[Oberon] Safe module unloading

[Andreas Pirklbauer]

See responses inline below..

------
> Lars noreply at z505.com 
> Tue Dec 13 13:51:23 CET 2016
> > Complete source code (modules Kernel, Modules):
> > http://github.com/andreaspirklbauer/Oberon-experimental
> >

> Hey I saw that you have some movies/videos of oberon, in "mov" file
> format.. might be useful to upload them to youtube and link to them as
> when I click the mov file it does not play the video
The videos can/will be uploaded to Youtube.
> Also, with experimental oberon, does that mean that if I buy an
> oberonstation I can install experimental oberon on it rather than the one
> that it ships with? Sorry, I'm a newbie to this..


Yes, one can install Experimental Oberon on an Oberon station (instructions to upgrade from an existing Original Oberon installation are on the Experimental Oberon page; then just create an image using the building tools that are part of Experimental Oberon).

> And, is experimental oberon ever going to work with the original oberon> code developer or it will remain a separate fork with no real input back> into the original source tree..
There is in a backward-compatible version of Experimental Oberon on the Github page as well. However, it does not contain all features. It would be an easy task to make the full Experimental Oberon backward compatible with Original Oberon, but I have refrained from doing so, for several reasons: it would lead to code duplications just for compatibility reasons, some modules of Experimental Oberon (MenuViewers, Viewers) are (will be) actually *simpler* than Original Oberon and that property would go aways, etc.
I don't think Experimental Oberon will ever be merged back into Original Oberon. The two systems pursue different goals. Original Oberon tries to be minimalistic, so even the rather basic task of continuous scrolling - which makes the Oberon GUI considerably easier and much more natural to use, with zero initial learning curve - would be considered as "unnecessary bells and whistles".
Original Oberon also does not really care that the user can put the system in an unsafe state merely by e.g. unloading a module (Oberon is an unsafe system anyway, in the sense that any user can just delete any system-critical file to break the system).
By contrast Experimental Oberon believes in *sensible" extensions (think: 100-200 lines per added feature, not more) that add real value, e.g.,- completely safe module unloading (50 lines) .. for increased safety- virtual displays (100 lines).. important for touch devices- continuous line scrolling (200 lines).. making the GUI much easier to use
etc.







   
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