Project Oberon - The Design of an Operating System and Compiler

 


Publication Date : 2005

Book Excerpts:

This book presents the results of Project Oberon, namely an entire software environment for a modern workstation. The project was undertaken by the authors in the years 1986-89, and its primary goal was to design and implement an entire system from scratch, and to structure it in such a way that it can be described, explained, and understood as a whole. In order to become confronted with all aspects, problems, design decisions and details, the authors not only conceived but also programmed the entire system described in this book, and more.

Although there exist numerous books explaining principles and structures of operating systems, there is a lack of descriptions of systems actually implemented and used. The book gives advice on how a system might be built, and demonstrates how one was built. Program listings therefore play a key role in this text, because they alone contain the ultimate explanations. The choice of a suitable formalism therefore assumed great importance, and the language Oberon was designed as not only an effective vehicle for implementation, but also as a publication medium for algorithms in the spirit in which Algol 60 had been created three decades ago. Because of its structure, the language Oberon is equally well suited to exhibit global, modular structures of programmed systems.

In addition to the core system, this book describes in full detail the compiler for the language Oberon and a graphics system, which both may be regarded as applications. The former reveals how a compact compiler is designed to achieve both fast compilation and efficient, dense code. The latter stands as an example of extensible design based on object-oriented techniques, and it shows how a proper integration with an existing text system is possible. Another addition to the core system is a network module allowing many workstations to be interconnected. This book also shows how the Oberon System serves conveniently as the basis for a multi-server station, accommodating a file distribution, a printing, and an electronic-mail facility.

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