The „BlackBox Component Builder“ is a software development system for the programming language „Component Pascal“ including editor, compiler, linker, documentation and source codes. The whole system takes up less than 30 MByte of disk space. Due to its stability, performance and simplicity, BlackBox is perfectly suited for scientific and engineering applications. BlackBox can also be used for educational purposes.
You can find another explanation at http://blackboxframework.org/index.php.
Component Pascal is a derivate of Oberon. The evolution of the programming language is Pascal (1970) -> Modula (1979) -> Oberon (1988) -> Component Pascal (1994).
Read the groundbreaking academic paper "Oberon - The Overlooked Jewel" by Michael Franz, University of California, Irvine.
For more information, see the BlackBox Framework Center at https://blackboxframework.org/index.php?cID=why-program-in-component-pascal.
Prof. Fyodor Tkachov spoke at the 15th International Workshop on Advance Computing. His speech: "Less is more. Why Oberon beats the mainstream in complex applications".
You can use the „BlackBox Component Builder“ without any installation. Just follow these 5 steps:
On Linux, unpack all the files to an empty directory using the archive manager and run "BlackBox.exe" with Wine.
In Windows you will need the 7-Zip file archiver. You can download 7-Zip from http://www.7-zip.org/ or https://www.heise.de/download/product/7-zip-13139.
Yes, you can. However, they are not object compatible. It is best to delete all sym and code files and recompile your subsystem. Otherwise you may get errors that are hard to find.
By the way BlackBox has a new command called "DevCompiler.CompileSubs" that compiles an entire subsystem. For example the command "(!)DevCompiler.CompileSubs Com Comm Ctl Dev Form Host Obx Ole Sql Std System Text Win Xhtml ~" will compile the entire BlackBox program.
Note: The interface of MODULE String has been changed backwards to make it compatible with BlackBox version 1.6. So I moved all new character procedures of MODULE String to the new MODULE Unicode. In case of a compilation error add IMPORT Unicode and change for example Strings.IsIdent to Unicode.IsIdent
Since 2013 I have been collecting all the changes and fixes to BlackBox. A lot of them went into the Center Editions with their improvements. The improvements from the Center I add back to the CPC editions. It is a long iteration cycle.
Some changes I need for the CPC save sets immediately and can't wait until the Center releases the new version. The current Cpc edition already has the necessary changes. This is why CPC edition exists.
There are a lot of changes so I do not count 1.7.1, 1.7.2 and so on. I add the release year and month into the number (like Linux) e.g.
1.7.1610 means release October 2016
1.7.2007 means release July 2020
1.8.2201 means release January 2022
and so on.
Known differences:
Unknown differences are open points for discussion.
¹) That is BlackBox 1.6 compatible.
If you do not trust BlackBox.exe you can build your own file "BlackBox.exe" by opening the file "Dev/Docu/Build-Tool.odc". Clicking on the first commander (!) will compile the BlackBox program. Click on the second commander (!) to link it and create a new file "BlackBox2.exe". After quitting BlackBox, delete the file "BlackBox.exe" and rename the new file "BlackBox2.exe" to "BlackBox.exe". Now you have your own new system.
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Last Updated 18th September 2023