Oberon: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 01:46, 2 June 2023

Oberon is a structured object-oriented and procedural language in the Algol family that was introduced by Niklaus Wirth in 1988 alongside an operating system with the same name.

It was based on his earlier Modula-2 language but adds limited object-orientation, but at the same time removes a lot of the M2 Language features in order to simplify the language and compiler.

There are descendant languages that some classify as Oberon and others as members of the Oberon family, we include the few implementations that actually run under OS/2 in some form here just to simplify things, it is not a taxidermy issue.

Oberon/0 is a simplified version of the language intended to be used in teaching compiler construction, it is therefore as much a descendant of PL/0 (simplified Pascal) as of Oberon proper, and you are not meant to download a copy, but rather make one yourself.

Oberon07 is simply a name for the latest version of the Oberon standard and does not differ too much from the original, the last update to the Oberon 07 standard was in the summer of 2014.

Implementations

OS/2 implementations

ETH Oberon System - Note that this is not just the compiler, but the entire Oberon OS as a layer on top of OS/2.

Editor support

Enhanced Editor - Has syntax highlighting and some formatting features available as a separate download.

Win-OS/2 Implementations

BlackBox Oberon - Current Oberon Core version does not work, older versions however do work with Win32s installed.
Programmers Open Workbench - Aka POW!/16 - Open source

JavaScript

OberonScript - Can be run inside a web browser or by using the JavaScript Desktop Enabler.
Microsoft Oberon Script - Older version of the above, code appears to have gone missing.

Articles

A Discussion of Oberon by Paul Floyd (Aug 1998)

Publications

Niklaus Wirth: The Programming Language Oberon (1990)
Jürg Gutknecht & Niklaus Wirth: Project Oberon; The Design of an Operating System and Compiler Updated version from 2005
Jürg Gutknecht & Niklaus Wirth: Project Oberon; The Design of an Operating System and Compiler Updated version from 2013 (Not as well formatted as the earlier version)
Niklaus Wirth: From Modula to Oberon
Niklaus Wirth: Modula-2 and Oberon - Historical overview
Jürg Gutknecht & Michael Franz: Oberon with Gadgets - A Simple Component Framework
Jürg Gutknecht: Oberon, Gadgets and Some Archetypal Aspects of Persistent Objects
J. Marais: Design and Implementation of a Component Architecture for Oberon ETH Zürich 1996.
André Fischer & Hannes Marais:The Oberon Companion: A Guide to Using and Programming Oberon System 3 - 1997
Günther Sawitzki: Extensible Statistical Software: On a Voyage to Oberon
Archive of old Oberon Newsletter issues

Josef Templ: The Oberon Programming Language: The new Pascal - Introductory article
Peter H. Fröhlich, Michael Franz: Stand-Alone Messages: A Step Towards Component-Oriented Programming Languages
Michael Franz: Emulating an Operating System on Top of Another

Links

The MODulator - Modula-2 and Oberon articles from the gents behind the ModulaWare company in Switzerland, used to be a paper newsletter back in the day.
Pascal for small machines - Pascal and Oberon related blog

Standards

Oberon 07 Language Report - Summer 2014 edition.

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-Oberon is a structured object oriented and procedural language in the [[Algol]] family that was introduced by Niklaus Wirth in 1988 alongside an operating system with the same name. It was based on his earlier [[Modula 2]] language but adds limited object-orientation but at the same time removes a lot of the M2 Language features in order to simplify the language and compiler. Oberon-2 is an extension of Oberon developed in 1992 by Hanspeter Mössenböck that adds stronger object-orientation and brings back a couple of features from Modula-2.
+Oberon is a structured object-oriented and procedural language in the [[Algol]] family that was introduced by [[Niklaus Wirth]] in 1988 alongside an operating system with the same name.
-Note that with the exception of the Oberon compilers developed by Hr. Wirth himself that in general only support the original Oberon, most developers support both languages without explicitly mentioning it, this is because Oberon-2 is purely and addition to Oberon and therefore you can program in the earlier variation without any problems. But the literature does frequently not differentiate correctly between the two.
+It was based on his earlier [[Modula-2]] language but adds limited object-orientation, but at the same time removes a lot of the M2 Language features in order to simplify the language and compiler.
-There are descendant languages that some classify as Oberon and others as members of the Oberon family, we include the few implementations that actually run under OS/2 in some form here just to simplify things, it is not a taxidermy issue. '''Active Oberon''' is a variant of either Oberon or Oberon-2 that has explicit support for programming multi core processors, '''Oberon/0''' is a simplified version of the language intended to be used in teaching compiler construction, it is therefore as much a descendant of PL/0 (simplified Pascal) as of Oberon proper and you are not meant to download a copy, but rather make one yourself.
+There are descendant languages that some classify as Oberon and others as members of the Oberon family, we include the few implementations that actually run under OS/2 in some form here just to simplify things, it is not a taxidermy issue.
-Oberon/L is now called '''Component Pascal''' is a variant designed specifically to allow development of software components, there is no native OS/2 implementation but a Java implementation exists and [[Blackbox Oberon]] runs fine under [[Odin]], older versions actually work in WinOS/2 with [[Win32s]] installed, Blackbox Oberon used to be called Oberon/F BTW. '''Zonnon''' is a descendant of Active Oberon that adds safety features and a stronger object system. Oberon07 is simply a name for the latest version of the Oberon standard and does not differ too much from the original, the last update to the Oberon 07 standard was in the summer of 2014.
+'''Oberon/0''' is a simplified version of the language intended to be used in teaching compiler construction, it is therefore as much a descendant of PL/0 (simplified Pascal) as of Oberon proper, and you are not meant to download a copy, but rather make one yourself.
-'''WebL''' is an Oberon derivative that was specially designed to process web documents, people usually associate it with [[Modula-3]] since some of the same people worked on both systems at the Digital/Compaq research labs and WebL was sometimes shipped with the M3 system, but the ideas behind and the basis for WebL came from the Oberon group at [[ETH]] although the actual implementation is in [[Java]]. HP later renamed WebL as the not very search engine friendly "Web Language" or "HP Web Language". WebL was mostly notable due to the fact that in its day (around the turn of the century) it managed to outperform similar commercial toolkits and was much more compact as well.
+Oberon07 is simply a name for the latest version of the Oberon standard and does not differ too much from the original, the last update to the Oberon 07 standard was in the summer of 2014.
-==A list of OS/2 implementations of Oberon==
+==Implementations==
-*[[Canterbury Modula 2 - Oberon-2|Canterbury Modula 2 & Oberon-2]] - Discontinued
+===OS/2 implementations===
-*[[ETH Oberon System]] - Discontinued. Note that this is not just the compiler but the entire Oberon OS as a layer on top of OS/2 or eCS.
+*[[ETH Oberon System]] - Note that this is not just the compiler, but the entire Oberon OS as a layer on top of OS/2.
-*[[Gardens Point Oberon-2]] Was available in both Commercial and Open Source variants - Discontinued.
-*[[IBM Oberon-2]] - Internal use only - Was talked about as a EWS release but appears never to have seen the light of day.
-*[[XDS-x86 Modula 2]] - Discontinued
-====OS/2 text & programmers editors with Oberon support====
+;Editor support
 * [[Enhanced Editor]] - Has syntax highlighting and some formatting features available as a [[Adding syntax highlighting to EPM|separate download]].
-==A list of DOS implementations of Oberon==
+===Win-OS/2 Implementations===
-*[[Gardens Point Oberon-2]] Was available in both Commercial and Open Source variants - Discontinued.
-*[[XDS-x86 Modula 2]] - Discontinued
-==A list of Oberon implementations that run under WinOS/2==
 * BlackBox Oberon - Current Oberon Core version does not work, older versions however do work with Win32s installed.
-* [[Programmers Open Workbench]] - Aka POW!/16 - Open source - Discontinued
+* [[Programmers Open Workbench]] - Aka POW!/16 - Open source
-==A list of Oberon implementations that run under Java==
-* [[Canterbury Oberon-2 for Java]] - Commercial - Discontinued
-* [[Gardens Point Component Pascal]] - Open source - Current
-* [http://www.uni-vologda.ac.ru/JOB/ JOB] - Open source - Discontinued
-==A list of Oberon implementations in JavaScript==
+===JavaScript===
 *[http://www.ralphsommerer.com/obn.htm OberonScript] - Can be run inside a web browser or by using the JavaScript Desktop Enabler.
 *[http://research.microsoft.com/apps/pubs/default.aspx?id=70288 Microsoft Oberon Script] - Older version of the above, code appears to have gone missing.
-==Links==
+==Articles==
-* [http://www.modulaware.com/mdltr_.htm The MODulator] - Modula-2 and Oberon articles from the gents behind the ModulaWare company in Switzerland, used to be a paper newsletter back in the day.
+* [[A Discussion of Oberon]] by Paul Floyd (Aug 1998)
-* [http://zx.oberon2.ru Oberon2.ru] - Massive Russian site dedicated to all things Wirthian, forum in particular strong.
-* [http://web.archive.org/web/20070507043202/http://www.hpl.hp.com/downloads/crl/webl/index.html A copy of the old HP WebL/Web Language site] - From [[Archive.org]]
 ==Publications==
-* [http://www.oberon.ethz.ch/bibliography/publications Oberon bibliography] From ETH Switzerland.
+* Niklaus Wirth: [http://www.inf.ethz.ch/personal/wirth/Oberon/Oberon.Report.pdf The Programming Language Oberon] (1990)
-* Niklaus Wirth: [http://www.inf.ethz.ch/personal/wirth/ProgInOberon.pdf Programming in Oberon] Updated version from 2004
-* Niklaus Wirth: [http://www.inf.ethz.ch/personal/wirth/Oberon/Oberon.Report.pdf The Programming Language Oberon]
 * Jürg Gutknecht & Niklaus Wirth: [http://www.inf.ethz.ch/personal/wirth/ProjectOberon1992.pdf Project Oberon; The Design of an Operating System and Compiler] Updated version from 2005
 * Jürg Gutknecht & Niklaus Wirth: [http://www-oldurls.inf.ethz.ch/personal/wirth/ProjectOberon/ Project Oberon; The Design of an Operating System and Compiler] Updated version from 2013 (Not as well formatted as the earlier version)
-* Hanspeter Mössenböck [http://ssw.jku.at/Research/Books/Oberon2.pdf Object-Oriented Programming in Oberon-2]
-* Hanspeter Mössenböck [https://www.cs.helsinki.fi/njc/njc1_papers/number1/inv_paper4.pdf Extensibility in the Oberon system]
-* Hanspeter Mössenböck & Christof Steindl: [http://www.ssw.uni-linz.ac.at/Research/Projects/Reflection/Reflection99/paper.ps The Oberon-2 Reflection Model and its Applications]
 * Niklaus Wirth: [http://members.home.nl/jmr272/Oberon/ModToOberon.pdf From Modula to Oberon]
-* Jürg Gutknecht & Mihael Franz: [https://web.archive.org/web/20050915000000*/http://www.ics.uci.edu/~franz/publications/OberonWithGadgetsPrepub.pdf Oberon with Gadgets - A Simple Component Framework]
+* Niklaus Wirth: [http://www.inr.ac.ru/~info21/pdf/Modula-Oberon-June-2007.pdf Modula-2 and Oberon] - Historical overview
+* Jürg Gutknecht & Michael Franz: [https://web.archive.org/web/20050915000000*/http://www.ics.uci.edu/~franz/publications/OberonWithGadgetsPrepub.pdf Oberon with Gadgets - A Simple Component Framework]
 * Jürg Gutknecht: [ftp://ftp2.de.freebsd.org/pub/languages/oberon/ftp.inf.ethz.ch/System3/Papers/jcsi0.ps Oberon, Gadgets and Some Archetypal Aspects of Persistent Objects]
 * J. Marais: [ftp://ftp.inf.ethz.ch/pub/publications/dissertations/th11697.ps.gz Design and Implementation of a Component Architecture for Oberon] ETH Zürich 1996.
-* J. Marais: Extensible Software Systems in Oberon - Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics, Vol 5 (1996)
+* André Fischer & Hannes Marais:[http://oberon2005.oberoncore.ru/book/af1997.pdf The Oberon Companion: A Guide to Using and Programming Oberon System 3] - 1997
-* André Fischer & Hannes Marais:[http://oberon2005.oberoncore.ru/book/af1997.pdf The Oberon Companion: A Guide to Using and Programming Oberon System 3] - 1997 in PDF format
+* Günther Sawitzki: [http://www.statlab.uni-heidelberg.de/reports/by.series/report.06.pdf Extensible Statistical Software: On a Voyage to Oberon]
-* B Marincek, J.L. Marais, and E.Zeller: Oberon - Ein Kurzleitfaden fuer Studenten - 1999 Vieweg - ISBN 3-528-05691-6
-* Günther Sawitzki: [http://www.statlab.uni-heidelberg.de/reports/by.series/report.06.pdf Extensible Statistical Software: On a Voyage to Oberon] - In PDF format.
 * [ftp://ftp.ethoberon.ethz.ch/Oberon/Newsletter/ Archive of old Oberon Newsletter issues]
-;WebL
-* Hannes Marais: [https://web.archive.org/web/20050212234457/http://www.research.compaq.com/SRC/WebL/WebL.pdf Compaq’s Web Language: A Programming Language for the Web] - User manual in [[PDF]] format.
-* Thomas Kistler and Hannes Marais: [http://www.hpl.hp.com/techreports/Compaq-DEC/SRC-TN-1997-029.pdf WebL – A Programming Language for the Web] - 1997 - In PDF format.
-* Hannes Marais and Tom Rodeheffer: [http://www.drdobbs.com/web-development/automating-the-web-with-webl/184410817 Automating the web with WebL] - From Dr Dobb' Journal.
-* Quanfu Fan & Xiangto Wang: [http://www.cs.arizona.edu/~collberg/Teaching/520/2003/Projects/quanfu.ps.gz Web Languages and An Example: WebL] - In [[PostScript]] fromat.
-* Josef Templ: [http://collaboration.cmc.ec.gc.ca/science/rpn/biblio/ddj/Website/articles/DDJ/1994/9415/9415i/9415i.htm The Oberon Programming Language: The new Pascal] - Introductionary article.
-* Peter H. Fröhlich and Michael Franz: [http://gaming.jhu.edu/~phf/pub/jmlc-2000.pdf Stand-Alone Messages: A Step Towards Component-Oriented Programming Languages] - In PDF format.
-* Michael Franz: [https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/68c3/9912294de44359c1affeb5fcc8b71247dc32.pdf Emulating an Operating System
-on Top of Another] - In PDF format.
-* Cuno Pfister: [http://www.nt.ntnu.no/users/haugwarb/Programming/Oberon/oberon_vs_java.html Brief comparison of Component Pascal and Java] - CP is a component variation of Oberon BTW.
-====Classic EDM/2 articles====
+* Josef Templ: ''The Oberon Programming Language: The new Pascal'' - Introductory article
-* [[XDS Oberon]] by [[Paul Floyd]] (May 1999)
+* Peter H. Fröhlich, Michael Franz: [http://gaming.jhu.edu/~phf/pub/jmlc-2000.pdf Stand-Alone Messages: A Step Towards Component-Oriented Programming Languages]
-* [[A Description of the Oberon-2 Language]] by [[Paul Floyd]] (August 1998)
+* Michael Franz: [https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/68c3/9912294de44359c1affeb5fcc8b71247dc32.pdf Emulating an Operating System on Top of Another]
-* [[A Discussion of Oberon]] by [[Paul Floyd]] (August 1998)
-====Local articles====
+==Links==
-* [[The Oakwood Guidelines for Oberon-2 Compiler Developers]]
+* [http://www.modulaware.com/mdltr_.htm The MODulator] - Modula-2 and Oberon articles from the gents behind the ModulaWare company in Switzerland, used to be a paper newsletter back in the day.
+* [http://pascal.hansotten.com Pascal for small machines] - Pascal and Oberon related blog
-====Tutorials and other learning material====
-*[http://www.jlangenau.de/POWpage/index.htm POW Tutorial in German] by Jörg Langenau, uses standard Oberon-2 syntax and is thus usable with other compilers.
-==Standards==
+;Standards
 * [http://www.inf.ethz.ch/personal/wirth/Oberon/Oberon07.Report.pdf Oberon 07 Language Report] - Summer 2014 edition.
-[[Category:Programming Languages]] [[Category:Oberon]]
+[[Category:Programming Languages]][[Category:Oberon]]