[Oberon] OP2 Oberon-2 compiler vs RISC Oberon compiler

[Chris Burrows]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: skulski at pas.rochester.edu [mailto:skulski at pas.rochester.edu]
> Sent: Monday, 13 October 2014 1:10 AM
> To: oberon at lists.inf.ethz.ch
> Cc: danforth at greenwoodfarm.com
> Subject: Re: [Oberon] Complete Spartan-6 system under $100
> 
> The answer may come back "do it yourself". Well, myself I am not able
> to deal with the compilers such as OP2. This is something that the
> experts need to bring to to table. 

I agree - the OP2 compiler is beyond the limits of my comprehension also.
Unless the Oberon-2 language extensions are a 'must-have' for you, I
recommend that you concentrate on working on the RISC compiler instead. As a
simplistic comparison, if you compare the line counts, Crelier's OP2
Oberon-2 compiler totals about 10,000 lines. Wirth's latest RISC Oberon
compiler is about 30% of the size (at less than 3000 lines). 

Apart from the support of the Oberon-2 extensions to the language, one of
the initial advantages of the OP2 design over Wirth's original Oberon
compiler was the separation of the target-dependent and portable parts of
the compiler. This advantage is now significantly diminished as most of the
target-dependent code of the latest RISC Oberon compiler has been isolated
in a single module (ORG). The remaining modules (ORB, ORP and ORS - 60% of
the total) are virtually unchanged for each new target, 

Regards,
Chris

Chris Burrows
CFB Software
http://www.astrobe.com