![[Book Cover]](ProjOberon.gif)
Project Oberon
The Design of an Operating System and Compiler
Niklaus Wirth and Jürg Gutknecht
Addison Wesley, 1992
ISBN 0-201-54428-8
548 pages
Abstract
In 1985 Niklaus Wirth and Juerg Gutknecht embarked on a project
to build a new workstation from scratch. The quote from Einstein:
'Make it as simple as possible, but not simpler' served as a signpost
for their approach resulting in a system of exemplary lucidity,
efficiency and compactness. Wirth was fascinated by the accuracy
and reliability of the Voyager space probe then passing Oberon,
one of the moons of Uranus. The project was christened Oberon
in its honor.
This is the first-hand account of the design, develoment and
implementation of Oberon.
It provides a facinating insight into
the theory and practice of workstation development for all those
eager to learn from the experience of two world class software
engineers.
Project Oberon includes:
- The complete set of program listings for the
Oberon system,
together with detailed explanations of how the system was developed
- A demonstration of how economical software engineering can
produce a powerful, efficient and flexible system requiring a
fraction of the computer power and storage capacity of current
commercial operating systems
- An in-depth account of the
Oberon System as the basis for
a multi-server workstation, including file distribution, printing
and electronic mail facilities.
[ Computer Science-Department
| Institute for Computer Systems
| Wirth's Home Page]
ETH Zürich: Department of Computer Science
Comments to Jacques Supcik <supcik@inf.ethz.ch>
December 5, 1997.