Summary: This posting contains a list of Frequently Asked Questions (and their answers) about Oberon. It should be read before posting to the Comp.lang.oberon newsgroup.
Many FAQ lists, including this one, are available by anonymous ftp from rtfm.mit.edu in the /pub/usenet/news.answers directory.
Although I have aimed for accuracy, there is no guarantee that the information in this document is error-free. Neither the FAQ maintainer nor anyone else associated with this document assume any liability for the content or use of this document. If you find any errors, please report them to the address below.
Thanks to all who have contributed! Further additions, corrections, and suggestions are welcome.
This is one of three documents that attempt to answer some frequently asked questions (FAQs) about Oberon. This text concerns some general topics on the subject of Oberon, while the other two are specifically about Oberon the language and Oberon the operating system.
WHAT IS COMP.LANG.OBERON ABOUT?
The Comp.lang.oberon newsgroup is a forum for discussing Oberon, both the programming language and the operating system, and any related issues. Although not strictly accurate, this newsgroup is part of the Comp.lang.* hierarchy because it began as a spin-off of Comp.lang.modula2.
For those without regular Usenet access, ETH Zrich has generously made Comp.lang.oberon available as a mailing list. Articles can now be sent or received via normal Internet e-mail through oberon-news@inf.ethz.ch. To get more information about the mailing list, send the message "help" to listproc@inf.ethz.ch. To subscribe to the mailing list, send the message "subscribe oberon-news@inf.ethz.ch <your name>" to listproc@inf.ethz.ch.
Some members of ETH Zrich's Institute for Computer Systems do read and participate in this newsgroup, but Comp.lang.oberon is in no way officially related to ETH Zrich. Official correspondence about the Oberon project should be addressed to:
Institute for Computer Systems
ETH Zentrum
CH-8092 Zrich
E-mail: Oberon@inf.ethz.ch
E-Fax: +41 1 2519678
The Comp.lang.oberon newsgroup owes its existence to the efforts of the late Christian Schaepper.
WHAT IS OBERON?
>From "The Oberon Guide"
Oberon is simultaneously the name of a project and of its outcome. The project was started by Niklaus Wirth and [Jrg Gutknecht] late in 1985 with the goal of developing a modern and portable operating system for personal workstations. Its results are an implementation of the system for the Ceres computer and a programming language.
The development of the language Oberon needs perhaps a short justification. It became quite inevitable because the type-system of available languages turned out to be too restrictive to express the desired data model in a natural andsafe way.
Some recent introductions to different aspects of the Oberon project can be found are:
"The Oberon Programming Language" by Josef Templ; Dr. Dobb's Sourcebook #221 (Winter 1994).
"Oberon System 3" by Johannes L. Marais; Dr. Dobb's Journal (October 1994).
"Oberon: A Glimpse at the Future" by Dick Pountain; BYTE volume 18 number 6 (May 1993).
RESOURCES FOR OBERON USERS
In addition to a wide variety of ports of the Oberon system, ETH has several programming tools and the Oberon newsletter available from their own anonymous ftp site. The site is aliased to neptune.ethz.ch, neptune.inf.ethz.ch, ftp.inf.ethz.ch (but not ftp.ethz.ch). The Oberon archives are in directory /pub/Oberon, and many useful tools (including AsciiCoder) can be found in /pub/Oberon/Tools.
ETH's Oberon archive is mirrored at the following ftp sites:
wuarchive.wustl.edu:/languages/Oberon
gatekeeper.dec.com:/pub/plan/Oberon
The Swiss Oberon Users Group (CHOUG) at ETH Zrich has set up an Oberon public domain ftp server.
ftp: anonymous@hades.ethz.ch:/pub/Oberon
e-mail: oberon-user@inf.ethz.ch
Lex and Yacc definitions for Oberon-2
ftp: anonymous@ftp.psg.com:pub/oberon/tools
e-mail: bevan@cs.man.ac.uk (Stephen J Bevan)
Some games and other programming examples for System 3
ftp.sun.ac.za:/pub/oberon/stellenbosch/sources
The Oakwood guidelines for Oberon compilers are available by anonymous ftp from
ftp.clark.net:/pub/thutt/oakwood
Oberon Dialogs (a graphical user interface for Oberon V4) can be obtained via ftp
Oberon.ssw.uni-linz.ac.at:/pub/Dialogs
For questions or comments contact knasmueller@ssw.uni-linz.ac.at.
Many technical reports, dissertations, and other documents are electronically available in PostScript and/or Oberon text formats from ETH's Oberon archive in /doc and /pub/Oberon/Docu.
ETH Zrich's technical reports are freely available. Some technical reports that might be of interest to Oberon users are listed below. To order technical reports of the Institut fr Computersysteme, ETH Zrich, contact Mr. Ruettener (e-mail: ruettener@inf.ethz.ch).
102 M. Odersky: Recursive Data Types and Report on the Mona Notation for Algorithms
133 J. Templ: SPARC-Oberon User's Guide
143 N. Wirth: From Modula to Oberon (Revised Edition)
144 J. L. Marais: The GADGETS User Interface Management System
151 C. Szyperski: Write -- An Extensible Text Editor for the Oberon System
174 M. Brandis, R. Crelier, M. Franz, J. Templ: The Oberon System Family
203 A. R. Disteli: OBERON for PC on an MS-DOS Base
Someone please let me know if and when these titles go out of stock.