[Oberon] Re. Install your own OS

[easlab at absamail.co.za]

Peter E. wrote:
> I agree with some of what you say, but aren't you 
> being a little more cynical than warranted?  Ulla 
> recently explained that part of his effort will be 
> in repairs to bugs.  This addresses one of our 
> complaints and is a public spirited initiative of 
> ETH.

Yes.  I'm guilty of  'inertia': blerting out thoughts 
which have accumulated over the distant past.  
I tend to ignore the latest fad [like BB/Aos]
until it's proven itself.  Which I must admit is
inconsiderate to the new 'manager'.

<I have to mention this related 'new fads don't
usually last' observation.  Yesterday I read about a
US software package for 'war [& terrorism] tactics
planning' which using certain mathematical modelling
was said to be more successful than its competitors
and was bought by several 'states' incliding Swiss 
& S.African.  The price of $93'000 was mentioned.
It mentioned the 1st gulf war's predictions [eg. the 
number of casualties, within various 'stages'],
compared with the casualties in fact measured, by way
of evaluating the predictive power of the package.
For me the 1st gulf war is just yesterday [not the 
distant past] and this package is obviously a cutting
edge tool and not just a toy.   And since the
original inet-article gave the URL of the supplying
company [originated by a high ranking military man
- apparently some of the best brains/education are 
in the military] I fetched & read the URL. 

The description was appropriately formal, scientific
[written for state procurement departments]
without any 'new age kiddie-hype', but I nearly fell
off my chair when I read it was written in turbo-pascal
and the hardware requirement was a 286 !

I'm guessing that the package was evolved/refined
over many years.    End of diversion. >

> We are witnessing a top academic institution 
> leading the development of practical software.  
> Whatever small contributions we can make as early 
> users can be offered gratefully.  Thanks ETH!

Perhaps the greatest appreciation and compliment 
to ETH will be in the saving of Oberon from oblivion ?
I'll repeat my theme: most results come not from more
effort, but from high-level [more universal] principles
which bear fruit all the way down the heirarchy.
Eg. I'm not enthusiatic about patching SmartDir.Mod
but would rather contibute to a system for 
maintaining any/all *.Mod .

Recently/again I wanted to install some linux packages.
What an unjustified punishment !!
When I ask myself why NO is so much better/simpler: 
it's because linux lacked the 'top level principle' of 
"keep it as simple as possible".

[I was hoping to extract some high level principle from
the military tactics package's design philosophy].

When you find something that is exceptionally 
succesfull, you can seek the essence of the success.
I think WinTel's is "respect the user's previous effort
investment - Ie. allow for upward compatability".
[Which perhaps is disasterous in the LONGrun]

Which has been extended by M$: "use 
[in]compatability as a weapon to keep out
potential competition".


== Chris Glur.