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Hi,
Not a direct reply re: Astrobe, but I hope you don't mind.
Not at all!
Post by Chris BurrowsWith V4.0, Astrobe now fully supports the 2011 Revision
(22.9.2011) of
(confusing) I guess you mean the 2011 revision of the
Oberon-07 language??
No - I don't call it that. The title on Wirth's report which we used as the
defining document for the compiler implemented in Astrobe v4.0 and is
included with the Astrobe distribution is: "The Programming Language Oberon.
Revision 22.9.2011." I'll just call it Oberon here.
I've been meaning to ask but too sheepish to do it ... how many
Oberon-07 compilers exist?
I have heard of the existence of at least five: Win32, Linux, Xilinx FPGA,
O-Code and native on Oberon OS as well as a Win32 version we use inhouse.
I mean, this is an incredibly
obvious question, but how can us mere mortals use it if we
don't use ARM?
Try using ARM. If you just want to experiment with Oberon there are a number
of ARM boards which you can use to run fairly complex applications which use
all of Oberon's features for around $50. There are a number listed here:
http://www.astrobe.com/boards.htm
Or are there none? (I generally see some
interest in it, but as general purpose languages go, it's
clearly not popular enough to have various platforms
well-covered. I guess just lack of man power, oh well. Is
there perhaps any Oberon-07 compiler written in a previous
Oberon version? Or do I need to read up on Oberon-0 and roll my own?)
----------
From our experience it's much easier to start with a superset of Oberon
(e.g. Component Pascal) and cut things out rather than a very limited subset
(e.g. Oberon-0) to which you have to add features.
AFAIR we got a Win32 compiler going in a couple of weeks by starting with
Oberon microsystems' Component Pascal compiler. The complete source code is
included in their BlackBox Component Builder system which you can download
from their website. Such a project is fine for personal or inhouse use but
not for wide distribution - which maybe why you haven't come across any
others. The effort was less than 1% of what it would take to make it into a
thoroughly documented, tested, maintained and supported product.
Regards,
Chris
Chris Burrows
CFB Software
Astrobe v4.0 ARM Oberon Development System
http://www.astrobe.com