Oberon (operating system)
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 Tiled window arrangement of Oberon |
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| Company / developer | Niklaus Wirth and Jürg Gutknecht |
|---|---|
| Programmed in | Oberon |
| Source model | Free and open source software |
| Available language(s) | English |
| Supported platforms | NS32032, several others |
| Default user interface | Text user interface |
| License | ETH Oberon License |
| Website | www.oberon.ethz.ch |
Oberon is an operating system developed at ETH Zürich in the Oberon programming language. It has an innovative, text-based zooming user interface.
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[edit] History
The Oberon operating system was originally developed as part of the NS32032-based Ceres workstation project. It is written entirely in the Oberon programming language. The basic system was designed and implemented by a team of two part-time programmers at ETH Zürich (ETHZ), Niklaus Wirth and Jürg Gutknecht. It was later extended and ported to other hardware by a team at ETHZ. For a full listing of team members, see the ETH Oberon People page.
[edit] User interface
Oberon has a text user interface (TUI). It combines the point-and-click convenience of a graphical user interface (GUI) with the linguistic strength of a command line interface (CLI) and is closely tied to naming conventions of the Oberon language. Any text appearing on the screen can be edited and used as command input. Nothing like a prompt is required. Although radical, the TUI is efficient and powerful.[citation needed] It has yet to appear in more commonplace operating systems, although strongly inspired Rob Pike's Acme system under Plan 9.
[edit] Versions and availability
The Oberon OS is available for several other hardware platforms, generally in no cost versions. It is typically extremely compact. Even with an Oberon compiler, assorted utilities including a web browser, TCP/IP networking, and a GUI, the entire package fits on a single 3.5" floppy disk. The version which runs on bare PC hardware is called Native Oberon.
There is also a version called Oberon V4 that is closer to the original operating system developed by N. Wirth. It was also developed at ETHZ, but the most recent version is at Linz university. Oberon V4 appears to be orphaned, there are almost no changes since 2000.
The computer science department at ETHZ has in recent years begun exploring active objects and concurrency for operating systems, and has released an early version of a new language Active Object Oberon and a new operating system for it, first called AOS and now called A2 and/or Bluebottle. It is available from ETHZ with most source via the Internet. Versions are currently available for Intel IA-32 single and multi-processor systems and for the StrongARM CPU family.
[edit] References
- M. Reiser and N. Wirth: Programming in Oberon Addison-Wesley/ACM Press (1992) ISBN 0-201-56543-9
- The Oberon System - M. Reiser - Out-of-print - Addison-Wesley/ACM Press (1991) ISBN 0-201-54422-9
- N. Wirth and J. Gutknecht: Project Oberon - The Design of an Operating System and Compiler Addison-Wesley/ACM Press (1992) ISBN 0-201-54428-8
[edit] External links
- The ETH Oberon Homepage
- Genealogy and History of The Oberon System
- Oberon Community Platform - Wiki & Forum
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