Thanks for the reminder of Windows XP's end of support deadline, Doug.

With its release as open source software, BlackBox has reached the final stage of commercial development at Oberon microsystems back in December 2004. Consequently there will be no officially supported versions of BlackBox for Windows 7 from us.

We are really sorry about this but we have to encourage users still relying on BlackBox as their main development platform to start looking for alternatives.

At Oberon microsystems we are currently using C# and .NET for many of our mobile and embedded software projects:

http://www.mountaineer.org/mountaineer-group/

http://xamarin.com/

We also write lots of Java for Android and for our server-based software. Finally, we even have some Objective-C targeting iOS.

For a language very much in the spirit of Oberon, we suggest trying out Google's Go:

http://golang.org/

With kind regards,
Marc

For those who want an easier transition from BB / Component Pascal, I
recommend trying Gardens Point Component Pascal. I've been using it daily on
Windows 7 for a couple of years with no problems. It is maintained and
supported. A link to the GPCP site is here:

http://www.cfbsoftware.com/gpcp

The great thing I find is that I don't feel like I'm a castaway on a
Component Pascal island. You can call the standard .NET Windows functions
and code written in C# (and the numerous other .NET languages that are
available). Because of the way the Common Language Runtime (CLR) is designed
it is very similar to calling a function written in GPCP.

You can then dabble with writing C# functions as and when you feel like it.
Although C# superficially looks similar to C many of the drawbacks
associated with C have been eliminated. That is not surprising as Anders
Hejlsberg, who designed the language was also responsible for the design of
Turbo Pascal, Borland's Object Pascal and Delphi and their influence on C#
is obvious.

Regards,
Chris

Chris Burrows
CFB Software
http://www.astrobe.com

the second shoes is dropped down!now bb will be no officially supported,I feel some regret.
but I understand that the Oberon microsystems AG is a company,they had to do business.
We should thank them for their generosity of open source and did many patch for bb, answer our questions,without any profit!

the bb(oberon) is so simple,open source, active community of russian, zinnamturm.eu,and this news list...
I will continue use it until another better oberon environment replace it.
just now I use it on win7-32 without any difficulty.

regards,

luowy

I believe that interested Russian oberon-community with a support of international professionals and communicable users will continue releases somehow and not difficult open-source-kind support.

You can find the version above 16rc6 here, it already includes come fixes.
http://oberoncore.ru/_media/projects/bb16base-core.7z

Until this year is possible to make the release including most fixes from the mail-list and the forum OberonCore.ru.
I (or someone from Russian community) will notice it in mail-list when it happen.


Regards, Ivan

Уважаемые BlackBox-разработчики,

Мы рады объявить о финальном выпуске BlackBox 1.6. Вы можете скачать его по следующей ссылке :

http://www.oberon.ch/zip/SetupBlackBox16.exe

К письму прилагаются списки изменений, начиная с версии 1.6-rc6, а также с версии 1.5.

Oberon microsystems не планирует дальнейшую работу над BlackBox, это финальная версия. Все будущие исправления, улучшения и управление выпусками должно быть управляемо сообществом. Для облегчения этого BlackBox 1.6 выпущен под упрощённой лицензией 2-Clause BSD license.

Мы также собрали коллекцию открытых задач и патчей, которые не вошли в 1.6. Вы можете получить их по следующим адресам:

http://www.oberon.ch/zip/OpenPoints.txt

Патчи от Koen Desaeger:
http://www.oberon.ch/zip/PatchesByKoenDesaeger.txt

Патчи от Helmut Zinn:
http://www.zinnamturm.eu/pac/B201310070816.zip

Спасибо всем за ваш энтузиазм и преданность на протяжении стольких лет, за вашу заинтересованность в легковесном, надёжном и модульном программном обеспечении. Это те качества, которые дороги для наших сердец, и мы чувствуем, что Оберон и BlackBox принципиально так же актуальны сегодня, как и десять, и двадцать лет назад. Мы надеемся, что новый выпуск BlackBox облегчит продолжение создания и использования такого п/о на ближайшие годы. Также желаем сообществу всего самого наилучшего!

С наилучшими пожеланиями,
Ваша команда Oberon microsystems.