[Oberon] The "Oberon" context identifier.

[Jörg Straube]

Lyall

Context identifiers were introduced in A2 for a very special not very common situation.
Oberon being an operating system either runs on bare metal (as an operating system normally does) or on top of another operating system, very hip these days, called virtualization. You know all these flavors of Oberon on Windows, Oberon on Linux and so on.

Now if you put Oberon on A2 it happens that the host OS (Oberon) and the guest OS (A2) are both written in the Oberon programming language. Not a very common case.

If you want to use - lets say - module Texts, you have to explain to the compiler if you meant Texts of the host OS or Texts of the guest OS. This is where contexts come into play.

Basically, they were only implemented on A2. Nowhere else.

Jörg

> Am 21.12.2018 um 20:55 schrieb <peter at easthope.ca> <peter at easthope.ca>:
> 
> Hello & Greetings of the Season,
> 
> This is for potential interest.  I hope it doesn't offend anyone.
> 
> To some extent at least, I understand the circumstances and reasoning 
> which led to "Oberon" as a Context identifier in A2.  Conversely, 
> "Oberon" appears in many contexts (not only Contexts) and the meaning 
> of the term as a Context identifier can easily elude or confuse a 
> novice.  Particularly someone learning by self-instruction without 
> benefit of lectures  and tutorials.  Therefore I wonder whether a 
> synonym might be admitted. "A2Oberon" is an obvious possibility but 
> rather long.  "A2O" strikes me as a reasonable compromise between 
> brevity and clarity.  Such a change is more likely to advance adoption 
> of A2 than to retard it.
> 
> I'm not asking to abruptly replace Context identifier "Oberon" with 
> "A2O". Only to allow A2O or similar as a more focussed synonym.  
> 
> Thanks,           ... Lyall E.
> 
> 
> 
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