[Oberon] Oberon compiler futures

[Jan Verhoeven]

Quite a lot of people said something like:

> create an Oberon compiler that somehow connects to GCC, but at one of
> the intermediate code levels:  

If you have this kind of thoughts, you should read PIM once again (or 
for the first time).

In Modula-2 you have the DEFinition module showing which function 
prototypes you have and the associated IMPLEMENTATION module in which 
the actual functions are declared.
All users have the DEF files. Each DEF file links to an object file.And 
nobody knows what's inside the object file.

Wirth did this to make sure you, the clever programmer, could not be 
tempted to tap into a function declared in a DEF file, somewhere 
halfway, relying on an undocumeted side effect of that function.

Tapping into the internals of gcc would be this same thing. It is normal 
for programmers in lesser languages. But it is a deadly sin for all of 
us who ever read PIM, PIO or any other Work of Wirth.

-- 
Met vriendelijke groeten,

Jan Verhoeven
http://www.verhoeven272.nl