[Oberon] Procedure variables and local procedures

[Skulski, Wojciech]

 Andreas Pirklbauer [andreas_pirklbauer at yahoo.com] wrote:

> one thing I did *not* want to do: extend the language itself.

Resuscitate, rather than extend. (Wording is a matter of *my* taste.)

IMHO, it would be beneficial to make the language more powerful and more useful. All the features discussed in this thread were once present, being used, and found very useful in the real production.

If there is a question whether the resuscitated/extended compiler can run in 1 meg of RAM, then perhaps we need two languages running on the same run time core which is IMHO outstanding. The smaller compiler could fit into 1 meg, while the larger compiler would need more megs. The smaller one can be used for teaching, while the larger one would be more productive in real development.

Please note that NW defined Oberon-0, wrote a book, and made a compiler for it. He did this for teaching. Even he himself did not argue that Oberon-0 is a production language. We can take his own approach. Let Oberon-0 be geared for undergraduate courses, Oberon-07 for more advanced courses as well as some limited production, and let Oberon-2 and Component Pascal be available for serious work.

Just my two zlotys.

W.