[Oberon] Viability of A2 & ARM?

[Douglas G. Danforth]

My gripe with ETHZ is they lack 'marketing' to promote
Oberon based system.  Yes, they are a university but then so is Stanford.
But look at then number of spin-offs that Stanford has generated
(e.g. SUN, Google, ...)

I have not looked at A2 for many years so please correct me but doesn't
it use the Oberon extension where every object is its own process?
(Can't remember the name and I am too lazy to go and look it up)

So, yes, I also wonder why (if Oberon simplicity is so good) Oberon
based systems have been passed up by large companies.

-Doug Danforth

On 1/26/2012 2:36 AM, Chris Glur wrote:
> Bernhard T wrote:-
>
>> I think A2 would be much more interesting for teaching than linux ...
>> and ARM shouldn't really pose problems for A2
> We need to 'factorise/elaborate' "interesting" ; thus:
> Oberon is "interesting" in that:
> * it is the Nth stage of a journey to simplify a block
>   structured procedural language;
> * strong typing, further reduces the programmer's
>    mental load, by delegating the checking to the computer
>    [to the compiler].
>
> Does A2 contain any similar 'universal principles' which
> contribute to economy of effort for maintaining and extending
> itself?  Apparently unix was named as a spoof on its ancestor
> [competitor], multics which was said to be a complex failure.
> So if A2 can achieve<what is required>  significantly more
> economically, why was it overlooked in the recent BIG mobile
> device OS repositioning?  Eg. various options were considered
> by google, before deciding on<linux based android>.
>
> It would be interesting to read a side-by-side comparison
> [perhaps tabulated] of *nix<->  A2
> Attribute1 achieved-by-X1   achieved-by-Y1
> ....
> AttributeN achieved-by-XN  not-needed.
>
> You can't overlook the forces of inertia re. socio-economic
> factors. Eg. LEO is cost effective because it can ride on the
> back of linux, which can ride on the back of x86 PCs.
>
> But the electric power inefficient WinTel monopoly
> seems to be being broken by the 'mobile' market. And the
> mobile-market is the inevitable Alvin-Toffler-3rd-wave element,
> where the 2nd-wave regimentation in schools, offices, factories
> via the clock is replaced by flexibility.
>
> Is there any need now for masses of people to syncronise
> their travel, to attend the professor's lecture?
>
> == Chris Glur.
>
>
>
>
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