I am sure that many of you know about <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com">KickStarter</a>. It is used to fund eclectic creative projects.<div><br></div><div>I have submitted a <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1378252804/681865516?token=9ca2a4ea">KickStarter project of my own</a> for approval to launch. This follows closely on a <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1378252804/the-green-lady-photographs-from-texas">previous KickStarter project</a> that will be live for a few more hours.<br clear="all">
<div><br></div><div>This seems like an opportunity to have a dual hardware / software project where an Oberon family compiler and a hardware board are tuned to each other. It is also an opportunity to showcase Oberon and/or Component Pascal to the MakerSpace community and other allied communities who closely follow KickStarter. Perhaps video segments showing the various Oberons and small board designs, such as Wojtec's boards and CBF's compilers.</div>
<div><br></div><div>One potential project would be to switch my board to use the MIPS chips offered by <a href="http://www.microchip.com/pagehandler/en-us/family/32bit/">Microchip Technology Inc</a>. I have loaded, through a long and arcane process, the output from the Regis Creiler compiler onto the MIPS evaluation board and I can verify that it executes correctly. A parallel project would then update the Regis Creiler Oberon compiler as a new back end for the Component Pascal project. Both of these compilers follow a very similar architecture, and this is documented in the literature. The administrative permissions to use this source is an exercise for the reader.</div>
<div><br></div><div>The new back end can be realized by writing a few modules in the Component Pascal environment. The Browser actually uses some of the front end and dumps some of the internal data structures as its method of operation, so there are lots of resources already in place.</div>
<div><br></div><div>In addition, there are SPARC core microchips available and an existing SPARC Oberon compiler. There are also ARM chips available. I also understand that Wirth developed a small language for one of the PIC chips.</div>
<div><br></div><div>It would be wonderful to have a companion KickStarter project. I hope someone is in a position to put one together. We would, of course, reference each other's projects in our descriptions. If you have preliminary interest, I would like to know of your CPU choice fairly soon.</div>
<div><br></div><div><div>The KickStarter page says that the projects are limited to people (with bank accounts) in the US or GB. However, there have been projects from other countries. I don't know how they made that happen, but one possibility is for me to be an administrative partner, as many projects are team efforts.</div>
</div><div><br></div><div><br></div>-- <br><font face="'times new roman', serif">Aubrey McIntosh, Ph.D.<br>211 E. 5th St.<br>Morris MN 56267</font><div><div><span style="line-height:20px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font face="'times new roman', serif">(512)-348-7401</font></span></div>
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