[Oberon] Class Methods Vs. Procedure variables in Records

[Chris Burrows]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Oberon [mailto:oberon-bounces at lists.inf.ethz.ch] On Behalf Of
> Srinivas Nayak
> Sent: Tuesday, 3 January 2017 2:47 PM
> To: ETH Oberon and related systems
> Subject: [Oberon] Class Methods Vs. Procedure variables in Records
> 
> Dear All,
> 
> In Oberon we have Procedure variables in Records.
> In Oberon2 we added/appreciated Class Methods.
> But Oberon7 we only retained Procedure variables in Records.
> 
> In the evolution of Wirthian languages, when Oberon allows object
> oriented paradigm, why still we thought, Procedure variables in
> Records is the way to go with Oberon7?
> In other words, why we decided and retained Procedure variables in
> Records, but didn't go for Class Methods? Any disadvantage of Class
> methods?
> Why we think, Procedure variables in Records is more elegant than
> Class Methods?
> 
> Where can we find discussions/decisions on these two constructs by
> masters?
> 

The two descendants of Obereon should be viewed as two siblings from the
same parent rather than a grandparent-parent-child relationship. 

Oberon was designed by Niklaus Wirth. 

The evolution of Oberon that led to Oberon-2 was primarily the work of
Hanspeter Mossenbock via his work with Josef Templ and Robert Griesemer on
"Object Oberon". You can discover the motivation behind this by reading
their paper titled "Object Oberon. An Object-Oriented Extension of Oberon."
ETH Technical Report 109, 1989:

http://e-collection.library.ethz.ch/eserv/eth:3204/eth-3204-01.pdf

Oberon7, was designed by Niklaus Wirth, as an evolution of Oberon (not
Oberon-2) in the opposite direction. It was designed to further simplify the
language, not to extend it. His motivation is somewhat different. For an
explanation see "Oberon, the result of simplification" in "Computers and
Computing - A Personal Perspective", Niklaus Wirth December 2015:

https://www.inf.ethz.ch/personal/wirth/Miscellaneous/index.html

Regards,
Chris Burrows

CFB Software
http://www.astrobe.com/RISC5