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Content-type: text/plain
I agree with Doug. Component Pascal / Oberon code can be written to be
reasonably portable, but the very moment you start making calls to
library functions that are part of the host operating system the
difficulties start. Even simple tasks like opening a file and reading it
can be difficult to transfer from ETH Oberon to POW! to BlackBox to CP
for .NET etc. Visual components add another dimension of problems and it
doesn't stop there. Consider the difficulties of trying to port more
complex user interfaces like data-aware grids to make them as effective
as the native equivalent on each platform!
Any attempts to make complete environments portable suffer from two
problems - either
a) the lowest common denominator approach has to be used, resulting in a
system that is less than useless
b) the resulting system is so foreign to the users of all of the host
environments that it is not accepted
The former are successful where the user wants to run the system on
non-compatible hardware. e.g. I can run ETH Oberon without having to buy
a Ceres system, a Macintosh user can run Windows in Virtual PC without
buying Windows hardware.
I consider that BlackBox in its current form will still be useful for at
least five years even if no further development was to happen. Win32
still has a lot of momentum. Making BB Open Source minimises the fear of
loss of future support and also gives an opportunity for enthusiastic
individuals to add small-scale, but very useful, new capabilities e.g.
the tabbed document interface in the IDE that I enquired about recently.
Chris Burrows
CFB Software
http://www.cfbsoftware.com/gpcp
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Douglas G. Danforth [mailto:danforth{([at]})nowhere.xy> Sent: Friday, 22 October 2004 5:02 AM
> To: blackbox
> Subject: Re: BB-Future
>
>
> Hi,
> My knee-jerk reaction is that much of BlackBox is built on top of
> Microsoft operating system calls which restricts where
> BlackBox can run.
> It was Oberon Microsystems Inc early decision to make BlackBox have
> the look and feel of the host operating system rather than
> Dr. Wirth's
> decision to have a fixed user interface that didn't chance
> from platform
> to platform.
>
> Hence the GPCP-Java Byte Code Compiler would be problematic
> for BlackBox
> attempting to emmulate Microsoft. But then again, it is claimed that
> BlackBox is portable (but how portable?).
>
> Just my opinion.
>
> -Doug
>
>
> Jürgen Rolshoven wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > last summer Oberon Mircrosystems reported that the
> BB-Compiler would > become Open Source. This sparked off
> intensive discussion. I do not > know wheather usage of the
> GPCP-Java Byte Code Compiler project at QUT > (John Gough,
> Paul Roe et al.) has been considered. This would of > course
> also entail substituting/porting the Blackbox Componenent >
> Sources to Java - however, on a very elementary level. > >
> I would hierwith like to ask opinion on this possibility. >
> > Jürgen Rolshoven > > Linguistic Data Processing -
> University of Cologne > >
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Received on Fri Oct 22 2004 - 04:10:52 UTC