[Oberon] BB Kernel Size

[John Drake]

--- "Douglas G. Danforth" <danforth at greenwoodfarm.com>
wrote:

> Folks,
> I'd like to add my two cents here.
> 
> Semi transparency is nice BUT what have you gained?

Well, I don't think there's any reason why semi
transparency can't be handled outside the kernel.
But in direct answer to your question, it's sometimes
nice to see what's behind a window without having to
close it.  If you're going to have overlapping windows
(a possiblity in Oberon since System 3 desktops) this
is nice to have.

> Color television is nice BUT what have you really
> gained over that of 
> black and white?

Ok.  You're KIDDING right?  Television is primarily
an entertainment medium and color adds to the
entertainment value.  But it's also nice to be able
to watch the weather and not have to "guess" what
the weatherman is saying when he goes "if you look
at this blue-green patch over here you'll see".

Yeah, it's possible to convey information without
even using images.  Sure, you don't even need video.
You can get all of your info from radio.  

> Images on the web are nice BUT what have you really
> gained?

Well, what's gained with the web?  You can share 
information through linked BBS's.  Of course it's
interesting to note that since it's inception, Oberon
has supported images embedded in text.  Even ANIMATED
images.  (Imagine that?)  Oh, and this was at a time
when text based MS-DOG was the most widely used OS
on the planet.

> The magazine Science (by AAAS) used to be black and
> white but now is 
> filled with lovely colored images
> BUT again what have you gained by having this "eye
> candy".
> 
> A good friend of mine refused for many years to
> write in anything but 
> ascii text (he also was an early
> developer of one of the first display oriented text
> editor (he refused 
> to use the language "word processor"
> since that reminded him of "food processor" which
> produces hash)).

And yet, Oberon was never based on ASCII text.  I
guess it was always "bloated". ;)

Regards,

John M. Drake

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