> I have "listened" in the hope that I would hear things
> that would be helpful in deciding whether to keep up with Oberon/F,
> or abandon it (with great reluctance).
I think Bob makes a key point here in articulating why people decide
to adopt development systems and languages. It is not only technical
merit, but what one hears in the development community. Perhaps this
is even more important in this age of the WWW.
> As has been noted, Oberon microsystems
> has not lived up to the hopes we had for it. Almost two years ago
> they were hoping for a Unix platform "real soon now", and we have
> not heard about it.
Nor, may I add the PowerPC native version.
> As noted, it has been almost a year since
> there was an issue of the Oberon Tribune. Their documentation
> still is terrible unless you can memorize everything you have ever
> seen driving down hyperlink road.
Yes indeed. My application is teaching in a university environment,
so imagine the documentation resources I must create to teach this
system to beginning programmers. Oberon/F is still rough around the
edges and in its current state I don't think it is ready for "prime
time" comparison with mainstream commercial development systems.
The documentation is still way too primitive. Also, a critical
mass of developers has not formed to provide a large public domain
of software in Oberon/F.
On the positive side, the improvements from 1.0 to 1.1, and 1.1 to 1.2
were significant. If later versions continue with the same
magnitude of improvement, it will not be long before Oberon/F will
be truly competitve commercially.
Another point to make here is that a primary strength of Oberon/F is
its ability to program components for OLE and OpenDoc (at least
according to the preliminary draft of a few chapters of a book
in preparation by Oberon microsystems). So, in a sense, they
are anticipating the emergence of component software and betting on
its importance in the future. Time will tell whether they are
anticipating correctly.
> If I/we are wrong, I put in a strong plea for others, particularly
> Oberon microsystems, to more clearly state their hopes and plans.
> We could use some hype, but that takes a boldness that seems to being
> missing from the Oberon world in general, and the Oberon/F world
> in particular.
Yes. I too wish for more information. Specifically, will Oberon
microsystems please tell us when to expect the next update, (1.3?)
when to expect the PowerPC native version, when to expect the Unix
version? People make decisions based on information flow from the
company, not just on technical merit.
I am not yet ready to throw in the towel, for I have made a commitment
to the system in my teaching for at least another year. It will take
a second year to iron out the bugs in my delivery and learn from the
mistakes I am making now in how to teach this stuff. So far, I am
pleased with the system's ability to show OO technology to beginning
programmers because of the elegant structure of Oberon.
Stan Warford
Pepperdine University
warford@pepperdine.edu