[Oberon] Viability of A2 & ARM?

[Bob Walkden]

> 
> Ever since I began looking at the Oberon "family" of technologies,
> I've been wondering the same thing.
> 

if they don't achieve a critical mass of acceptability very quickly they
don't stand a chance, whatever their merits and they never reach the tipping
point. I've worked in commercial software development for >30 years and have
always liked Wirth languages, but I would never be able to promote one as an
alternative to the mainstream because we would never be able to hire enough
people for it to be a long-term proposition. Since no-one hires programmers
that know the language, people don't want to learn it and a vicious cycle
establishes itself. 

On the other hand, once a language passes a critical point even
non-programmers have heard of it, whatever its merits or demerits. Just this
week I've been discussing with some of my users a system that needs to be
redeveloped. Their senior manager insisted that it be written in C++ (which
is not a language we use). Of course it's none of his business what we write
it in, but his request no doubt hides some deeper concern so I asked why
this was important to him. He said that 'languages' like Excel were
vulnerable to changes in Microsoft operating systems and only systems that
were developed from compiled code were not. Hmm. 

But it's this sort of naivety that helps to give stuff like C++ traction
where Oberon has none.

Anyway, if we develop this software it will be in C# which has the advantage
of at least some of Wirth's good influences.

B