ch/pub/ETHOberon/Native/Update/ZipTool.Arc

I was referring to execute from the CD, not install from the CD.

Bluebottle and Native can execute from CD. You get a full Oberon system from where you can use the Partitions.Tool to format a partition and install the system. Or you could just use it directly from the CD and ram disk. In fact, the Oberon install floppy also boots a stripped-down, but otherwise normal Oberon system.

I never specified that the CWD would be global. You've replied to a statement I never made.

Sorry if this was unclear, but I wasn't replying to a statement. I was commenting in general on the issue of a current working directory in Oberon. IMHO the way it has been added in some versions of Oberon with a global current directory is not ideal.

Maybe not but right now I don't think globbing all files into one huge directory is going to fit in well with real world use of Oberon.

It's all a question of organization. I use three Oberon systems ~95% of the time: Native (on Aos), Windows Oberon and Linux Oberon. The latter two have directories (and a global current directory concept), the former has it only for FAT filesystems, which I don't really use day-to-day. I organize my files using .Tool texts (as described in Project Oberon). When I create "throw-away" files I always name them Temp* so I can easily delete them. When I need to search for some file by content I use the Find.Panel, as I would use find/grep on Unix or the Search Files menu on Windows. When I'm working on some project I add Desktops.OpenDoc commands to the System.InitCommands section of Oberon.Text so that these files are automatically opened when I start Oberon. The rest of my project files are all named in Projects.Tool. BTW I don't use the full-screen Gadgets desktop, but the original tiling system, with Gadgets documents. On Windows Oberon and Linux Oberon I never change the current directory, because I invariable forget where I am and make a mess. It is possible to display the current directory in a TextField Gadget using the CurrentDirectory model, but I live without it.

Anyone counting the incompatibilities between the different versions at the ETH server? Seems only portions of the user-interface are similar but under that there are some significant differences.

This should be improved in new releases towards the end of the year.

Even when an OS is undergoing independent development they usually at least share identical file system structures. There are some irreconcileable differences between versions.

Linux is a counterexample, unless I'm misunderstanding what you're saying. There are at least three mainstream file systems: ext2, ext3 and ReiserFS.

Are you anticipating losing access to the ETH servers or do you mean something entirely different?

No. I just meant that the research in Prof. Gutknecht's group will be moving on to other topics (as has been happening the last few years) and maintenance of the Oberon system will be done from outside the ETH, but still with their support. That is the main reason why the license has been changed to an open-source BSD-style license. I suspect the same people will continue doing the maintenance, at least for the forseeable future.

FTP uses 4096 blocks when transferring files. I doubt file size would have a significant affect on efficiency.

I'm not sure which blocks you are talking about here. FTP opens a new TCP connection for every file transferred. If you've studied the protocol you'll know the overhead involved. BTW I highly recommend TCP/IP Illustrated Vol 1/2 by Stevens. -- Pieter P.S. Due to a networking problem on the server hosting the mailing list processor, oberon@inf was not accepting mail during the last half day. The problem is resolved now. -- Pieter Muller, Computer Systems Institute, ETH Zurich / MCT Lab, Zurich Native Oberon OS: http://www.oberon.ethz.ch/native/