[Oberon] On Oberon Sources

[eas lab]

> The biggest confusion right now I have is,
> why Oberon didn't use simple ascii text files?

That's like asking the bicycle maker, why he didn't just give shoes to
his clients;
they also facilitate travel.

ETHO is all about the brilliant TextUserInterface.

Perhaps because the copyright expired ? NW has opened up: down to the
hardware level. So the 'new-boys' who want to look at the hardware level, don't
know about nor want to use the TUI. So they want to use their familiar systems.

Well you can walk to the bicycle factory, but once you've learned how to, you'll
prefer to cycle there.

> None of Oberon files are open-able as plain ascii file!
> Which extension in file name says that the file is a plain ascii file?

ETHO doesn't want to comply with M$ or unix;
although all: nativeOberon, V4, LEO ... read and write M$ & unix.

When I need to read ETHO from linux [instead of using LEO to write a *nix text],
I sometimes use something like:

#!/bin/bash
# ETHO textFile show for *nix
cat $1 | strings | fold -s -66 | less

BTW I appreciate the frustration.
That's how I feel with LNO & ALO: you can't easily get out to access the whole
file tree of ETHO, M$  & unix files; like you can with LEO.

== Chris Glur.

Once you've used ETHO's TUI, you'd never consider using <plain ASCII editors>
unless ETHO's TUI was not available.

I've got a painfull complex task which is unrelated to computing, that
entails co-ordinating
masses to texts: internet, pdfS, old OberonFiles, various M$ formats ......
Only with ETHO's TUI can I [somewhat] control the chaos.
The ability to just <color wipe> sections of text helps too.