ETH PlugIn Oberon for Windows 9x / ME / NT / 2000 / XP
Oberon is both the name of a programming language and operating system
developed at ETH Zuerich. This particular distribution contains an
implementation of ETH PlugIn Oberon Release 2.5 for Windows 9x / ME /
NT / 2000 / XP.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Hardware:
- 20 MB of hard disk space.
- Preferably a screen with a resolution of 1024 by 768 pixels with at
least 32768 colors.
- Preferably a three-button mouse and a mouse driver that supports all
three mouse buttons. A 2-button mouse may be used instead but with less
comfort.
Software:
- Microsoft Windows 9x / ME / NT / 2000 / XP
INSTALLATION OF OBERON
Oberon is delivered as a number of self-extracting EXE files.
System1.exe - Oberon and Gadgets system files, tools, libraries, panels
System2.exe - Oberon and Gadgets object files
Docu.exe - Documentation and books
Src.exe - Source code for all system modules
Fonts.exe - Windows display fonts (*.FON)
PrFnt.exe - 600 and 200 dpi printer fonts.
AppsAH.exe - Application Packages A .. H
AppsIZ.exe - Application Packages I .. Z
Installation step-by-step
If you re-install Oberon or upgrade your Oberon version, it is strongly
recommended to install Oberon in a new directory. Once you have configured
your new Oberon system you can copy files from the old installation as you
need them. To remove registry entries of a previous Oberon installation use
the OberonReg.exe utility.
1. Create a new directory, e.g. C:\ETHOberon. This newly created directory
will be called "Oberon directory" for the rest of this document.
2. Extract the files System1.exe, System2.exe, Docu.exe and Src.exe to the
Oberon directory, by executing the EXE files.
3. Merge the settings in oberon.reg with your windows registry by selecting
the "Merge" entry in the context menu of the oberon.reg icon.
4. Drag the Oberon.EXE file from the Oberon directory to your desktop to
create a shortcut. Double-click the Oberon icon to start Oberon.
5. In older version of Oberon for Windows you could use the "Ctrl" key to
simulate a missing middle mouse button. This version features a new
emulation scheme for your missing middle mouse button. See
Distribution.Text for more details.
6. The command System.Quit terminates the Oberon application. The Oberon
application may also be terminated by closing all windows.
7. For faster text output you may install the Windows versions of the Oberon
bitmap fonts. Extract the files in Fonts.exe to a temporary directory and
start the "Fonts" control panel application and choose the "File /
Install
New Font" menu entry. A "Add Font" dialog will pop-up, locate the Oberon
font files (*.Scn.Fnt) in the temporary directory and start the
installation by clicking on "Ok".
8. For further setup steps see: Setup.Tool.
RELEASE NOTES
"Oberon System 3" and "ETH Oberon"
As you may allready have noticed, that we use now the name "ETH Oberon" for
"Oberon System 3".
Mouse
In older version of Oberon for Windows you could use the "Ctrl" key to
simulate a missing middle mouse button. Since this conflicts with commonly
used shortcuts (Clipboard, ...), you must use the context menu key (Win95
keyboard) as middle mouse button replacement. Note: this release does also
support 2-button mice directly, see: Mouse.Text.
To check how mouse buttons are mapped by your Windows mouse driver use the
TestMouse.exe utility.
Registry
By default module Registry stores settings under the key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ETH PlugIn Oberon\Release 2.5
This key is constructed using the version resource entries "FileDescription"
and "FileVersion" found in oberon.exe (or oberon.dll). You can override the
"FileVersion" part by providing a new version string as command line
parameter to oberon.exe.
E.g.: oberon.exe -Registry=MyVersion will start an Oberon system which
reads its settings from:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ETH Oberon\MyVersion
Note: command line parameters passed to oberon.exe are append to the
Oberon.Text in a section called CommandLine. Thus to get the value for a
command line parameter named "Name" use Oberon.OpenScanner(S,
"CommandLine.Name").
Display
Module Display is now based on a new module Displays. This makes it possible
to use multiple logical displays. Where a display is either an application
window, control window or an offscreen bitmap. This is the basis for
technologies like "Oberon Documents on the Windows Desktop", "ActiveX
controls" or the "Netscape Browser Plugin".
Fonts
The Fonts module has been split into the modules Fonts and WinFonts. By
default module WinFonts handles both screen (.Scn.Fnt) and printer
(.Prx.Fnt, .Mdx.Fnt) fonts.
The metric problem with Syntax20b.Scn.Fnt (and other Fonts) has been
fixed in Win32.FontRes.Mod. The new .fon files can be found in Fonts.exe.
WinPrinter
Printing of color text using Oberon bitmap fonts still does not work with
all printer drivers. The problem seems to be, that some drivers do not
implement all features of GDI32.BitBlt. When using true-type fonts printing
of color text should work with any driver.
Using the postscript driver provided by Adobe (see:
http://www.adobe.com/supportservice/custsupport/LIBRARY/pdrvwin.htm)
color text is printed correctly.
Suggestion: If printing using WinPrinter does not work with your setup use
either the postscript driver provided by Adobe or use a PSPrinter based
printer driver. If you do not have a postscript printer, I recommend using
Ghostscript (see: http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/).
PSPrinter
There are two new variants of the Oberon PSPrinter.
GhostPrinter:
Postscript is printed using your existing Ghostscript installation. For
installation details see: Printers.Tool.
WinPSPrinter:
The postscript output of PSPrinter is redirected to any Windows (postscript)
printer queue. For installation details see: Printers.Tool.
Timer overflow
The time value returned by Input.Time or Oberon.Time is a signed 32 bit
value. After 25 days this counter will overflow. If you use Oberon.Task,
Displays.SelectMsg or Oberon.SelectMsg you should use the following work
arounds:
Oberon.Task:
Initialize the time field with Oberon.Time. If you initialize time to 0,
the task may not run for the following 25 days!
Oberon.GetSelection, Gadgets.GetSelection:
time is set to -1 if no selection exists. Thus checking time > 0 does only
work within the first 25 days!
Oberon.GetSelection(text, beg, end, time)
IF time # -1 THEN
(* selection available *)
END
Displays.SelectMsg, Oberon.SelectMsg:
Initialize the time field to -1 before broadcasting a SelectMsg.
Oberon Documents on the Windows Desktop
In this release Documents and Desktops can be opened in their own window
using the commands Desktops.OpenWinDoc and Desktops.OpenWin. To use this
kind of desktop as default, install the package Win included in System1.exe
(see "Configuring the Display Screen" in Setup.Tool).
Note that new windows use the default placeing and sizeing of Windows. Once
you have stored a document, it will remember its position and size on the
Windows desktop. This values are used the next time the document is opened on
the Windows desktop.
Application Packages
All the available application packages are distributed in 3 self-extracting
EXE files PrFnt.exe, AppsAH.exe and AppsIZ.exe. The packages TUI, GUI, Desk,
Win, Network and PictConverters are included in System1.exe. The
package Developer is included in Src.exe.
For networked installation of application packages you must first install
the Oberon Web browser (Packages.Install Network.oaf). A complete list of all
available packages and some browser plugin examples can be found at:
"http://www.cs.inf.ethz.ch/~zeller/Apps/"
Netscape Browser Plugin
This release includes an alpha version of the Oberon Netscape browser plugin.
(see: PlugInsGuide.Text and NPPlugIn in Packages.Tool).
OLE / ActiveX Server
This release includes an experimental version of an Oberon ActiveX server.
Thus you may use any Gadget as a visual or none-visual ActiveX component in
popular ActiveX containers like VisualBasic, Internet Explorer, WordPad ....
To learn more about the OLEObjects package see PlugInsGuide.Text.
Known Problems and Bugs in this Release
- Module Display does not support palette animation
- Window updates are slow
- Print preview does not work with the Netscape browser plugin
- WinPrinter and color text printing using Oberon fonts
- pressing all three mouse buttons on Windows ME does not work
LEGAL INFORMATION
ETH Oberon & ETH PlugIn Oberon
Copyright (C) 1990-2004 Institut fuer Computersysteme ETH Zuerich
Permission to use, copy, modify or distribute this software and its
documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided
that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both
that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting
documentation, and that the name of ETH not be used in advertising or
publicity pertaining to distribution of the software without
specific, written prior permission.
ETH disclaims all warranties with regard to this software, including
all implied special, indirect or consequential damages or any damages
whatsoever resulting from loss of use, data or profits, whether in an
action of contract, negligence or other tortious action, arising out
of or in connection with the use or performance of this software.
Oberon, Gadgets, Native Oberon, Oberon System 3, ETH Oberon and ETH PlugIn
Oberon are trademarks of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich.
Microsoft, MS, MS-DOS, NT, Win32, Win32s, Windows, Windows 95, Windows 98,
Windows NT and Windows 2000 are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
IBM and OS/2 are trademarks of IBM Corporation.
Intel and Pentium are trademarks of Intel Corporation.