[Oberon] FPGA Oberon - DAU status report...

[Bob Walkden]

On 7 Feb 2014, at 19:30, "Jan Verhoeven" <jan at verhoeven272.nl> wrote:
> 
> greim wrote:
>> So to generate prom.me i would need a running ORP and ORX on any PC.
> 
> Bingo! You reached the point of fast return. Just about all of the 
> Oberon related projects need an oberon operating system to "cross" 
> compile the sources.
> I haven't found one in the last 15 years. I tried to port some of the 
> sources to Modula-2 and failed.
> 
> Oberon is to me like a holy grail hidden in a Tantalising setting. Each 
> time I think "I have it, it is in reach", it turns out that there is 
> still a tiny thing missing and I need to retreat.

I'm not sure why that is like a holy grail - if you want to cross-compile and need an Oberon system, why not get an Oberon system? There are plenty of them.

Way, way back before the days of browsers, when Oberon was fairly new, I got the dos version on a floppy disk, and got my library to order all of Prof. Wirth's papers about the system. One of them is called Designing a System from Scratch. A very worthwhile paper if you're not familiar with it. It includes a fascinating description of how they bootstrapped the first systems onto Ceres or Lilith or whatever the box was called. You may be able to find a copy online.

B