[Oberon] n-o: timer-reset chit-chat

[shark at gulfnet.sd64.bc.ca]

Chris, Samps and others,

cg> How many of you got nailed by the swen virus ?
  ... macho and deny problems.

I certainly did and comments are in my Web pages.
Swen is a bad nuisance.

cg> The linux box (which gives deeper 
diagnostic/traces than n-o ) 

Oberon PPP will log every byte if you tell 
it to.

cg>   1. as I have repeatedly reported: after an abort eg. power down
   to modem during ppp connected, the ser-control to modem
   fails on further dial attempts.

I've probably observed that more than once.
Certainly Oberon PPP needs work.

Previously you mentioned the difficulty in 
comprehending the PPP sources and in tracing
execution.  A "small" project, which would 
really help, is to write an EBNF representation 
of the protocols.  It is mentioned in 
http://carnot.pathology.ubc.ca/PPPnotes. 
My current effort is in setting up PPP on a 
Linux system so that I have something to test 
Oberon PPP against.

cg> ... ISP has allocated me a login-name with
  an embedded "@" char ...

That might be fixed.  Have a look at Edgar's 
latest release.  

cg> Apparently because I posted a few News-articles, 
... with my return adrs. showing, ...

Thank the ETH for not publishing addresses in 
headers of submissions to the Oberon list.

Pity that usenet and many mailing lists publish
addresses.  Swen could be nicely hobbled simply
by cutting off the supply of addresses.

cg> The lack of these types of simple 'Howtos' ...

Doesn't the Web based documentation cover that 
requirement?  Thanks to André Fischer and others, 
there are many well written pages.  Mention a 
few of the most bothersome deficiencies and 
someone might be able to address them.

cg> ... n-o usage will never grow.

If Oberon/AOS do remain in a niche, is it so bad?
Far more people drive than cycle but cycling 
remains the most efficient means of travel.  
Try to convince a dedicated cycle commuter to 
drive to work.

s>  use of it as a practical tool is, at best, 
a pipedream.

Oberon works very well in tandem with another 
system.  At home I routinely edit files with 
ET and RX in Oberon and send them to an old
Mac IIfx for processing.  The file transfer 
happens in a second or two.  I can continue  
editing in Oberon while OzTeX on the Mac formats. 
ET and RX are much more efficient than Alpha 
on the Mac.

At work Oberon is beside Debian Linux.  
Oberon is much better than vi for reading manual
pages and Oberon is better than Lynx for most 
Web browsing.  Conversely, Linux provides a pdf 
viewer.

I prefer to describe Oberon and AOS as pipedreams
partly realized.  Doesn't every invention begin 
as a dream?

Regards,       Peter E.

       http://carnot.pathology.ubc.ca/