n00b wants to get started with Oberon

[firewever]

I have been following the Oberon mailing list for some time, and have decided to jump in and get started.  I have an old PC (ca 2001) with no resident software or operating system on it at all that I would like to load some flavour of Oberon on.

Could anybody point me to a "getting started" page or help or whatever?

Right now, I'm just interested in learning the system/language with a future interest in safety/mission critical systems.

Another interest of mine would be to (possibly) create a cross-compiler for embedded systems chips like the AVR, ARM or Freescale MCF51QE series (Coldfire).

fireweaver

[cfbsoftware]

With a PC of that vintage I would suggest installing the Standalone Native Oberon as an initial experiment.

  http://www.oberon.ethz.ch/downloads/index

The install.txt file says:

The system runs on the bare PC in 32-bit mode, and does not use the 16-bit drivers in the PC BIOS, or drivers from other operating
systems.

The *minimum* hardware requirements are:
  Processor: 80386, Pentium or compatible
  Bus: ISA, EISA or PCI
  Memory: 4Mb
  Disk space: 3Mb
  Disk controller: IDE, EIDE (ATA), ESDI, Adaptec AIC 7xxx (beta),
Adaptec 1520 or NCR 810 SCSI
  Display controller: VGA (SVGA recommended)
  Diskette: Drive supporting 720k/1.44Mb media
  Mouse: PS/2 or serial mouse (3-button recommended)
  Keyboard: US, UK, Swiss German, German, Canadian, Norwegian,
Turkish, Polish, French or Dvorak

----

* Martin Reiser's books are a good introduction to programming the Oberon system in Oberon. You can download a copy of one of them: 'The Oberon System' from:

  http://www-old.oberon.ethz.ch/books.html

----

* If you have got another system with Windows XP or later on it, check out our system, 'Astrobe':

  http://www.astrobe.com

It is an Oberon-07 cross compiler and Integrated Development Environment for NXP LPC2000-based ARM7 microcontrollers.

[firewever]

With a PC of that vintage I would suggest installing the Standalone Native Oberon as an initial experiment.

  http://www.oberon.ethz.ch/downloads/index

The install.txt file says:

The system runs on the bare PC in 32-bit mode, and does not use the 16-bit drivers in the PC BIOS, or drivers from other operating
systems.

The *minimum* hardware requirements are:
  Processor: 80386, Pentium or compatible
  Bus: ISA, EISA or PCI
  Memory: 4Mb
  Disk space: 3Mb
  Disk controller: IDE, EIDE (ATA), ESDI, Adaptec AIC 7xxx (beta),
Adaptec 1520 or NCR 810 SCSI
  Display controller: VGA (SVGA recommended)
  Diskette: Drive supporting 720k/1.44Mb media
  Mouse: PS/2 or serial mouse (3-button recommended)
  Keyboard: US, UK, Swiss German, German, Canadian, Norwegian,
Turkish, Polish, French or Dvorak

I opened my box (a donation) and it has a Intel Celeron processor in it along with 512 MB RAM.  Also, there is a CD-ROM drive and USB ports.  I said originally it was ca. 2001, but it appears to be younger than that, ca. maybe 2004-2005 since it has all these goodies.  It originally had a Linux installation on it that I trashed.

To run the latest, I'll buy new hardware if I have to.

----

* Martin Reiser's books are a good introduction to programming the Oberon system in Oberon. You can download a copy of one of them: 'The Oberon System' from:

  http://www-old.oberon.ethz.ch/books.html

I receive the following message from the site:
"Site Error

An error was encountered while publishing this resource.

Resource not found
Sorry, the requested resource does not exist.

Check the URL and try again.

Resource: http://www.oberon.ethz.ch/WirthPubl"

* If you have got another system with Windows XP or later on it, check out our system, 'Astrobe':

  http://www.astrobe.com

It is an Oberon-07 cross compiler and Integrated Development Environment for NXP LPC2000-based ARM7 microcontrollers.

This looks interesting.  I'll dive into it later once I get something running on my Celeron machine.

Thanks and TTYL.

fireweaver

[cfbsoftware]

* Martin Reiser's books are a good introduction to programming the Oberon system in Oberon. You can download a copy of one of them: 'The Oberon System' from:

  http://www-old.oberon.ethz.ch/books.html

I receive the following message from the site:
"Site Error

An error was encountered while publishing this resource.

Oops! I made sure the page appeared before I recommended it - I didn't actually try clicking on the link

Try this one instead. I didn't download it again but it seemed to startup OK this time:

  http://www.oberon.ethz.ch/bibliography/publications

Download the other four PDF books while you are there. If you get seduced by Oberon you are sure to find them useful sooner or later.

[staubesv]

You may have noticed the "what is ETH Oberon/A2/..." discussion on this forum...

The most recent "Oberon" system is A2 and the most recent "Oberon" programming language is Active Oberon (well, maybe Zonnon, but Zonnon runs on .NET). If you want to have a look at this "Oberon", you can download the ISO CD-ROM image found on http://www.bluebottle.ethz.ch/download.html. You can boot A2 on your computer from this CD-ROM directly - the A2 system is fully operational when booted from CD-ROM.

Of course, the Native Oberon is also a interesting system worth having a look at.

[Bernhard T.]

[...]
CD-ROM directly - the A2 system is fully operational when booted from CD-ROM.

and you can install A2 from that CD very easily ...

[firewever]

Thanks.  I discovered the Bluebottle/A2 page and spent most of yesterday downloading the ISO and everything else I could find.


fireweaver

[firewever]

Download the other four PDF books while you are there. If you get seduced by Oberon you are sure to find them useful sooner or later.

It works.  thanks.

fireweaver