scott@next-8.gac.edu (Scott Hess) (11/26/90)
Went home this weekend, and read the Nov and Dec BYTEs. At least the Nov. issue was very good. I even thought so _before_ I found the article on the NeXTs! Anyhow, it might be because I just skipped Jerry Pournelle's column that I liked it . . . :-) Anyhow, they mention Modula-3 in the issue, in a halfway decent article. I've seen it around, at decwrl, but never really got around to porting it, and I don't think anyone else around here has, either. So, I'm wondering if anyone out there has ported it to the NeXT? Thanks. For those who don't know, Modula-3 from SRC is a Modula-3 to C translator. Modula-3 is alot like Modula-2, with some additions, like garbage collection and objects. Sounds wonderful. -- scott hess scott@gac.edu Independent NeXT Developer (Stuart) GAC Undergrad (Horrid. Simply Horrid. I mean the work!) <I still speak for nobody>
mikel@Apple.COM (Mikel Evins) (11/27/90)
In article <SCOTT.90Nov25223748@next-8.gac.edu> scott@next-8.gac.edu (Scott Hess) writes: >Anyhow, they mention Modula-3 in the issue, in a halfway decent article. >I've seen it around, at decwrl, but never really got around to porting it, >and I don't think anyone else around here has, either. So, I'm wondering >if anyone out there has ported it to the NeXT? Thanks. I work with Charles A. Lins, author of the Modula-2 Software Component Library from Springer-Verlag. Chuck is presently working on an Object Oberon compiler for the Macintosh. We were talking recently and batted around the idea of doing an Object Oberon compiler for the NeXT. I've been working on a Scheme-like functional language implementation of the NeXT myself, and really enjoy developing stuff for the machine. It's a real pleasure to work with. My question to the readership of this news group is this: is there general interest in an Object Oberon compiler? Oberon is Professor Wirth's current programming language design. Object Oberon is a slight extension to Oberon to provide full support for inheritance and polymorphism. Chuck actually has his compiler working on the Mac; we decided that it wouldn't be too hard to get it happening on the NeXT as well. Any interest? >For those who don't know, Modula-3 from SRC is a Modula-3 to C translator. >Modula-3 is alot like Modula-2, with some additions, like garbage collection >and objects. Sounds wonderful. Object Oberon is a native-code compiler. The language is generally similar to Professor Wirth's other languages, Pascal and Modula-2, but syntactically simpler, and more expressive. It provides support for classes, single inheritance, and polymorphism. Object Oberon includes garbage collection. Oberon compilers thus far implemented have been remarkable for the small size of their generated code (ETH Zurich has an operating system also called Oberon that is just ridiculously small), and for very good code efficiency. If people are interested in such a compiler, then Chuck may consider implementing it for the NeXT.
gillies@m.cs.uiuc.edu (11/27/90)
I looked briefly at the documentation for Oberon in the recent
SPARC/MAC release. It seemed to be a PASCAL with the I/O ripped out.
Not much was added to do interesting things. And I believe there is
no "for" loop in this language. No wonder the compiler is simple and
the code is tight!
Is documentation for your object oberon available?
Don W. Gillies, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Illinois
1304 W. Springfield, Urbana, Ill 61801
ARPA: gillies@cs.uiuc.edu UUCP: {uunet,harvard}!uiucdcs!gilliesjncs@uno.edu (11/28/90)
I would like to get a scheme compiler for the NeXT; do you know of one? Are you planning on making yours available > > My question to the readership of this news group is this: >is there general interest in an Object Oberon compiler? Yes I would be very interested in seeing a compiler for it. Thanks Jaime Nino
mikel@Apple.COM (Mikel Evins) (11/29/90)
In article <009405B1.14D17A40@uno.edu> jncs@uno.edu writes: > >I would like to get a scheme compiler for the NeXT; do you know of one? >Are you planning on making yours available T is available for ftp from wheaties. It isn't Scheme, but it's close. There is a precompiled version there for the NeXT. Oaklisp is available for ftp from CMU. It isn't precompiled, and typing the specified "make" command failed when I tried it the other day. I was preoccupied with other stuff and so I didn't bother to try tweaking the Makefile. The Purdue archives list the hostnames and net addresses of wheaties, CMU, and several other ftp archives. Unfortunately, I am at home today, and don't have the full address of the Purdue archives handy. Hopefully, either you already know them, or someone else will post them. I do plan to make Zen freely available as soon as it's worth distributing. It isn't, yet. >Yes I would be very interested in seeing a compiler for it. > I should probably mention that there have been nearly two dozen requests that we port the Object Oberon compiler to the NeXT in the last two days. This is more interest in the compiler in two days than Chuck has received in it on the Mac in all the time he's been working on it. That means that there is a good chance that he'll decide to go ahead with it. Interested parties can send mail to lins@apple.com. One note: I imagine Chuck will probably want to charge for the compiler. Judging by the prices on his other spare-time projects, I imaghine the price will be very reasonable.