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cs2029 - Oberon Language and Oberon Operating System. A More Advanced Relative of Modula2

February, 2005 Edition Copyright Arnold Kochman. Other copyrights also apply, in particular the source code is available under the following license agreement..

The Oberon language is the successor of Modula-2 in the Pascal family. Like Modula-2 supports abstraction of data structures and data types, encapsulation, modularity, and strong typing. This CD contains both the Oberon language, and the Oberon Operating system, in seberal different forms. They can be run natively or under Windows, UNIX/Linux, or Macintosh, and other platforms as well. (see below)

Oberon has some new features: It supports "type extension," "polymorphism," and fine control over information hiding. Both heterogeneous data structures and object-oriented programming are possible. In other words, no radical break with traditional programming technique is necessary even if an OOP style is used. Classes correspond to record types, subclasses to extended record types, superclasses to base record types and objects to record instances. In its simplest form, a method corresponds to an installed procedure variable and a message-send to a call of an installed procedure variable. Oberon uses an instance-centered OOP model. The compiler is very fast and can compile directly from edit window. It can generate native or portable code. No separate linking necessary

The Oberon Operating System exists in several different implementations. Some of the implementations use the infrastructure of other underlying operating system. The Oberon Operating System has the following characteristics:

• Single-process multitasking
• Automatic garbage collection
• Built-in non-modal text editor
• Commands: A distinguishing feature of Oberon is the unification of text input and command input. Anywhere editable text is accepted, a valid command name M.P may be entered and executed (or activated). A command is the code unit which can be executed from the user interface. It is a parameterless procedure P exported by a module M written in Oberon.
• Separate compilation with complete cross-module consistency checks. A smart module loader and fine-grained finger printing of module interfaces enables interface extensions to be made without invalidating clients.
• Dynamic loading. Allows modules to be loaded on demand at run time
• Advanced tools for text and graphics ed
• iting, and for program development
• Component framework
• GUI developer kit called Gadgets

The ETH Oberon system can be installed on various platforms, either in conjunction with another operating system (Windows, Linux for Intel-based PC or for PPC, MacOS for Macintosh) or, as a native operating system (Intel-based PC, Transmeta platform and DEC Shark NC's). The platform-specific hardware and software requirements together with installation instructions are described in readme files that are included with the distributions.

An "experimental" boot CD has been developed. If you are interested in this, let me know, and I will consider adding this to my offerings. editor@geruva.com

More detailed information can be obtained from http://www.oberon.ethz.ch/ .