Hello all,
Re: Doug's comments
> Even the nice Obx suit of programs
> of BB make very gross assumptions about the understanding
> of the reader. In general TOO MUCH TIME is needed to
> learn and acquire basic skills in BlackBox.
I agree. As a newcomer to the Oberon scene a few years ago I
was convinced of the power of Oberon/F but at the same time
saw the simplicity of the language as an attractive feature
for teaching beginning computer science students. Frequently,
however, it was a struggle to learn the framework (not the
language) because no books of a tutorial nature were available.
We need a full tutorial book on container programming with
BlackBox. I am saving all the recent contributions to this
list because such a reference work does not exist that presents
the material without the preconditions of prior knowledge.
> Having said all this I like the look and feel of
> BlackBox. I think Oberon Microsystems needs to
> hire an Editor that knows nothing about Component
> Pascal and have him/her completely redo the
> documentation.
Indeed. I think such a company-independent author would be
the ideal person for writing a tutorial. However, it is probably
asking too much for such a tutorial to be part of the on-line
documentation. We need a new book.
Stan
=============================
J. Stanley Warford
Professor of Computer Science
Pepperdine University
Malibu, CA 90263
warford{([at]})nowhere.xy
=============================
Received on Sat Feb 20 1999 - 19:51:10 UTC