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

[Chris Burrows]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: greim [mailto:greim at schleibinger.com]
> Sent: Saturday, 8 February 2014 4:59 AM
> To: oberon at lists.inf.ethz.ch
> Subject: [Oberon] FPGA Oberon - DAU status report...
> 
> Hi,
> 
> i know i am annoying or lets say more friendly:
> here is another status report from the DAU (dümmster anzunehmender user):
> 

My recommendations from 'reading between the lines' of your posts are: 

* Contemplate the meaning of the proverb "Give a man a fish and you feed him
for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime". Only
proceed with this project if you are motivated by that concept. 

* Re-evaluate your expectations to suit reality.

* Don’t try to run before you can walk: 

Follow the advice that Paul Reed has already given you in this mailing list.
i.e. Build Oberon0 first using the sources from the Compiler Construction
pages of Wirth's site. That will give you positive feedback of being able to
get an Oberon program running on the Spartan board with a minimal amount of
time and effort.

* Expect to have to make some modifications to the source code of the
compiler and maybe port some of the imported modules (e.g. Texts) to get it
working as a cross-compiler using your preferred platform. 

Any existing well-documented Oberon-based system (e.g. ETH Oberon-2,
BlackBox or Gardens Point Component Pascal) would require the least porting
effort. You should expect it to take anything from a few hours to a day or
two's work if you are already competent in the use of ETH Oberon or
Component Pascal and you have studied the differences between the language
you are using and the 2013 Revision of Oberon used in FPGA Oberon. 

* You will need to implement a linker / loader. However, the most difficult
part of this work has already been done - just use Modules.mod as your
starting point. Study the related documentation until you understand how it
works before you attempt to modify it.

Once you have successfully completed this exercise you should be totally
self-sufficient in the use of Oberon FPGA and have gained the confidence and
ability to take the next step  and adapt the system to suit your particular
requirements,  

Good luck! 

Regards,
Chris Burrows
CFB Software
http://www.astrobe.com
Astrobe v5.0: Oberon for ARM Cortex-M3 Development System