scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1252374

MaRDI QIDQ4229374zbMATH OpenFDO

Authors André L. Fischer, Hannes Marais

Publication date 21 February 1999

zbMATH Keywords

Oberon

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Introductory exposition (textbooks, tutorial papers, etc.) pertaining to computer science (68-01) Theory of programming languages (68N15)

Review text

Oberon is a successor to the Pascal and Modula-2 programming languages. With Pascal, Niklaus Wirth (ETH Zürich, Switzerland) created a language with clear and structured concepts which for many years was an excellent tool for learning and teaching in computer science. It contained the basic constructs for Structured Programming but lacked a Module concept. Such a concept was realized with Modula-2, the successor of Pascal. But Modula-2 only contained weak concepts of Object Oriented Programming (OOP), so in 1985 N. Wirth and J. Gutknecht started the Oberon project. They developed a system, which is a programming language as well as an operating system. It can be installed either on top of an running operating system or as a native system. It works on top of Linux (Intel based PC), MacOS (PowerMac and 68K-based apple Macintosh II), Windows 3.1, Windows for Workgroups 3.11, Windows 95 and Windows NT. As native system it demands an Intel-based PC. The book deals with Oberon System 3 and comes along with a CD-ROM containing all the software needed to run Oberon natively or on top of an operating system. It is devided in six chapters, three appendixes, a reference list and an extensive index. The book is well designed and edited, structured in a clear manner and written in a distinct language. But it is not a tutorial! Readers should habe a basic knowledge of Oberon concepts. Covered are two main themes: a user's guide and a programmer's guide. The user's guide describes the graphical user interface (GUI). GUI components in Oberon are called Gadgets and the user's guide shows how to work with Gadgets. On the other hand the programmers guide explains how to program in Oberon, that is how to create and implement new Gadgets. In the last chapter some supplementary tools are presented, which show how applications practically can be developed. Oberon users and Oberon programmers will read this book with profit. People only curious about this Pascal-Modula-2 successor should start with \textit{N. Wirth}'s basic book ``The Programming Language Oberon (1988; Zbl 0646.68012).

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Describes a project that uses

Uses Software

Modula

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