

Project Oberon Emulator in JavaScript and Java - cylinder714
http://schierlm.github.io/OberonEmulator/

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david-given
For me, on Chrome Linux, typing into the editors is a bit problematic because
pressing BACKSPACE navigates away from the emulator.

There was a copy of Oberon for Linux bundled on my original Infomagic CD set
back in the 90s. I played with it a bit, but without documentation there
wasn't much I could do, and it was closed source and so doomed to die.

To me, Oberon looks like the Wirth version of Kay's Smalltalk system, where
they both developed an all-in-one GUI system, from scratch, with completely
different philosophies. It be interesting to do a detailed comparison of how
they differ and why...

~~~
dirkt
There was a link to a paper giving a retrospective on Oberon on HN some days
ago, and that made me want to play around with it. After trying an older now
unsupoorted variant from the ETH site which segfaulted, I downloaded Oberon
Linux Revival ([http://oberon.wikidot.com/](http://oberon.wikidot.com/)), and
it worked for me. All files are kept in a single directory, and this includes
the complete source (.Mod files), so you can browse these from Linux after
dealing with the line endings (e.g. convert \r to \n using tr). There's no
native Linux source, everything is written in Oberon. X11 is surprisingly
accessed using the wire protocol directly.

Actually, about half of the Oberon system must even be compiled first (using
the "recipe" in OLR.Gadgets.Tool) before these programs can be used in Oberon.
There's also documentation in form of a "book" (Desktops.OpenDoc Book.Tool)
which explains the system on various levels, including the Oberon language.

The font size turned out to be too small on my screen (because the bitmapped
screen fonts where made for different hardware), and the fonts are hardlinked
from the documents, so I shuffled the *.Scr.Fnt files about two sizes down and
everything was readable. I also replaced Default.Pal with Light.Pal for better
contrast. You can use the OWEIGHT and OHEIGHT environment variables to set the
window size.

All in all, the "TUI" (textual user interface) is really nice. There are
indeed similarities with Smalltalk, Emacs, or the Plan 9 ACME system
philosophy (which is probably not surprising, all of those take a "integrated
modifiable system for coders" approach).

~~~
david-given
Hmm, that crashes for me --- SIGBUS shortly after trying to mmap .Xauthority?

I wonder how much RAM it needs. Would this make a useful tiny operating system
for homebrew computers, I wonder?

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joshstrange
Pressing backspace in the emulator navigates backwards (in page history) which
makes this impossible to use/play with.

~~~
kencausey
It seems to be fine in Firefox 40.0.2 on Windows. Edit: Although I find I
cannot use the mouse pointer at the far right of the canvas, for example to
click the boxes which I assume are "close pane".

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gcb0
had never heard of this. and i do follow osnews cult. the UI reminds me of
plan9

~~~
kwhitefoot
Should be the other way about as Oberon came before Plan9.

~~~
agumonkey
Is it documented that p9 took inspiration from Oberon ? even if it seems
obvious.

~~~
jff
Yes, Oberon is referenced here:
[http://research.swtch.com/acme.pdf](http://research.swtch.com/acme.pdf)

