[Gm2] ANNOUNCE: libsimpleio for GNU Modula-2 (preliminary)

[Philip Munts]

I have just published the first code drop of Linux Simple I/O Library support 
for GNU Modula-2.  This is preliminary code: It is incomplete and what is 
complete may be pretty rough.  I decided to let people look at it before I 
finish every last detail.

It includes thin bindings for the following libraries:

* libadc
* libgpio
* libhidraw
* libipv4
* liblinux
* libpwm
* libserial
* libstream
* libwatchdog

There are also an assortment of support modules (e.g. for the Raspberry Pi) and 
a lot of test programs.

Source code is available at:

http://git.munts.com/libsimpleio

Prebuilt packages for Debian stretch are available at:

http://repo.munts.com/debian9

I have been interested in "Wirthian" programming languages since I first 
encountered Pascal for the HP 3000 in ca. 1981.  During the late eighties/early nineties 
I paid real money for no less than three commercial Modula-2 compilers (and one Ada 
compiler) for MS-DOS.  I never did much with them as they were all inferior to Turbo 
Pascal.  After that I got sucked into the Unix and C world.

It has been interesting to play around with GNU Modula-2 after all these years. 
 Even though it lacks a lot of modern stuff like objects, I think it is still 
useful for systems programming.  I am hoping that the compiler for the 
Raspberry Pi together with the Linux Simple I/O Library bindings might reignite 
some interest in Modula-2.

Phil