Eiffel (programming language)
Encyclopedia
Eiffel is an ISO
-standardized, object-oriented
programming language
designed by Bertrand Meyer
(an object-orientation proponent and author of Object-Oriented Software Construction
) and Eiffel Software
. The design of the language is closely connected with the Eiffel programming method. Both are based on a set of principles, including design by contract
, command-query separation
, the uniform-access principle
, the single-choice principle, the open-closed principle, and option-operand separation
.
Many concepts initially introduced by Eiffel later found their way into Java
, C#, and other languages. New language design ideas, particularly through the Ecma
/ISO standardization process, continue to be incorporated into the Eiffel language.
Eiffel shuns coding tricks or coding techniques intended as optimization
hints to the compiler. The aim is not only to make the code more readable, but also to allow programmers to concentrate on the important aspects of a program without getting bogged down in implementation details. Eiffel's simplicity is intended to promote simple, extensible, reusable, and reliable answers to computing problems. Compilers for computer programs written in Eiffel provide extensive optimization techniques, such as automatic in-lining, that relieve the programmer of part of the optimization burden while producing code whose efficiency is comparable to that of code written in C++
.
, a company founded by Bertrand Meyer
. Object-Oriented Software Construction
contains a detailed treatment of the concepts and theory of the object technology that led to Eiffel's design.
The design goal behind the Eiffel language, libraries, and programming methods is to enable programmers to create reliable, reusable software modules. Eiffel supports multiple inheritance
, genericity, polymorphism, encapsulation, type-safe conversions, and parameter covariance. Eiffel's most important contribution to software engineering
is design by contract
(DbC), in which assertions
, precondition
s, postcondition
s, and class invariant
s are employed to help ensure program correctness without sacrificing efficiency.
Eiffel's design is based on object-oriented programming theory, with only minor influence of other paradigms or concern for support of legacy code. Eiffel formally supports abstract data type
s. Under Eiffel's design, a software text should be able to reproduce its design documentation from the text itself, using a formalized implementation of the "Abstract Data Type".
is an integrated development environment
available under either an open source or a commercial license. It offers an object-oriented environment for software engineering
. EiffelEnvision is a plug-in for Microsoft Visual Studio
that allows users to edit, compile, and debug Eiffel projects from within the Microsoft Visual Studio IDE. EiffelStudio and EiffelEnvision are free for non-commercial use. Four other open source implementations are available: "The Eiffel Compiler" tecomp, Gobo Eiffel, SmartEiffel
—the GNU implementation, based on an older version of the language—and Visual Eiffel
.
Several other programming languages incorporate elements first introduced in Eiffel. Sather
, for example, was originally based on Eiffel but has since diverged, and now includes several functional programming
features. The interactive-teaching language Blue, forerunner of BlueJ
, is also Eiffel-based. The Apple Media Tool
includes an Eiffel-based Apple Media Language.
. The standard was developed by ECMA International, which first approved the standard on 21 June 2005 as Standard ECMA-367, Eiffel: Analysis, Design and Programming Language. In June 2006, ECMA and ISO adopted the second version. In November 2006, ISO first published that version. The standard can be found and used free of charge on the ECMA site. The ISO version is identical in all respects except formatting.
Eiffel Software, "The Eiffel Compiler" tecomp and Eiffel-library-developer Gobo have committed to implementing the standard; Eiffel Software's EiffelStudio 6.1 and "The Eiffel Compiler" tecomp implement some of the major new mechanisms—in particular, inline agents, assigner commands, bracket notation, non-conforming inheritance, and attached types. The SmartEiffel
team has turned away from this standard to create its own version of the language, which they believe to be closer to the original style of Eiffel. Object Tools has not disclosed whether future versions of its Eiffel compiler will comply with the standard.
The standard cites the following, predecessor Eiffel-language specifications:
The current version of the standard from June 2006 contains some inconsistencies (e.g. covariant redefinitions). The ECMA committee has not yet announced any timeline and direction on how to resolve the inconsistencies.
, but rather a standard organizational convention. Typically an Eiffel application will be organized with each class in a separate file, and each cluster in a directory containing class files. In this organization, subclusters are subdirectories. For example, under standard organizational and casing conventions,
A class contains features, which are similar to "members", "attributes" or "methods" in other object-oriented programming languages. A class also defines its invariants, and contains other properties, such as a "notes" section for documentation and metadata. Eiffel's standard data types, such as
Every system must have a class designated as "root", with one of its creation procedures designated as "root procedure". Executing a system consists of creating an instance of the root class and executing its root procedure. Generally, doing so creates new objects, calls new features, and so on.
Eiffel has five basic executable instructions: assignment, object creation, routine call, condition, and iteration. Eiffel's control structures are strict in enforcing structured programming: every block has exactly one entry and exactly one exit.
, Eiffel does not permit any assignment into fields of objects, except within the features of an object. Eiffel emphasizes information hiding and data abstraction, by requiring formal interfaces to data mutation. To put it in the language of other object-oriented programming languages, all Eiffel fields are "private", and "setters" are needed to modify values. An upshot of this is that "setters" can, and normally do, implement the invariants for which Eiffel provides syntax.
program. Such a program written in Eiffel might be:
class
HELLO_WORLD
create
make
feature
make
do
print ("Hello, world!%N")
end
end
This program contains the class
is central to Eiffel. The mechanisms are tightly integrated with the language.
Contracts guide redefinition of features in inheritance.
In addition, the language supports a "check instruction" (a kind of "assert") and loop invariants.
The command-query distinction is important to the Eiffel method. In particular:
. Each feature name within a class always maps to a specific feature within the class. One name, within one class, means one thing. This design choice helps the readability of classes, by avoiding a cause of ambiguity about which routine will be invoked by a call. It also simplifies the language mechanism; in particular, this is what makes Eiffel's multiple inheritance mechanism possible.
Names can, of course, be reused in different classes. For example the feature plus (along with its infix alias "+") is defined in several classes: INTEGER, REAL, STRING, etc.
class LIST [G] ...
G is known as a "formal generic parameter". (Eiffel reserves "argument" for routines, and uses "parameter" only for generic classes.) With such a declaration G represents within the class an arbitrary type; so a function can return a value of type G, and a routine can take an argument of that type:
item: G do ... end
put (x: G) do ... end
The
n := il.item
wl.put (w)
It is also possible to have 'constrained' formal parameters, for which the actual parameter must inherit from a given class, the "constraint". For example in
class HASH_TABLE [G, KEY -> HASHABLE]
a derivation
class C inherit
A
B
-- ... Rest of class declaration ...
The class may redefine (override) some or all of the inherited features. This must be explicitly announced at the beginning of the class through a
class C inherit
A
redefine f, g, h end
B
redefine u, v end
Deferred classes play some of the same role as interfaces in languages such as Java, though many object-oriented programming theorists believe interfaces are themselves largely an answer to Java's lack of multiple inheritance (which Eiffel has).
TUPLE [name: STRING; weight: REAL; date: DATE]
and could be used to describe a simple notion of birth record if a class is not needed. An instance of such a tuple is simply a sequence of values with the given types, given in brackets, such as
["Brigitte", 3.5, Last_night]
Components of such a tuple can be accessed as if the tuple tags were attributes of a class, for example if
Thanks to the notion of assigner command (see below), dot notation can also be used to assign components of such a tuple, as in
t.weight := t.weight + 0.5
The tuple tags are optional, so that it is also possible to write a tuple type as
The precise specification of e.g.
, allow a similar pattern using continuations, closures
, or generators
; Eiffel's agents emphasize the language's object-oriented paradigm, and use a syntax and semantics similar to code blocks in Smalltalk
and Ruby
.
For example, to execute the
my_list.do_all (agent my_action)
To execute
my_list.do_if (agent my_action, agent my_condition)
In these examples,
a.call ([x])
will call the original routine with the argument
It is possible to keep some arguments to an agent open and make others closed. The open arguments are passed as arguments to
my_list.do_all (agent action2 (?, y))
iterates
The distinction between open and closed operands (operands = arguments + target) corresponds to the distinction between bound and free variables in lambda calculus
. An agent expression such as
on the closed operands.
The agent mechanism also allows defining an agent without reference to an existing routine (such as
my_list.do_all (agent (s: STRING)
require
not_void: s /= Void
do
s.append_character (',')
ensure
appended: s.count = old s.count + 1
end)
The inline agent passed here can have all the trappings of a normal routine, including precondition, postcondition, rescue clause (not used here), and a full signature. This avoids defining routines when all that's needed is a computation to be wrapped in an agent. This is useful in particular for contracts, as in an invariant clause that expresses that all elements of a list are positive:
my_list.for_all (agent (x: INTEGER): BOOLEAN do Result := (x > 0) end)
The current agent mechanism leaves a possibility of run-time type error (if a routine with n arguments is passed to an agent expecting m arguments with m < n). This can be avoided by a run-time check through the precondition
shared_object: SOME_TYPE
once
create Result.make (args)
-- This creates the object and returns a reference to it through `Result'.
end
The returned object—
Often "once routines" perform a required initialization: multiple calls to a library can include a call to the initialization procedure, but only the first such call will perform the required actions. Using this pattern initialization can be decentralized, avoiding the need for a special initialization module. "Once routines" are similar in purpose and effect to the singleton pattern
in many programming languages, and to the Borg pattern used in Python.
By default, a "once routine" is called once per thread. The semantics can be adjusted to once per process or once per object by qualifying it with a "once key", e.g.
For example
The conversion mechanism simply generalizes the ad hoc conversion rules (such as indeed between
my_string := my_date
as a shortcut for using an explicit object creation with a conversion procedure:
create my_string.make_from_date (my_date)
To make the first form possible as a synonym for the second, it suffices to list the creation procedure (constructor)
As another example, if there is such a conversion procedure listed from
Bastille_day := [14, "July", 1789]
in Eiffel is based on the principles of design by contract. For example, an exception occurs when a routine's caller fails to satisfy a precondition, or when a routine cannot ensure a promised postcondition. In Eiffel, exception handling is not used for control flow
or to correct data-input mistakes.
An Eiffel exception handler is defined using the rescue keyword. Within the rescue section, the retry keyword executes the routine again. For example, the following routine tracks the number of attempts at executing the routine, and only retries a certain number of times:
connect_to_server (server: SOCKET)
-- Connect to a server or give up after 10 attempts.
require
server /= Void and then server.address /= Void
local
attempts: INTEGER
do
server.connect
ensure
connected: server.is_connected
rescue
if attempts < 10 then
attempts := attempts + 1
retry
end
end
This example is arguably flawed for anything but the simplest programs, however, because connection failure is to be expected. For most programs a routine name like attempt_connecting_to_server would be better, and the postcondition would not promise a connection, leaving it up to the caller to take appropriate steps if the connection was not opened.
, or Simple Concurrent Object-Oriented Programming, not yet part of the official language definition but available in EiffelStudio
.
CAMEO is an (unimplemented) variation of SCOOP for Eiffel.
Concurrency also interacts with exceptions. Asynchronous exceptions can be troublesome (where a routine raises an exception after its caller has itself finished).
a + b
is conceptually understood as if it were the method call
a.plus (b)
with target
Of course, the former is the conventional syntax and usually preferred. Operator syntax makes it possible to use either form by declaring the feature (for example in
plus alias "+" (other: INTEGER): INTEGER
-- ... Normal function declaration...
end
The range of operators that can be used as "alias" is quite broad; they include predefined operators such as "+" but also "free operators" made of non-alphanumeric symbols. This makes it possible to design special infix and prefix notations, for example in mathematics and physics applications.
Every class may in addition have one function aliased to "[]", the "bracket" operator, allowing the notation
number := phone_book ["JILL SMITH"]
"Assigner commands" are a companion mechanism designed in the same spirit of allowing well-established, convenient notation reinterpreted in the framework of object-oriented programming. Assigner commands allow assignment-like syntax to call "setter" procedures. An assignment proper can never be of the form
item alias "[]" (key: STRING): ELEMENT [3]
-- The element of key `key'.
-- ("Getter" query)
do
...
end
put (e: ELEMENT; key: STRING)
-- Insert the element `e', associating it with the key `key'.
-- ("Setter" command)
do
...
end
Then to insert an element you have to use an explicit call to the setter command:
[4] phone_book.put (New_person, "JILL SMITH")
It is possible to write this equivalently as
[5] phone_book ["JILL SMITH"] := New_person
(in the same way that
item alias "[]" (key: STRING): ELEMENT assign put
This declares
note: The argument list of a's assigner is constrained to be: (a's return type;all of a's argument list...)
Comments are introduced by
The semicolon, as instruction separator, is optional. Most of the time the semicolon is just omitted, except to separate multiple instructions on a line. This results in less clutter on the program page.
There is no nesting of feature and class declarations. As a result the structure of an Eiffel class is simple: some class-level clauses (inheritance, invariant) and a succession of feature declarations, all at the same level.
It is customary to group features into separate "feature clauses" for more readability, with a standard set of basic feature tags appearing in a standard order, for example:
class HASH_TABLE [ELEMENT, KEY -> HASHABLE] inherit TABLE [ELEMENT]
feature -- Initialization
-- ... Declarations of initialization commands (creation procedures/constructors) ...
feature -- Access
-- ... Declarations of non-boolean queries on the object state, e.g. item ...
feature -- Status report
-- ... Declarations of boolean queries on the object state, e.g. is_empty ...
feature -- Element change
-- ... Declarations of commands that change the structure, e.g. put ...
-- etc.
end
In contrast to most curly bracket programming languages, Eiffel makes a clear distinction between expressions and instructions. This is in line with the Command-Query Separation
principle of the Eiffel method.
While the language is case-insensitive, the style standards prescribe the use of all-capitals for class names (
The specification of Eiffel includes guidelines for displaying software texts in typeset formats: keywords in bold, user-defined identifiers and constants are shown in
class
HELLO_WORLD
create
make
feature
make
do
print ("Hello, world!")
end
end
It is possible for example to program machine- and operating-system level operations in C
. Eiffel provides a straightforward interface to C routines, including support for "inline C" (writing the body of an Eiffel routine in C, typically for short machine-level operations).
Although there is no direct connection between Eiffel and C, many Eiffel compiler
s (Visual Eiffel
is one exception) output C source code
as an intermediate language
, to submit to a C compiler, for optimizing
and portability
. As such, they are examples of transcompiler
s. The Eiffel Compiler tecomp can execute Eiffel code directly (like an interpreter) without going via an intermediate C code or emit C code which will be passed to a C compiler in order to obtain optimized native code. On .NET, the EiffelStudio
compiler directly generates CIL
(Common Intermediate Language) code. The SmartEiffel
compiler can also output Java bytecode
.
International Organization for Standardization
The International Organization for Standardization , widely known as ISO, is an international standard-setting body composed of representatives from various national standards organizations. Founded on February 23, 1947, the organization promulgates worldwide proprietary, industrial and commercial...
-standardized, object-oriented
Object-oriented programming
Object-oriented programming is a programming paradigm using "objects" – data structures consisting of data fields and methods together with their interactions – to design applications and computer programs. Programming techniques may include features such as data abstraction,...
programming language
Programming language
A programming language is an artificial language designed to communicate instructions to a machine, particularly a computer. Programming languages can be used to create programs that control the behavior of a machine and/or to express algorithms precisely....
designed by Bertrand Meyer
Bertrand Meyer
Bertrand Meyer is an academic, author, and consultant in the field of computer languages. He created the Eiffel programming language.-Education and academic career:...
(an object-orientation proponent and author of Object-Oriented Software Construction
Object-Oriented Software Construction
Object-Oriented Software Construction is a book by Bertrand Meyer, widely considered a foundational text of object-oriented programming. The first edition was published in 1988; the second, extensively revised and expanded edition , in 1997...
) and Eiffel Software
Eiffel Software
Eiffel Software is a software company specializing in object technology, especially tools, training and services for the Eiffel programming language and method, originally introduced by the company in 1985.The company's two flagship products are the EiffelStudio integrated development environment,...
. The design of the language is closely connected with the Eiffel programming method. Both are based on a set of principles, including design by contract
Design by contract
Design by contract , also known as programming by contract and design-by-contract programming, is an approach to designing computer software...
, command-query separation
Command-query separation
Command-query separation is a principle of imperative computer programming. It was devised by Bertrand Meyer as part of his pioneering work on the Eiffel programming language....
, the uniform-access principle
Uniform access principle
The Uniform Access Principle was put forth by Bertrand Meyer. It states "All services offered by a module should be available through a uniform notation, which does not betray whether they are implemented through storage or through computation." This principle applies generally to object-oriented...
, the single-choice principle, the open-closed principle, and option-operand separation
Option-operand separation
Option-operand separation is a principle of imperative computer programming. It was devised by Bertrand Meyer as part of his pioneering work on the Eiffel programming language....
.
Many concepts initially introduced by Eiffel later found their way into Java
Java (programming language)
Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities...
, C#, and other languages. New language design ideas, particularly through the Ecma
Ecma International
Ecma International is an international, private non-profit standards organization for information and communication systems. It acquired its name in 1994, when the European Computer Manufacturers Association changed its name to reflect the organization's global reach and activities...
/ISO standardization process, continue to be incorporated into the Eiffel language.
Characteristics
The key characteristics of the Eiffel language include:- An object-oriented program structure in which a class serves as the basic unit of decomposition.
- Design by contractDesign by contractDesign by contract , also known as programming by contract and design-by-contract programming, is an approach to designing computer software...
tightly integrated with other language constructs. - Automatic memory management, typically implemented by garbage collectionGarbage collection (computer science)In computer science, garbage collection is a form of automatic memory management. The garbage collector, or just collector, attempts to reclaim garbage, or memory occupied by objects that are no longer in use by the program...
. - InheritanceInheritance (computer science)In object-oriented programming , inheritance is a way to reuse code of existing objects, establish a subtype from an existing object, or both, depending upon programming language support...
, including multiple inheritanceMultiple inheritanceMultiple inheritance is a feature of some object-oriented computer programming languages in which a class can inherit behaviors and features from more than one superclass....
, renaming, redefinition, "select", non-conforming inheritance, and other mechanisms intended to make inheritance safe. - Constrained and unconstrained generic programmingGeneric programmingIn a broad definition, generic programming is a style of computer programming in which algorithms are written in terms of to-be-specified-later types that are then instantiated when needed for specific types provided as parameters...
- A uniform type system handling both value and reference semantics in which all types, including basic types such as INTEGER, are class-based.
- Static typing
- Void safety, or static protection against calls on null references, through the attached-types mechanism.
- Agents, or objects that wrap computations, closely connected with closureClosure (computer science)In computer science, a closure is a function together with a referencing environment for the non-local variables of that function. A closure allows a function to access variables outside its typical scope. Such a function is said to be "closed over" its free variables...
s and lambda calculusLambda calculusIn mathematical logic and computer science, lambda calculus, also written as λ-calculus, is a formal system for function definition, function application and recursion. The portion of lambda calculus relevant to computation is now called the untyped lambda calculus...
. - Once routines, or routines evaluated only once, for object sharing and decentralized initialization.
- Keyword-based syntax in the ALGOLALGOLALGOL is a family of imperative computer programming languages originally developed in the mid 1950s which greatly influenced many other languages and became the de facto way algorithms were described in textbooks and academic works for almost the next 30 years...
/PascalPascal (programming language)Pascal is an influential imperative and procedural programming language, designed in 1968/9 and published in 1970 by Niklaus Wirth as a small and efficient language intended to encourage good programming practices using structured programming and data structuring.A derivative known as Object Pascal...
tradition but separator-free, insofar as semicolons are optional, with operator syntax available for routines. - Case insensitivity
Design goals
Eiffel emphasizes declarative statements over procedural code and attempts to eliminate the need for bookkeeping instructions.Eiffel shuns coding tricks or coding techniques intended as optimization
Optimization (computer science)
In computer science, program optimization or software optimization is the process of modifying a software system to make some aspect of it work more efficiently or use fewer resources...
hints to the compiler. The aim is not only to make the code more readable, but also to allow programmers to concentrate on the important aspects of a program without getting bogged down in implementation details. Eiffel's simplicity is intended to promote simple, extensible, reusable, and reliable answers to computing problems. Compilers for computer programs written in Eiffel provide extensive optimization techniques, such as automatic in-lining, that relieve the programmer of part of the optimization burden while producing code whose efficiency is comparable to that of code written in C++
C++
C++ is a statically typed, free-form, multi-paradigm, compiled, general-purpose programming language. It is regarded as an intermediate-level language, as it comprises a combination of both high-level and low-level language features. It was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup starting in 1979 at Bell...
.
Background
Eiffel was originally developed by Eiffel SoftwareEiffel Software
Eiffel Software is a software company specializing in object technology, especially tools, training and services for the Eiffel programming language and method, originally introduced by the company in 1985.The company's two flagship products are the EiffelStudio integrated development environment,...
, a company founded by Bertrand Meyer
Bertrand Meyer
Bertrand Meyer is an academic, author, and consultant in the field of computer languages. He created the Eiffel programming language.-Education and academic career:...
. Object-Oriented Software Construction
Object-Oriented Software Construction
Object-Oriented Software Construction is a book by Bertrand Meyer, widely considered a foundational text of object-oriented programming. The first edition was published in 1988; the second, extensively revised and expanded edition , in 1997...
contains a detailed treatment of the concepts and theory of the object technology that led to Eiffel's design.
The design goal behind the Eiffel language, libraries, and programming methods is to enable programmers to create reliable, reusable software modules. Eiffel supports multiple inheritance
Multiple inheritance
Multiple inheritance is a feature of some object-oriented computer programming languages in which a class can inherit behaviors and features from more than one superclass....
, genericity, polymorphism, encapsulation, type-safe conversions, and parameter covariance. Eiffel's most important contribution to software engineering
Software engineering
Software Engineering is the application of a systematic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to the development, operation, and maintenance of software, and the study of these approaches; that is, the application of engineering to software...
is design by contract
Design by contract
Design by contract , also known as programming by contract and design-by-contract programming, is an approach to designing computer software...
(DbC), in which assertions
Assertion (computing)
In computer programming, an assertion is a predicate placed in a program to indicate that the developer thinks that the predicate is always true at that place.For example, the following code contains two assertions:...
, precondition
Precondition
In computer programming, a precondition is a condition or predicate that must always be true just prior to the execution of some section of code or before an operation in a formal specification....
s, postcondition
Postcondition
In computer programming, a postcondition is a condition or predicate that must always be true just after the execution of some section of code or after an operation in a formal specification. Postconditions are sometimes tested using assertions within the code itself...
s, and class invariant
Class invariant
In computer programming, specifically object-oriented programming, a class invariant is an invariant used to constrain objects of a class. Methods of the class should preserve the invariant. The class invariant constrains the state stored in the object....
s are employed to help ensure program correctness without sacrificing efficiency.
Eiffel's design is based on object-oriented programming theory, with only minor influence of other paradigms or concern for support of legacy code. Eiffel formally supports abstract data type
Abstract data type
In computing, an abstract data type is a mathematical model for a certain class of data structures that have similar behavior; or for certain data types of one or more programming languages that have similar semantics...
s. Under Eiffel's design, a software text should be able to reproduce its design documentation from the text itself, using a formalized implementation of the "Abstract Data Type".
Implementations and environments
EiffelStudioEiffelStudio
EiffelStudio is a development environment for the Eiffel programming language developed and distributed by Eiffel Software.EiffelStudio includes a combination of tools integrated under a single user interface: compiler, interpreter, debugger, browser, metrics tool, profiler, diagram tool...
is an integrated development environment
Integrated development environment
An integrated development environment is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development...
available under either an open source or a commercial license. It offers an object-oriented environment for software engineering
Software engineering
Software Engineering is the application of a systematic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to the development, operation, and maintenance of software, and the study of these approaches; that is, the application of engineering to software...
. EiffelEnvision is a plug-in for Microsoft Visual Studio
Microsoft Visual Studio
Microsoft Visual Studio is an integrated development environment from Microsoft. It is used to develop console and graphical user interface applications along with Windows Forms applications, web sites, web applications, and web services in both native code together with managed code for all...
that allows users to edit, compile, and debug Eiffel projects from within the Microsoft Visual Studio IDE. EiffelStudio and EiffelEnvision are free for non-commercial use. Four other open source implementations are available: "The Eiffel Compiler" tecomp, Gobo Eiffel, SmartEiffel
SmartEiffel
SmartEiffel is a free Eiffel compiler. The compiler translates Eiffel code either to C or Java bytecode. Hence it can be used to write programs that run on virtually any platform for which an ANSI C compiler or a Java virtual machine exist....
—the GNU implementation, based on an older version of the language—and Visual Eiffel
Visual Eiffel
Visual Eiffel is an implementation of the Eiffel programming language developed and distributed by Object Tools GmbH, a German company.Visual Eiffel provides an integrated development environment running on Microsoft Windows...
.
Several other programming languages incorporate elements first introduced in Eiffel. Sather
Sather
Sather is an object-oriented programming language. It originated circa 1990 at the International Computer Science Institute at the University of California, Berkeley, developed by an international team led by Steve Omohundro...
, for example, was originally based on Eiffel but has since diverged, and now includes several functional programming
Functional programming
In computer science, functional programming is a programming paradigm that treats computation as the evaluation of mathematical functions and avoids state and mutable data. It emphasizes the application of functions, in contrast to the imperative programming style, which emphasizes changes in state...
features. The interactive-teaching language Blue, forerunner of BlueJ
BlueJ
BlueJ is an integrated development environment for the Java programming language, developed mainly for educational purposes, but also suitable for small-scale software development....
, is also Eiffel-based. The Apple Media Tool
Apple Media Tool
The Apple Media Tool was a multimedia authoring tool and associated programming environment sold by Apple in the late 1990s. It was primarily aimed at producing multimedia presentations for distribution on CD-ROM and was aimed at graphic designers who did not have programming experience...
includes an Eiffel-based Apple Media Language.
Specifications and standards
The Eiffel language definition is an international standard of the ISOInternational Organization for Standardization
The International Organization for Standardization , widely known as ISO, is an international standard-setting body composed of representatives from various national standards organizations. Founded on February 23, 1947, the organization promulgates worldwide proprietary, industrial and commercial...
. The standard was developed by ECMA International, which first approved the standard on 21 June 2005 as Standard ECMA-367, Eiffel: Analysis, Design and Programming Language. In June 2006, ECMA and ISO adopted the second version. In November 2006, ISO first published that version. The standard can be found and used free of charge on the ECMA site. The ISO version is identical in all respects except formatting.
Eiffel Software, "The Eiffel Compiler" tecomp and Eiffel-library-developer Gobo have committed to implementing the standard; Eiffel Software's EiffelStudio 6.1 and "The Eiffel Compiler" tecomp implement some of the major new mechanisms—in particular, inline agents, assigner commands, bracket notation, non-conforming inheritance, and attached types. The SmartEiffel
SmartEiffel
SmartEiffel is a free Eiffel compiler. The compiler translates Eiffel code either to C or Java bytecode. Hence it can be used to write programs that run on virtually any platform for which an ANSI C compiler or a Java virtual machine exist....
team has turned away from this standard to create its own version of the language, which they believe to be closer to the original style of Eiffel. Object Tools has not disclosed whether future versions of its Eiffel compiler will comply with the standard.
The standard cites the following, predecessor Eiffel-language specifications:
- Bertrand Meyer: Eiffel: The Language, Prentice Hall, second printing, 1992 (first printing: 1991)
- Bertrand Meyer: Standard Eiffel (revision of preceding entry), ongoing, 1997–present, at Bertrand Meyer's ETL3 page, and
- Bertrand Meyer: Object-Oriented Software Construction, Prentice Hall: first edition, 1988; second edition, 1997.
The current version of the standard from June 2006 contains some inconsistencies (e.g. covariant redefinitions). The ECMA committee has not yet announced any timeline and direction on how to resolve the inconsistencies.
Overall structure
An Eiffel "system" or "program" is a collection of classes. Above the level of classes, Eiffel defines cluster, which are essentially a group of classes, and possibly of subclusters (nested clusters). Clusters are not a syntactic language constructLanguage construct
A language construct is a syntactically allowable part of a program that may be formed from one or more lexical tokens in accordance with the rules of a programming language....
, but rather a standard organizational convention. Typically an Eiffel application will be organized with each class in a separate file, and each cluster in a directory containing class files. In this organization, subclusters are subdirectories. For example, under standard organizational and casing conventions,
x.e might be the name of a file that defines a class called X.A class contains features, which are similar to "members", "attributes" or "methods" in other object-oriented programming languages. A class also defines its invariants, and contains other properties, such as a "notes" section for documentation and metadata. Eiffel's standard data types, such as
INTEGER, STRING and ARRAY, are all themselves classes.Every system must have a class designated as "root", with one of its creation procedures designated as "root procedure". Executing a system consists of creating an instance of the root class and executing its root procedure. Generally, doing so creates new objects, calls new features, and so on.
Eiffel has five basic executable instructions: assignment, object creation, routine call, condition, and iteration. Eiffel's control structures are strict in enforcing structured programming: every block has exactly one entry and exactly one exit.
Scoping
Unlike many object-oriented languages, but like SmalltalkSmalltalk
Smalltalk is an object-oriented, dynamically typed, reflective programming language. Smalltalk was created as the language to underpin the "new world" of computing exemplified by "human–computer symbiosis." It was designed and created in part for educational use, more so for constructionist...
, Eiffel does not permit any assignment into fields of objects, except within the features of an object. Eiffel emphasizes information hiding and data abstraction, by requiring formal interfaces to data mutation. To put it in the language of other object-oriented programming languages, all Eiffel fields are "private", and "setters" are needed to modify values. An upshot of this is that "setters" can, and normally do, implement the invariants for which Eiffel provides syntax.
"Hello, world!"
A programming language's look and feel is often conveyed using a "Hello, world!"Hello world program
A "Hello world" program is a computer program that outputs "Hello world" on a display device. Because it is typically one of the simplest programs possible in most programming languages, it is by tradition often used to illustrate to beginners the most basic syntax of a programming language, or to...
program. Such a program written in Eiffel might be:
class
HELLO_WORLD
create
make
feature
make
do
print ("Hello, world!%N")
end
end
This program contains the class
HELLO_WORLD. The constructor (create routine) for the class, named make, invokes the print system library routine to write a "Hello, world!" message to the output.Design by Contract
The concept of design by contractDesign by contract
Design by contract , also known as programming by contract and design-by-contract programming, is an approach to designing computer software...
is central to Eiffel. The mechanisms are tightly integrated with the language.
Contracts guide redefinition of features in inheritance.
- Routine precondition: The precondition may only be weakened by inheritance; any call that meets the requirements of the ancestor meets those of the descendant.
- Routine postcondition: The postcondition can only be strengthened by inheritance; any result guaranteed by the ancestor is still provided by the descendant.
- Class invariant
In addition, the language supports a "check instruction" (a kind of "assert") and loop invariants.
Features, commands, queries
The primary characteristic of a class is that it contains a set of features. As a class represents a set of run-time objects, or "instances", a feature is an operation on these objects. There are two kinds of features: queries and commands. A query provides information about an instance. A command modifies an instance.The command-query distinction is important to the Eiffel method. In particular:
- Uniform-Access Principle: from the point of view of a software client making a call to a class feature, whether a query is an attribute (field in each object) or a function (algorithm) should not make any difference. For example a_vehicle.speed could be an attribute, accessed from the object's representation; or it could be computed by a function that divides distance by time. The notation is the same in both cases, so that it's easy to change representation without affecting the rest of the software.
- Command-Query Separation PrincipleCommand-query separationCommand-query separation is a principle of imperative computer programming. It was devised by Bertrand Meyer as part of his pioneering work on the Eiffel programming language....
: Queries must not modify the instance. This is not a language rule but a methodological principle. So in good Eiffel style, one does not find "get" functions that change something and return a result; instead there are commands (procedures) to change objects, and queries to obtain information about the object, resulting from preceding changes.
Overloading
Eiffel does not allow argument overloadingMethod overloading
Function overloading or method overloading is a feature found in various programming languages such as Ada, C#, VB.NET, C++, D and Java that allows the creation of several methods with the same name which differ from each other in terms of the type of the input and the type of the output of the...
. Each feature name within a class always maps to a specific feature within the class. One name, within one class, means one thing. This design choice helps the readability of classes, by avoiding a cause of ambiguity about which routine will be invoked by a call. It also simplifies the language mechanism; in particular, this is what makes Eiffel's multiple inheritance mechanism possible.
Names can, of course, be reused in different classes. For example the feature plus (along with its infix alias "+") is defined in several classes: INTEGER, REAL, STRING, etc.
Genericity
Classes can be generic, to express that they are parameterized by types. Generic parameters appear in square brackets:class LIST [G] ...
G is known as a "formal generic parameter". (Eiffel reserves "argument" for routines, and uses "parameter" only for generic classes.) With such a declaration G represents within the class an arbitrary type; so a function can return a value of type G, and a routine can take an argument of that type:
item: G do ... end
put (x: G) do ... end
The
LIST [INTEGER] and LIST [WORD] are "generic derivations" of this class. Permitted combinations (with n: INTEGER, w: WORD, il: LIST [INTEGER], wl: LIST [WORD]) aren := il.item
wl.put (w)
INTEGER and WORD are the "actual generic parameters" in these generic derivations.It is also possible to have 'constrained' formal parameters, for which the actual parameter must inherit from a given class, the "constraint". For example in
class HASH_TABLE [G, KEY -> HASHABLE]
a derivation
HASH_TABLE [INTEGER, STRING] is valid only if STRING inherits from HASHABLE (as it indeed does in typical Eiffel libraries). Within the class, having KEY constrained by HASHABLE means that for x: KEY it is possible to apply to x all the features of HASHABLE, as in x.hash_code.Inheritance basics
To inherit from one or more others, a class will include aninherit clause at the beginning:class C inherit
A
B
-- ... Rest of class declaration ...
The class may redefine (override) some or all of the inherited features. This must be explicitly announced at the beginning of the class through a
redefine subclause of the inheritance clause, as inclass C inherit
A
redefine f, g, h end
B
redefine u, v end
Deferred classes and features
Classes may be defined withdeferred class rather than with class to indicate that the class may not be directly instantiated. Non-instantiatable classes are called abstract classes in some other object-oriented programming languages. In Eiffel parlance, only an "effective" class can be instantiated (it may be a descendent of a deferred class). A feature can also be deferred by using the deferred keyword in place of a do clause. If a class has any deferred features it must be declared as deferred; however, a class with no deferred features may nonetheless itself be deferred.Deferred classes play some of the same role as interfaces in languages such as Java, though many object-oriented programming theorists believe interfaces are themselves largely an answer to Java's lack of multiple inheritance (which Eiffel has).
Renaming
A class that inherits from one or more others gets all its features, by default under their original names. It may, however, change their names throughrename clauses. This is required in the case of multiple inheritance if there are name clashes between inherited features; without renaming, the resulting class would violate the no-overloading principle noted above and hence would be invalid.Tuples
Tuples types may be viewed as a simple form of class, providing only attributes and the corresponding "setter" procedure. A typical tuple type readsTUPLE [name: STRING; weight: REAL; date: DATE]
and could be used to describe a simple notion of birth record if a class is not needed. An instance of such a tuple is simply a sequence of values with the given types, given in brackets, such as
["Brigitte", 3.5, Last_night]
Components of such a tuple can be accessed as if the tuple tags were attributes of a class, for example if
t has been assigned the above tuple then t.weight has value 3.5.Thanks to the notion of assigner command (see below), dot notation can also be used to assign components of such a tuple, as in
t.weight := t.weight + 0.5
The tuple tags are optional, so that it is also possible to write a tuple type as
TUPLE [STRING, REAL, DATE]. (In some compilers this is the only form of tuple, as tags were introduced with the ECMA standard.)The precise specification of e.g.
TUPLE [A, B, C] is that it describes sequences of at least three elements, the first three being of types A, B, C respectively. As a result TUPLE [A, B, C] conforms to (may be assigned to) TUPLE [A, B], to TUPLE [A] and to TUPLE (without parameters), the topmost tuple type to which all tuple types conform.Agents
Eiffel's "agent" mechanism wraps operations into objects. This mechanism can be used for iteration, event-driven programming, and other contexts in which it is useful to pass operations around the program structure. Other programming languages, especially ones that emphasize functional programmingFunctional programming
In computer science, functional programming is a programming paradigm that treats computation as the evaluation of mathematical functions and avoids state and mutable data. It emphasizes the application of functions, in contrast to the imperative programming style, which emphasizes changes in state...
, allow a similar pattern using continuations, closures
Closure (computer science)
In computer science, a closure is a function together with a referencing environment for the non-local variables of that function. A closure allows a function to access variables outside its typical scope. Such a function is said to be "closed over" its free variables...
, or generators
Generator (computer science)
In computer science, a generator is a special routine that can be used to control the iteration behaviour of a loop. A generator is very similar to a function that returns an array, in that a generator has parameters, can be called, and generates a sequence of values...
; Eiffel's agents emphasize the language's object-oriented paradigm, and use a syntax and semantics similar to code blocks in Smalltalk
Smalltalk
Smalltalk is an object-oriented, dynamically typed, reflective programming language. Smalltalk was created as the language to underpin the "new world" of computing exemplified by "human–computer symbiosis." It was designed and created in part for educational use, more so for constructionist...
and Ruby
Ruby (programming language)
Ruby is a dynamic, reflective, general-purpose object-oriented programming language that combines syntax inspired by Perl with Smalltalk-like features. Ruby originated in Japan during the mid-1990s and was first developed and designed by Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto...
.
For example, to execute the
my_action block for each element of my_list, one would write:my_list.do_all (agent my_action)
To execute
my_action only on elements satisfying my_condition, a limitation/filter can be added:my_list.do_if (agent my_action, agent my_condition)
In these examples,
my_action and my_condition are routines. Prefixing them with agent yields an object that represents the corresponding routine with all its properties, in particular the ability to be called with the appropriate arguments. So if a represents that object (for example because a is the argument to do_all), the instructiona.call ([x])
will call the original routine with the argument
x, as if we had directly called the original routine: my_action (x). Arguments to call are passed as a tuple, here [x].It is possible to keep some arguments to an agent open and make others closed. The open arguments are passed as arguments to
call: they are provided at the time of agent use. The closed arguments are provided at the time of agent definition. For example, if action2 has two arguments, the iterationmy_list.do_all (agent action2 (?, y))
iterates
action2 (x, y) for successive values of x, where the second arguments remained set to y. The question mark ? indicates an open argument; y is a closed argument of the agent. Note that the basic syntax agent f is a short hand for agent f (?, ?, ...) with all arguments open. It is also possible to make the target of an agent open through the notation {T}? where T is the type of the target.The distinction between open and closed operands (operands = arguments + target) corresponds to the distinction between bound and free variables in lambda calculus
Lambda calculus
In mathematical logic and computer science, lambda calculus, also written as λ-calculus, is a formal system for function definition, function application and recursion. The portion of lambda calculus relevant to computation is now called the untyped lambda calculus...
. An agent expression such as
action2 (?, y) with some operands closed and some open corresponds to a version of the original operation curriedCurrying
In mathematics and computer science, currying is the technique of transforming a function that takes multiple arguments in such a way that it can be called as a chain of functions each with a single argument...
on the closed operands.
The agent mechanism also allows defining an agent without reference to an existing routine (such as
my_action, my_condition, action2), through inline agents as inmy_list.do_all (agent (s: STRING)
require
not_void: s /= Void
do
s.append_character (',')
ensure
appended: s.count = old s.count + 1
end)
The inline agent passed here can have all the trappings of a normal routine, including precondition, postcondition, rescue clause (not used here), and a full signature. This avoids defining routines when all that's needed is a computation to be wrapped in an agent. This is useful in particular for contracts, as in an invariant clause that expresses that all elements of a list are positive:
my_list.for_all (agent (x: INTEGER): BOOLEAN do Result := (x > 0) end)
The current agent mechanism leaves a possibility of run-time type error (if a routine with n arguments is passed to an agent expecting m arguments with m < n). This can be avoided by a run-time check through the precondition
valid_arguments of call. Several proposals for a purely static correction of this problem are available, including a language change proposal by Ribet et al.Once routines
A routine's result can be cached using theonce keyword in place of do. Non-first calls to a routine require no additional computation or resource allocation, but simply return a previously computed result. A common pattern for "once functions" is to provide shared objects; the first call will create the object, subsequent ones will return the reference to that object. The typical scheme is:shared_object: SOME_TYPE
once
create Result.make (args)
-- This creates the object and returns a reference to it through `Result'.
end
The returned object—
Result in the example—can itself be mutable, but its reference remains the same.Often "once routines" perform a required initialization: multiple calls to a library can include a call to the initialization procedure, but only the first such call will perform the required actions. Using this pattern initialization can be decentralized, avoiding the need for a special initialization module. "Once routines" are similar in purpose and effect to the singleton pattern
Singleton pattern
In software engineering, the singleton pattern is a design pattern used to implement the mathematical concept of a singleton, by restricting the instantiation of a class to one object. This is useful when exactly one object is needed to coordinate actions across the system...
in many programming languages, and to the Borg pattern used in Python.
By default, a "once routine" is called once per thread. The semantics can be adjusted to once per process or once per object by qualifying it with a "once key", e.g.
once ("PROCESS").Conversions
Eiffel provides a mechanism to allow conversions between various types. The mechanisms coexists with inheritance and complements it. To avoid any confusion between the two mechanisms, the design enforces the following principle:- (Conversion principle) A type may not both conform and convert to another.
For example
NEWSPAPER may conform to PUBLICATION, but INTEGER converts to REAL (and does not inherit from it).The conversion mechanism simply generalizes the ad hoc conversion rules (such as indeed between
INTEGER and REAL) that exist in most programming languages, making them applicable to any type as long as the above principle is observed. For example a DATE class may be declared to convert to STRING; this makes it possible to create a string from a date simply throughmy_string := my_date
as a shortcut for using an explicit object creation with a conversion procedure:
create my_string.make_from_date (my_date)
To make the first form possible as a synonym for the second, it suffices to list the creation procedure (constructor)
make_from_date in a convert clause at the beginning of the class.As another example, if there is such a conversion procedure listed from
TUPLE [day: INTEGER; month: STRING; year: INTEGER], then one can directly assign a tuple to a date, causing the appropriate conversion, as inBastille_day := [14, "July", 1789]
Exception handling
Exception handlingException handling
Exception handling is a programming language construct or computer hardware mechanism designed to handle the occurrence of exceptions, special conditions that change the normal flow of program execution....
in Eiffel is based on the principles of design by contract. For example, an exception occurs when a routine's caller fails to satisfy a precondition, or when a routine cannot ensure a promised postcondition. In Eiffel, exception handling is not used for control flow
Control flow
In computer science, control flow refers to the order in which the individual statements, instructions, or function calls of an imperative or a declarative program are executed or evaluated....
or to correct data-input mistakes.
An Eiffel exception handler is defined using the rescue keyword. Within the rescue section, the retry keyword executes the routine again. For example, the following routine tracks the number of attempts at executing the routine, and only retries a certain number of times:
connect_to_server (server: SOCKET)
-- Connect to a server or give up after 10 attempts.
require
server /= Void and then server.address /= Void
local
attempts: INTEGER
do
server.connect
ensure
connected: server.is_connected
rescue
if attempts < 10 then
attempts := attempts + 1
retry
end
end
This example is arguably flawed for anything but the simplest programs, however, because connection failure is to be expected. For most programs a routine name like attempt_connecting_to_server would be better, and the postcondition would not promise a connection, leaving it up to the caller to take appropriate steps if the connection was not opened.
Concurrency
A number of networking and threading libraries are available, such as EiffelNet and EiffelThreads. A concurrency model for Eiffel, based on the concepts of design by contract, is SCOOPSCOOP (software)
SCOOP stands for Simple Concurrent Object Oriented Programming. It is a concurrency model designed for the Eiffel programming language, conceived by Eiffel's creator and designer, Bertrand Meyer....
, or Simple Concurrent Object-Oriented Programming, not yet part of the official language definition but available in EiffelStudio
EiffelStudio
EiffelStudio is a development environment for the Eiffel programming language developed and distributed by Eiffel Software.EiffelStudio includes a combination of tools integrated under a single user interface: compiler, interpreter, debugger, browser, metrics tool, profiler, diagram tool...
.
CAMEO is an (unimplemented) variation of SCOOP for Eiffel.
Concurrency also interacts with exceptions. Asynchronous exceptions can be troublesome (where a routine raises an exception after its caller has itself finished).
Operator and bracket syntax, assigner commands
Eiffel's view of computation is completely object-oriented in the sense that every operation is relative to an object, the "target". So for example an addition such asa + b
is conceptually understood as if it were the method call
a.plus (b)
with target
a, feature plus and argument b.Of course, the former is the conventional syntax and usually preferred. Operator syntax makes it possible to use either form by declaring the feature (for example in
INTEGER, but this applies to other basic classes and can be used in any other for which such an operator appropriate):plus alias "+" (other: INTEGER): INTEGER
-- ... Normal function declaration...
end
The range of operators that can be used as "alias" is quite broad; they include predefined operators such as "+" but also "free operators" made of non-alphanumeric symbols. This makes it possible to design special infix and prefix notations, for example in mathematics and physics applications.
Every class may in addition have one function aliased to "[]", the "bracket" operator, allowing the notation
a [i, ...] as a synonym for a.f (i, ...) where f is the chosen function. This is particularly useful for container structures such as arrays, hash tables, lists etc. For example access to an element of a hash table with string keys can be writtennumber := phone_book ["JILL SMITH"]
"Assigner commands" are a companion mechanism designed in the same spirit of allowing well-established, convenient notation reinterpreted in the framework of object-oriented programming. Assigner commands allow assignment-like syntax to call "setter" procedures. An assignment proper can never be of the form
a.x := v as this violates information hiding; you have to go for a setter command (procedure). For example the hash table class can have the function and the procedureitem alias "[]" (key: STRING): ELEMENT [3]
-- The element of key `key'.
-- ("Getter" query)
do
...
end
put (e: ELEMENT; key: STRING)
-- Insert the element `e', associating it with the key `key'.
-- ("Setter" command)
do
...
end
Then to insert an element you have to use an explicit call to the setter command:
[4] phone_book.put (New_person, "JILL SMITH")
It is possible to write this equivalently as
[5] phone_book ["JILL SMITH"] := New_person
(in the same way that
phone_book ["JILL SMITH"] is a synonym for number := phone_book.item ("JILL SMITH")), provided the declaration of item now starts (replacement for [3]) withitem alias "[]" (key: STRING): ELEMENT assign put
This declares
put as the assigner command associated with item and, combined with the bracket alias, makes [5] legal and equivalent to [4]. (It could also be written, without taking advantage of the bracket, as phone_book.item ("JILL SMITH") := New_person.note: The argument list of a's assigner is constrained to be: (a's return type;all of a's argument list...)
Lexical and syntax properties
Eiffel is not case-sensitive. The tokensmake, maKe and MAKE all denote the same identifier. See, however, the "style rules" below.Comments are introduced by
-- (two consecutive dashes) and extend to the end of the line.The semicolon, as instruction separator, is optional. Most of the time the semicolon is just omitted, except to separate multiple instructions on a line. This results in less clutter on the program page.
There is no nesting of feature and class declarations. As a result the structure of an Eiffel class is simple: some class-level clauses (inheritance, invariant) and a succession of feature declarations, all at the same level.
It is customary to group features into separate "feature clauses" for more readability, with a standard set of basic feature tags appearing in a standard order, for example:
class HASH_TABLE [ELEMENT, KEY -> HASHABLE] inherit TABLE [ELEMENT]
feature -- Initialization
-- ... Declarations of initialization commands (creation procedures/constructors) ...
feature -- Access
-- ... Declarations of non-boolean queries on the object state, e.g. item ...
feature -- Status report
-- ... Declarations of boolean queries on the object state, e.g. is_empty ...
feature -- Element change
-- ... Declarations of commands that change the structure, e.g. put ...
-- etc.
end
In contrast to most curly bracket programming languages, Eiffel makes a clear distinction between expressions and instructions. This is in line with the Command-Query Separation
Command-query separation
Command-query separation is a principle of imperative computer programming. It was devised by Bertrand Meyer as part of his pioneering work on the Eiffel programming language....
principle of the Eiffel method.
Style conventions
Much of the documentation of Eiffel uses distinctive style conventions, designed to enforce a consistent look-and-feel. Some of these conventions apply to the code format itself, and others to the standard typographic rendering of Eiffel code in formats and publications where these conventions are possible.While the language is case-insensitive, the style standards prescribe the use of all-capitals for class names (
LIST), all-lower-case for feature names (make), and initial capitals for constants (Avogadro). The recommended style also suggests underscore to separate components of a multi-word identifier, as in average_temperature.The specification of Eiffel includes guidelines for displaying software texts in typeset formats: keywords in bold, user-defined identifiers and constants are shown in
italics, comments, operators, and punctuation marks in Roman, with program text in blue as in the present article to distinguish it from explanatory text. For example, the "Hello, world!" program given above would be rendered as below in Eiffel documentation:class
HELLO_WORLD
create
make
feature
make
do
print ("Hello, world!")
end
end
Interfaces to other tools and languages
Eiffel is a purely object-oriented language but provides an open architecture for interfacing with "external" software in any other programming language.It is possible for example to program machine- and operating-system level operations in C
C (programming language)
C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed between 1969 and 1973 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system....
. Eiffel provides a straightforward interface to C routines, including support for "inline C" (writing the body of an Eiffel routine in C, typically for short machine-level operations).
Although there is no direct connection between Eiffel and C, many Eiffel compiler
Compiler
A compiler is a computer program that transforms source code written in a programming language into another computer language...
s (Visual Eiffel
Visual Eiffel
Visual Eiffel is an implementation of the Eiffel programming language developed and distributed by Object Tools GmbH, a German company.Visual Eiffel provides an integrated development environment running on Microsoft Windows...
is one exception) output C source code
Source code
In computer science, source code is text written using the format and syntax of the programming language that it is being written in. Such a language is specially designed to facilitate the work of computer programmers, who specify the actions to be performed by a computer mostly by writing source...
as an intermediate language
Intermediate language
In computer science, an intermediate language is the language of an abstract machine designed to aid in the analysis of computer programs. The term comes from their use in compilers, where a compiler first translates the source code of a program into a form more suitable for code-improving...
, to submit to a C compiler, for optimizing
Optimization (computer science)
In computer science, program optimization or software optimization is the process of modifying a software system to make some aspect of it work more efficiently or use fewer resources...
and portability
Porting
In computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed...
. As such, they are examples of transcompiler
Transcompiler
A transcompiler is a special compiler that translates the source code of a programming language into the source code of another programming language, e.g...
s. The Eiffel Compiler tecomp can execute Eiffel code directly (like an interpreter) without going via an intermediate C code or emit C code which will be passed to a C compiler in order to obtain optimized native code. On .NET, the EiffelStudio
EiffelStudio
EiffelStudio is a development environment for the Eiffel programming language developed and distributed by Eiffel Software.EiffelStudio includes a combination of tools integrated under a single user interface: compiler, interpreter, debugger, browser, metrics tool, profiler, diagram tool...
compiler directly generates CIL
Common Intermediate Language
Common Intermediate Language is the lowest-level human-readable programming language defined by the Common Language Infrastructure specification and is used by the .NET Framework and Mono...
(Common Intermediate Language) code. The SmartEiffel
SmartEiffel
SmartEiffel is a free Eiffel compiler. The compiler translates Eiffel code either to C or Java bytecode. Hence it can be used to write programs that run on virtually any platform for which an ANSI C compiler or a Java virtual machine exist....
compiler can also output Java bytecode
Java bytecode
Java bytecode is the form of instructions that the Java virtual machine executes. Each bytecode opcode is one byte in length, although some require parameters, resulting in some multi-byte instructions. Not all of the possible 256 opcodes are used. 51 are reserved for future use...
.
External links
- Basic Eiffel Language Mechanisms, Bertrand Meyer, August 2006.
- Eiffel Software's Open Source initiative
- Eiffel Software web site of the company that introduced Eiffel, was Interactive Software Engineering (ISE).
- Eiffel tutorial (100 pages) by Bertrand MeyerBertrand MeyerBertrand Meyer is an academic, author, and consultant in the field of computer languages. He created the Eiffel programming language.-Education and academic career:...
(HTML, PDF) - Eiffel standard, revision 2 (2006); this is the ECMA standard, with free access, its text identical to that of the ISO standard.
- SmartEiffel (formerly SmallEiffel, and no releases since 2007) a complete Eiffel compiler released under GNU GPL license, translates Eiffel code either to CC (programming language)C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed between 1969 and 1973 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system....
or Java bytecodeJava bytecodeJava bytecode is the form of instructions that the Java virtual machine executes. Each bytecode opcode is one byte in length, although some require parameters, resulting in some multi-byte instructions. Not all of the possible 256 opcodes are used. 51 are reserved for future use...
, not standard compliant, with emphasis on performance. - "The Eiffel Compiler" (tecomp) an open sourceOpen sourceThe term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
Eiffel compiler with documentation. - Visual Eiffel an open sourceOpen sourceThe term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
implementation of Eiffel creating native code for X86 systems (Windows, Linux) - NICE Nonprofit International Consortium for Eiffel.
- eiffelroom.com Community around standard Eiffel.
- eiffelzone.com Includes a comprehensive Eiffel Software Directory
- Cetus Eiffel Page
- Eiffel for .NET
- Eiffel: the Language subset