Commercial implementation of Oberon. Includes IDE, developer tools,
component framework, visual designer and documentation.

> Oberon/F
>
> Oberon is a new programming language in the Pascal family of
> languages. It was designed by Prof. Niklaus Wirth, who is well known
> as the creator of Oberon's predecessor languages Pascal and
> Modula-2. Oberon retains the proven advantages of Pascal and
> Modula-2 (structured syntax, strong typing, modularity) and adds
> support for object-oriented programming (type extension) and for
> safe programming (e.g. using run-time type information and automatic
> garbage collection). The unique combination of modular, object-
> oriented, and safe programming is called component-oriented
> programming.
>
> Oberon/F is a commercial implementation of Oberon which consists of
> an integrated development system for Oberon, a component framework
> with a compound document architecture, and extensible text and forms
> subsystems (visual designer).
>
> Oberon/F components from different vendors can be mixed and matched
> for maximum productivity. The safe language, combined with a garbage
> collector for automatic storage reclamation, allows the rapid
> development of robust, reliable, and maintainable applications. In
> order to reduce cost and to open up the largest possible market, the
> Oberon/F application programming interfaces are platform-
> independent; programs can be migrated between the supported
> platforms by mere recompilation.
>
> For best performance, the Oberon compiler generates true machine
> code (no interpreter). Due to its full 32-bit implementation,
> Oberon/F is a powerful basis for a new generation of software
> components. The Windows version of Oberon/F supports OLE, i.e.
> Oberon views can be embedded in any OLE container and also any OLE
> object can be embedded in Oberon texts and dialogs. Additional
> components for client/server support are also available.

> Education version
>
> The education version of Oberon/F differs from the full version in
> the following aspects.
>
>   1. It is not permitted to use the education version for commercial
> purposes beyond initial evaluation.
>   2. An "education version" message appears in every window and on
> every printed page.
>   3. There is no linker to generate stand-alone Windows and Mac
> applications. Due to the dynamic linking facilities of Oberon/F
> however, a separate linker is neither necessary for the development
> nor even for the distribution of software.
>   4. The education version for Windows does not has the OLE support.
>

>
> The purpose of the education version is to give access to the most
> innovative Oberon/F technologies (dynamic extensibility, component
> framework) to anyone interested in Oberon; as long as there is no
> commercial background to its use. The education version may only be
> used for private self-education, or for education or research in
> state schools and universities. A license is needed for any other
> type of educational institutions. Non-educational institutions
> (businesses, government, etc.) may not use the education version for
> more than demonstration purposes.
>
> Up to the above described differences, the technical specification
> of the education version is identical to the Developer Version of
> Oberon/F.

> New Names for Oberon/F and Oberon/L
>
> When we introduced our first products, we separated the name of the
> framework (Oberon/F) from the name of the programming language
> (Oberon/L). This eliminated some potential confusion, but did not
> clearly communicate the nature of the language. Thus starting with
> Release 1.3 we'll use the name Component Pascal instead of Oberon/L.
> The new name clearly communicates the two most important assets of
> the language:
>
> On the one hand, Component Pascal is a member of the Pascal family
> of languages, and thus embodies thirty years of design experience of
> one of the world's best language designers. Technically it is closer
> to original Pascal than, say, modern Fortran is to the original
> Fortran; and closer than Visual Basic is to the original Basic. Yet
> it is a modern language without the kludges seen so often in other
> language evolutions.
>
> On the other hand, the new name indicates the one uniquely important
> advantage of the language compared to others: it is designed to
> support component-oriented programming, rather than only the more
> limited and "introverted" object-oriented programming. It means
> extensible, safe and dynamic black-box composition of software. It
> is the technical foundation to create markets for light-weight
> binary software components.
>
> Component Pascal compiles Oberon-2 programs, and additionally
> supports 64-bit integers and 2-byte characters. Thus its basetype
> hierarchy is practically identical to the one of Java.
>
> Oberon/F is renamed to BlackBox Component Builder for the entire
> product on the one hand, and into BlackBox Component Framework for
> the class library on the other hand.

About downloads
#1 Oberon/F 1.0 Education version for Mac OS. (25.12.1994)
#2 Oberon/F 1.1b Education version for Mac OS. (07.07.1995)
#3 Oberon/F 1.2 Education version for Mac OS. (06.05.1996)
#4 Oberon/F 1.2.1 Education version for Mac OS (incremental update).
(30.07.1996)
#5 BlackBox 1.3.2 for Mac OS with full source code.
#6 BlackBox 1.4 old linux prototype with full source code. Includes
few versions of m68k compiler and other tools which may be useful for
Mac OS development.

Support & Community
BlackBox was open sourced by Oberon microsystems and now supported by
community.
You can ask for help at [community.blackboxframework.org][1] (english) or at [forum.oberoncore.ru][2] (russian).
You can get more information about Oberon and Component Pascal at
[oberon.org][3].

Compatibility
Architecture: 68k

Not compatible with Executor.

System requirements
System 7 or later, MC68020 or better, FPU or software emulator, 5MB
RAM, 4MB disk space.

  [1]: https://community.blackboxframework.org
  [2]: https://forum.oberoncore.ru
  [3]: https://oberon.org