[Oberon] Zonnon

[Alan Freed]

 John Drake wrote:

> Well, considering the fact that there's a Component
> Pascal .NET compiler, that doesn't represent much of
> an advantage for Zonnon.  

The link to the CP.Net compiler is broken on 
http://www.dotnetpowered.com/languages.aspx
I don't know anything about this compiler, so I 
can't respond.

> When Zonnon's predecessor "Lightning Oberon" came out, 

Do you mean "Active Oberon for .net"?
http://www.oberon.ethz.ch/oberon.net/

> it was the only 
> .NET Wirthian language.  I guess the question for
> me (and others) is what do the language changes
> from Lightning Oberon to Zonnon buy you irrespective
> of the .NET part?

Zonnon is, if you like, Active Oberon for .net-2.  It has 
extensions to the original .net Oberon compiler from ETH. 
It is an industrial grade of Active Oberon for .net.  Many,
but not all, of Zonnon's extensions resulted from two 
sources: 1) to make the language more consistent and 
logical from the viewpoint of its syntax, and 2) to make 
better use of the capabilities that are offered by the CLI. 

> Another hypothetical question.  From what I gather
> Zonnon supports a version of "Active Objects"
> similair to Active Oberon.  Is it possible to
> write a program that compiles under Zonnon and
> BlueBottle?  That would be interesting.

I doubt that a typical Active Oberon for .net program would 
compile under BlueBottle, either.  I certainly don't expect 
a Zonnon program to therefore compile under BB without 
modifications. In particular, the syntax Zonnon introduces 
for methods is quite different from its predecessors. This 
was done to accommodate item 1 above. 

I'm not trying to convince people to leave Oberon based 
languages for Zonnon.  Each has their strengths and 
weaknesses, and a programmer must choose based on 
the demands of their project.  All I'm trying to do is make 
others aware of its existence, and to clarify some points 
made about it earlier.  

Al
-- 
Alan D. Freed, PhD               AlFreed at ohio.net
-----
Bio Sciece & Technology          Alan.D.Freed at nasa.gov
NASA Glenn Research Center
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Dept. Biomedical Engineering     FreedA at ccf.org
The Cleveland Clinic
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The opinions expressed are my own and do not reflect
those of either NASA or the Cleveland Clinic.