--- In GPCP@yahoogroups.com, "Marc Martin" <marc@...> wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> I see that this GPCP discussion group has only had one message during all
> of 2009, and that message didn't even have anything to do with Gardens
> Point Component Pascal!
>
> Am I to assume that nobody here is actively using GPCP anymore? Perhaps
> you've moved onto C# or something else?
>
> As the group's owner, I must admit that I have not used GPCP for awhile,
> although I do still use Blackbox Component Builder quite a lot.
>
> I am wondering if I should delete this discussion group due to inactivity,
> or does someone think there is still value in keeping it around?
> (perhaps simply for the archives of past message).
>
> Thank you for any feedback!
>

Hi Marc,

I'm still using GPCP virtually every day to write software - the .NET
versions of the Oberon-07 ARM compiler and linker for the
NXP (Philips) LPC2xxxx family of ARM7 microcontrollers that are the
core of Armaide are written in 100% pure GPCP:

http://www.cfbsoftware.com/armaide

I have also received emails from CPIde users and several hundred
copies are downloaded each month. My observation from other
newsgroups is that there are significantly more readers ('lurkers'?)
than writers. Another factor is that there appears to be a
significant number of non-native English speakers users CP. e.g
BlackBox activity in Russia is quite extensive - there are several
active Russian-language BlackBox-related forums. (Google Translate
comes in useful)

Also as Component Pascal and Oberon are such well-designed languages
and their implementations so rock-solid and reliable there is hardly
ever the need for the "why doesn't my program" work type of question
that I see so often in the C-related newgroups. Some of the quirky
behaviour and atrocious embedded software code examples reported
make me gasp in horror. So much of that development is still done
in the primitive way that it was done back in the Dark Ages.

Consequently, whatever you do, DO NOT delete the newsgroup!!!
Unfortunately the owner of the POW! Oberon Yahoo newsgroup did just
that and much valuable information was lost. (If anybody knows how
to get it back I'd much appreciate it)

If you do not want to continue as moderator I'd be happy to take
over, but as both CPIde and Armaide are commercial products I
believe that it is better for control of this group to remain in
independent hands? What do others think?

Last but not least, thank you very much for your initiative in
creating this group in the first place and your invaluable efforts
in maintaining it ever since,

Sincerely,
Chris Burrows
CFB Software
http://www.cfbsoftware.com/cpide