Oberon operating system
Encyclopedia
Oberon is an operating system
developed in the late 1980s at ETH Zürich
using the Oberon programming language
. It has an innovative visual text-based user interface
for activating commands.
-based Ceres
workstation project. It is written almost entirely in the Oberon
programming language
. The basic system was designed and implemented by Niklaus Wirth
and Jürg Gutknecht and is fully documented in their book "Project Oberon". It was later extended and ported to other hardware by a team at ETHZ. Wirth and Gutknecht (although being active ICT professors) referred to themselves as 'part time programmers' in the book 'Project Oberon'.
(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 radically different from a command line, the TUI is very efficient and powerful. A steep ascent in the early learning curve makes it difficult to start with. Its usage and programming interface is documented in Martin Reiser's book "The Oberon System." It has yet to appear in more commonplace operating systems, although it strongly inspired Rob Pike's Acme
system under Plan 9
. Whether the worksheet interface of the Macintosh Programmer's Workshop
influenced Oberon's TUI or vice versa is difficult to decide since the Oberon System was based on Wirth's previous computer design the Lilith
, and both the Apple Macintosh and the Lilith
were inspired by the Alto.
, 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.
As a part of an industrial research project the Native Systems Group of ETHZ has developed an application-specific operating system
called stailaOS which is based on the latest version Oberon OS. It is targeted towards applications like real-time analytics
, high performance trading systems, main memory based ERP etc.
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
developed in the late 1980s at ETH Zürich
ETH Zurich
The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich or ETH Zürich is an engineering, science, technology, mathematics and management university in the City of Zurich, Switzerland....
using the Oberon programming language
Oberon (programming language)
Oberon is a programming language created in 1986 by Professor Niklaus Wirth and his associates at ETH Zurich in Switzerland. It was developed as part of the implementation of the Oberon operating system...
. It has an innovative visual text-based user interface
User interface
The user interface, in the industrial design field of human–machine interaction, is the space where interaction between humans and machines occurs. The goal of interaction between a human and a machine at the user interface is effective operation and control of the machine, and feedback from the...
for activating commands.
History
The Oberon operating system was originally developed as part of the NS32032NS320xx
The 320xx or NS32000 was a series of microprocessors from National Semiconductor . They were likely the first 32-bit general-purpose microprocessors on the market, but due to a number of factors never managed to become a major player...
-based Ceres
Ceres (workstation)
-Ceres Workstation:As a followup project to the Lilith, a machine based on bit-slice technology and the programming language Modula-2, Niklaus Wirth's group started around 1985 another workstation project based on the NS320xx CPU by National Semiconductor...
workstation project. It is written almost entirely in the Oberon
Oberon (programming language)
Oberon is a programming language created in 1986 by Professor Niklaus Wirth and his associates at ETH Zurich in Switzerland. It was developed as part of the implementation of the Oberon operating system...
programming language
Programming language
A programming language is an artificial language designed to communicate instructions to a machine, particularly a computer. Programming languages can be used to create programs that control the behavior of a machine and/or to express algorithms precisely....
. The basic system was designed and implemented by Niklaus Wirth
Niklaus Wirth
Niklaus Emil Wirth is a Swiss computer scientist, best known for designing several programming languages, including Pascal, and for pioneering several classic topics in software engineering. In 1984 he won the Turing Award for developing a sequence of innovative computer languages.-Biography:Wirth...
and Jürg Gutknecht and is fully documented in their book "Project Oberon". It was later extended and ported to other hardware by a team at ETHZ. Wirth and Gutknecht (although being active ICT professors) referred to themselves as 'part time programmers' in the book 'Project Oberon'.
User interface
Oberon has a text user interfaceText user interface
TUI short for: Text User Interface or Textual User Interface , is a retronym that was coined sometime after the invention of graphical user interfaces, to distinguish them from text-based user interfaces...
(TUI). It combines the point-and-click convenience of a graphical user interface
Graphical user interface
In computing, a graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices with images rather than text commands. GUIs can be used in computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices, household appliances and...
(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 radically different from a command line, the TUI is very efficient and powerful. A steep ascent in the early learning curve makes it difficult to start with. Its usage and programming interface is documented in Martin Reiser's book "The Oberon System." It has yet to appear in more commonplace operating systems, although it strongly inspired Rob Pike's Acme
Acme (text editor)
Acme is a text editor and graphical shell from the Plan 9 from Bell Labs operating system, designed and implemented by Rob Pike. It can use the sam command language. The design of the interface was influenced by Oberon. It is different from other editing environments in that it acts as a 9P server...
system under Plan 9
Plan 9 from Bell Labs
Plan 9 from Bell Labs is a distributed operating system. It was developed primarily for research purposes as the successor to Unix by the Computing Sciences Research Center at Bell Labs between the mid-1980s and 2002...
. Whether the worksheet interface of the Macintosh Programmer's Workshop
Macintosh Programmer's Workshop
Macintosh Programmer's Workshop or MPW, is a software development environment for the Classic Mac OS, written by Apple Computer. For Macintosh developers, it was one of the primary tools for building applications for System 7.x and Mac OS 8.x and 9.x. Initially, MPW was sold as a commercial product...
influenced Oberon's TUI or vice versa is difficult to decide since the Oberon System was based on Wirth's previous computer design the Lilith
Lilith (computer)
Lilith is the name of custom built workstation using the AMD 2901 bit-slice processor by the group of Niklaus Wirth at ETH Zürich. The project started in 1977 and by 1984 several hundred workstations were in use. It had a high resolution full page display, a mouse, a laser printer interface, and a...
, and both the Apple Macintosh and the Lilith
Lilith (computer)
Lilith is the name of custom built workstation using the AMD 2901 bit-slice processor by the group of Niklaus Wirth at ETH Zürich. The project started in 1977 and by 1984 several hundred workstations were in use. It had a high resolution full page display, a mouse, a laser printer interface, and a...
were inspired by the Alto.
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 compilerCompiler
A compiler is a computer program that transforms source code written in a programming language into another computer language...
, assorted utilities including a web browser
Web browser
A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
, TCP/IP networking, and a GUI, the entire package fits on a single 3.5" floppy disk
Floppy disk
A floppy disk is a disk storage medium composed of a disk of thin and flexible magnetic storage medium, sealed in a rectangular plastic carrier lined with fabric that removes dust particles...
. The version which runs on bare PC hardware is called Native Oberon
Native Oberon
Native Oberon or ETHNO, is the version of the Oberon operating system which runs on x86 PC hardware. It has minimal hardware requirements...
.
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
Active objects
An active object framework is a callback-based form of multitasking for computer systems. Specifically, it is a form of cooperative multitasking and is an important feature of the Symbian operating system....
and concurrency
Concurrency
Concurrency, concurrent, or concurrence may refer to:* Concurrence, a legal term referring to the need to prove both actus reus and mens rea...
for operating systems, and has released an early version of a new language Active Object Oberon
Active Oberon
Active Oberon is an extension of the programming language Oberon. Compared to its predecessors, Oberon and Oberon-2, it adds objects , system-guarded assertions, preemptive priority scheduling and a slightly changed syntax for methods...
and a new operating system for it, first called AOS and now called A2 and/or Bluebottle
Bluebottle OS
Bluebottle is the next generation Native Oberon, the Oberon operating system for bare PC hardware. It was developed at the ETH Zurich. It is small and fast and supports multiprocessor computers. It is completely based on an upward-compatible dialect of the Oberon programming language called Active...
. It is available from ETHZ with most source via the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
. Versions are currently available for Intel IA-32
IA-32
IA-32 , also known as x86-32, i386 or x86, is the CISC instruction-set architecture of Intel's most commercially successful microprocessors, and was first implemented in the Intel 80386 as a 32-bit extension of x86 architecture...
single and multi-processor systems and for the StrongARM
StrongARM
The StrongARM is a family of microprocessors that implemented the ARM V4 instruction set architecture . It was developed by Digital Equipment Corporation and later sold to Intel, who continued to manufacture it before replacing it with the XScale....
CPU family.
As a part of an industrial research project the Native Systems Group of ETHZ has developed an application-specific operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
called stailaOS which is based on the latest version Oberon OS. It is targeted towards applications like real-time analytics
Analytics
Analytics is the application of computer technology, operational research, and statistics to solve problems in business and industry. Analytics is carried out within an information system: while, in the past, statistics and mathematics could be studied without computers and software, analytics has...
, high performance trading systems, main memory based ERP etc.