[Oberon] Re (2): Oberon Text and new systems;

[peter at easthope.ca]

Michael,

Our preceding two emails were mostly at crossed purposes.  

Two use cases can be visualized.  One, a system where the programming 
content of computer science can be taught.  For that, I understand 
that V5, Text included, works beautifully.

Two, a simple workstation for engineering and science.  That's what I 
understand interests Wojciech.  V4 and ETH Oberon have been used in 
that capacity for over two decades already.  Update of V4 and ETH 
Oberon to run on a FPGA machine is conceivable.

From:	Michael Schierl <schierlm at gmx.de>
Date:	Tue, 8 Jun 2021 23:02:57 +0200
> So, I would not try to provide any (badly compatible) HTML5 support to 
> a system like Oberon which tries to be simple and tries to remove what 
> can be removed.

Acknowledged.  I don't imagine a Web browser.  Rather an alternative 
to Oberon Text. It exists already in V4 as Web.Open <something>.html 
and in ETH Oberon as Desktops.OpenDoc <something>.html . Capabilities 
are very limited but comparable to Text.

A few revisions for consistency with HTML5 are visible in 
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Oberon/A2#Sources,_Tools_and_Configuration_Texts_in_A2 . 
Sources Oberon.HTML.Mod and Oberon.HTMLDocs.Mod .

> By the way, V5 text does not have vertical offsets, so no 
> subscripts/superscripts.

Acknowledged.  Vertical offset has no significance in Oberon source 
Text.  Not needed in V5.

A few observations.

* As ETHO is distributed, the Oberon.Text configuration file, is 
Oberon Text. The system boots and runs just as well if the file is 
stored as plain ASCII.

* The configuration file in A2 is Configuration.XML.  It can be edited 
with most editors in a contemporary Linux, MacOS or MS Windows system.

* Most of the A2 sources in the repository at 
https://svn-dept.inf.ethz.ch/svn/lecturers/a2/trunk/source/ are plain 
ASCII.  Once authenticated, sources in the left column at 
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Oberon/A2#Sources,_Tools_and_Configuration_Texts_in_A2
can be displayed with a single mouse click.

Simplification of a workstation is possible and worthwhile.

Regards,                ... P.L.

-- 
tel: +1 604 670 0140            Bcc: peter at easthope. ca