[alt.sources.d] Oberon-M MSDOS

rhaar@albert.cs.gmr.com (Robert L. Haar CS50) (03/23/91)

I might be interested in this if I had some idea what it is.
As it stands, the introductory text says that is a self extracting
image that contains a compiler, some examplews and dcoumentation.
What language does it compile?  If the language name is Oberon,
what is it good for and how is it different from the gazillion
existing languages.

It would really help if the poster put in a few unencoded 
sentences that described what he/she is posting.


	Bob Haar  InterNet : rhaar@albert.cs.gmr.com 
	Computer Science Dept., G.M. Research Laboratories
DISCLAIMER: Unless indicated otherwise, everything in this note is
personal opinion, not an official statement of General Motors Corp.

rhys@cs.uq.oz.au (Rhys Weatherley) (03/23/91)

In <1991Mar22.172310.16847@tandem.com> erv@everest.TANDEM.COM (E. Videki) writes:


>There are 5 data images which make up the Oberon-M(tm) binary
>image.  This image, once reconstructed, must be downloaded
>(in binary) to an MSDOS environment as the file name
>"oberonm.exe".	That file, when executed, will un-Zip 
>itself into the working Oberon-M system.

Please, Please, Please ... No self-extracting archives!  It can't be
as easily virus checked (although some checkers will do it).  Nearly
everyone has PKUNZIP on their MSDOS machines, so there's no need to
create a self-extractor.

Rhys.

+=====================+==================================+
||  Rhys Weatherley   |  The University of Queensland,  ||
||  rhys@cs.uq.oz.au  |  Australia.  G'day!!            ||
+=====================+==================================+

wvenable@spam.ua.oz.au (Bill Venables) (03/23/91)

In article <1991Mar22.185222.27204@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
mcdonald@aries.scs.uiuc.edu (Doug McDonald) writes:

>
>   Ummmm ..... This has been discussed over and over and over ad nauseum.....
>   FLAME ON!!!!!!!!!!!!
>   >Oberon-M MSDOS (1/5)
>   WHAT IS IT????? There is no statement of what it is!!!!

... and it was a platform-specific binary posted to a sources group ... and
your flame, Doug, was a discussion posted to a sources group.  I suppose
someone else will find something to gripe about in this posting, too...

Sigh.
--
  Bill Venables, Dept. of Statistics,  | Email: venables@spam.adelaide.edu.au
  Univ. of Adelaide,  South Australia. | Phone:                +61 8 228 5412

gdtltr@brahms.udel.edu (root@research.bdi.com (Systems Research Supervisor)) (03/23/91)

In article <1352@glinda.ctron.com> smith@glinda.ctron.com (Larry Smith) writes:
=>
=>Oberon-M is an MS-DOS implementation of Prof. Nicklaus Wirth's Oberon
=>language, which is a Modula2-like language designed for his new workstation.
=>It is distinguished by a sub-4000 line compiler implementation and the
=>concept of type-extension, which allows you to define new types based on
=>previously-defined types - similar to object inheritance, though it does
=>not support encapsulation of methods with the types.  They are used to
=>implement opaque (abstract) data types, enabling an object-like style
=>of programming without the usual overhead of a truly object-oriented
=>language.
=>
   And last I heard, Oberon had gotten rid of for loops, reasoning that
they were just a special case of while loops. Therefore, as far as I can
tell, this is just another Wirth language that nobody is expected to ever
use.

=>Larry Smith
=>smith@ctron.com

                                        Gary Duzan
                                        Time  Lord
                                    Third Regeneration



-- 
                            gdtltr@brahms.udel.edu
   _o_                      ----------------------                        _o_
 [|o o|]   Two CPU's are better than one; N CPU's would be real nice.   [|o o|]
  |_o_|           Disclaimer: I AM Brain Dead Innovations, Inc.          |_o_|

herring@evax.arl.utexas.edu (Erick Herring) (03/24/91)

In article <WVENABLE.91Mar23094443@spam.ua.oz.au> wvenable@spam.ua.oz.au (Bill Venables) writes:
>In article <1991Mar22.185222.27204@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
>mcdonald@aries.scs.uiuc.edu (Doug McDonald) writes:
>
>>
>>   Ummmm ..... This has been discussed over and over and over ad nauseum.....
>>   FLAME ON!!!!!!!!!!!!
>>   >Oberon-M MSDOS (1/5)
>>   WHAT IS IT????? There is no statement of what it is!!!!
>
>... and it was a platform-specific binary posted to a sources group ... and
>your flame, Doug, was a discussion posted to a sources group.  I suppose
>someone else will find something to gripe about in this posting, too...
>
>Sigh.

No, Bill, you are absolutely right.  Nothing to gripe about in your
posting.  But these other guys that are flaming Mr. Videki are way
out of line.  He posted the thing here because he was asked to.  If
the individual you cited _read_ alt.sources.d or alt.sources, then he
would have seen (and probably flamed) the discussion of this compiler.

Mr. Videki, who I don't know from the Easter Bunny, has gone to a
great deal of trouble to make his implementation of the Oberon-M
compiler available.  It is a compiler for the Oberon language as
defined by Professor Wirth.  The target platform of Mr. Videki's
compiler is the IBM PCompatible running MS-DOS.

I am normally on the side of "label your postings or be shot out of
hand", but this particular posting was talked about for days before it
was posted.  And he posted a readme as part 0 of 5.

In the readme, Mr. Videki said that he will be posting a
non-self-extracting version as well.  So prepare your 'F' keys - you
know, the one that means Flame...

If anybody wants the compiler now that they know what it is (the
successor to Modula-2 BTW) the info is below.

How to get the Oberon-M compiler for MS-DOS:


From: erv@everest.TANDEM.COM (E. Videki)
Subject: Oberon-M MSDOS: How to get it
Date: 22 Mar 91 17:33:02 GMT

How to get the Oberon-M package
for the MSDOS environment.

Some (but not all) of the network problems have
been cleared up, so here is where you can
obtain my Oberon-M package for MSDOS at
your own fetching:

1) SIMTEL20
	machine name: WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL
	Internet address: 26.2.0.74, 192.88.110.20 
	subdirectory: pd1:<msdos.pgmutl>
	file names:   OBERONM.ZIP 
	fetch how:    anonymous FTP
	unpack how:   PKZIP under MSDOS
			
2) UCSD
	machine name: ucsd, ucsd.edu, pop.ucsd.edu
	Internet address: 128.54.16.1
	subdirectory: ~ftp/pub
	file names:   oberonm.exe, oberonm.info
	fetch how:    anonymous FTP
	unpack how:  For oberonm.exe: binary transfer
			to MSDOS, then execute (self
			unzipping files)
		      For oberonm.info: ascii transfer
		      	for human reading

3) ETH Zurich  (may not be permanent)
	machine name: neptune.inf.ethz.ch
	Internet address: 129.132.101.33
	subdirectory: Oberon/80186
	file names:   oberonm.exe, oberonm.info
	fetch how:    anonymous FTP
	unpack how:    For oberonm.exe: binary transfer
			to MSDOS, then execute (self
			unzipping files)
		      For oberonm.info: ascii transfer
		      	for human reading	
	*** Note: ETH has not tested this package
	extensively and does not claim or disclaim
	its validity relative to the ETH Oberon
	System.  Keeping the files here is only
	being done as a courtesy to European
	users who want to fetch it from a closer
	location.  It may become permanent in the
	future.
	
4) comp.binaries.ibm.pc   
	machine name: Usenet newsgroup
	Internet address: N/A
	file formats:	5 uuencoded "mail" messages
	fetch how:	capture the messages
	unpack how:	Instructions are at the
			head of the first message.
	*** Note: at the time of this posting,
	comp.binaries.ibm.pc does not yet have
	the files publicly available, but is
	expected to relatively soon.
	
	
5) alt.sources
	(same as in comp.binaries.ibm.pc , but
	available here also by request from some
	users)	      	

--E. Videki    21 Mar 91
   erv @ k2.everest.tandem.com
--
Erick Herring
herring@evax.uta.edu

src@scuzzy.in-berlin.de (Heiko Blume) (03/24/91)

wvenable@spam.ua.oz.au (Bill Venables) writes:

>In article <1991Mar22.185222.27204@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
>mcdonald@aries.scs.uiuc.edu (Doug McDonald) writes:

>>
>>   Ummmm ..... This has been discussed over and over and over ad nauseum.....
>>   FLAME ON!!!!!!!!!!!!
>>   >Oberon-M MSDOS (1/5)
>>   WHAT IS IT????? There is no statement of what it is!!!!

>... and it was a platform-specific binary posted to a sources group ... and
>your flame, Doug, was a discussion posted to a sources group.  I suppose
>someone else will find something to gripe about in this posting, too...

sure! you included more lines than you wrote yourself, just like me ;-)
-- 
      Heiko Blume <-+-> src@scuzzy.in-berlin.de <-+-> (+49 30) 691 88 93
                  public UNIX source archive [HST V.42bis]:
        scuzzy Any ACU,f 38400 6919520 gin:--gin: nuucp sword: nuucp
                     uucp scuzzy!/src/README /your/home

src@scuzzy.in-berlin.de (Heiko Blume) (03/24/91)

gdtltr@brahms.udel.edu (root@research.bdi.com (Systems Research Supervisor)) writes:
>   And last I heard, Oberon had gotten rid of for loops, reasoning that
>they were just a special case of while loops. Therefore, as far as I can
>tell, this is just another Wirth language that nobody is expected to ever
>use.

actually oberon is an operating system (too), at least that's what
i remember from the speech N. Wirth held at my university some time
ago. most of the people there didn't like it, because it doesn't implement
multitasking on a machine basis but on a sort-of cluster (networked
machines actually) basis, which is bullshit in the days of CPUs that
offer dozens of MIPS.
-- 
      Heiko Blume <-+-> src@scuzzy.in-berlin.de <-+-> (+49 30) 691 88 93
                  public UNIX source archive [HST V.42bis]:
        scuzzy Any ACU,f 38400 6919520 gin:--gin: nuucp sword: nuucp
                     uucp scuzzy!/src/README /your/home

swh@hpcupt1.cup.hp.com (Steve Harrold) (03/26/91)

>>> Please, Please, Please ... No self-extracting archives!  It can't be
>>> as easily virus checked (although some checkers will do it).  Nearly
>>> everyone has PKUNZIP on their MSDOS machines, so there's no need to
>>> create a self-extractor.
---------------

In the case of PKUNZIP, it will recognize its own self-extracting formats
and de-archive the file as if it were an ordinary ZIP file.  There is no
need to execute the self-extracting program and thus no need to fear a
viral or trojan contamination.

Methinks other modern archivers also have this capability.