[Oberon] Some questions about BB evolution.

[Patrik Reali]

> a) Aos look as good system. Thanks Pieter and others.
> But without application it will die. Native BB application
> will be late (may be...) Now  primary application is
> Oberon system. But it not use new features from BB
> and still one task, one window. <b>Is anybody planing
> what Oberon active documents, modules etc. must (if need and explicit)
have
> own task in BB? And visually own window like Plug-in Oberon?</b>

It think Oberon is fine like this. As a programming environment, it doesn't
need more than this. This kind of developments are now done on Aos. Remind
that we also have the Native Oberon release and that it would be unwise with
our limited manpower to start forking the code in an Oberon an a Bluebottle
version: currently most of the Oberon code is reused without change on
Bluebottle.

> b) Simply porting application look not reasonable - we already
> have BSD, Linux ,(Windows, at all) where a lot of application
> work fine in C/Unix environment and emulate env. is not good idea.
> ( Except learning purposes ) Who need Apache-featured web-server under
> BB if we have Apache under Unix?
> <b>In which fields BB application will use, as suppose it
> programmers?</b>
> If it will simply general purposes - without strong rules
> it will garbage bin ( Linux) and simply written on 'Pascal'
> ( Linux 'garbage' sometimes very useful, sure, but huge and knotty)

These systems have different goals: Windows and Linux try to maximize number
of functionalities they provide, whereas Oberon / Bluebottle's goal is to
make simple systems (and as corollary thereof easier to understand, manager,
and thus with less errors). Bluebottle in particular is a lean and versatile
platform, which provides a HOT (high-level and typed) environment. I would
compare it with Java or .NET, which provide a similar programming model (but
still follow the "bigger is better" approach). Java is closer to BB, in that
its classes model a whole OS, although it relies on a third-party language
for the low-level code. .NET is still a managed environment with no OS
ambitions (but I wouldn't be surprised at all if it (slowly) becomes the new
kernel for Microsoft's applications).

In fact, Bluebottle could be an ideal platform for Java and .NET-based
systems. A Java VM already exists (a new and improved version will soon be
available). It would be an interesting project to see the .NET CLRon
Bluebottle too.....

Anyway, I think that Bluebottle is idea where the hardware is limited, thus
in embedded systems or where the cost factor is important (more hardware,
more cost). The education segment, with its often limited budget is
definitively a target for Bluebottle (here Linux is a direct concurrent).


-Patrik