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Frequently Asked Questions about SmallEiffel

Q01: Why the name SmallEiffel
Q02: What about the version numbering?
Q03: Is it possible to have the complete Eiffel source of SmallEiffel?
Q04: Is it possible to use SmallEiffel for large/commercial applications?
Q05: Is it possible to do incremental compilation with SmallEiffel?
Q06: Electronic Information available for SmallEiffel.
Q07: What about the Guru section?
Q08: Is it difficult to switch from ISE to SmallEiffel?
Q09: Are there Mirror ftp sites for SmallEiffel?



A01: Why the name SmallEiffel?
It comes from the mixing of the names Smalltalk and Eiffel. Our aim is to make an Eiffel environment as easy to use as Smalltalk and as safe as Eiffel.

A02: What about the version numbering?
Version numbering uses negative numbers. Usually, the greater the number, the more advanced is the version. The first distributed version was numbered -0.99. Version number -0.0 should correspond to the very best Eiffel compiler on this planet :-)

A03: Is it possible to have the complete Eiffel source of SmallEiffel?
No. The SmallEiffel distribution already includes, in the library, a lot of the Eiffel source files used to write the SmallEiffel compiler itself. For example, the class DICTIONARY is the one used by the SmallEiffel compiler to store features and all kinds of symbolic information. Classes FILE_TOOLS, STD_FILE_READ and STD_FILE_WRITE are also used by the compiler to read Eiffel source code and to write and compare C files. The full C source code of the compiler is free. SmallEiffel may one day become a commercial product (if someone wants to buy it :-). Even if SmallEiffel becomes a commercial product, the C source file will remain under the GNU licence and its new owner will have to give the C code of further releases.

A04: Is it possible to use SmallEiffel for large/commercial applications?
It is possible to use SmallEiffel for a large application. An Eiffel compiler is a really big project and SmallEiffel itself is fully written in (Small)Eiffel. SmallEiffel is completely free and any private compagny can use SmallEiffel freely, and distribute freely the products made with it. They do not have to pay royalties. However, SmallEiffel doesn't come with any varranty (please read the DISCLAIMER file in the distribution). Nonetheless, if you do want a warranty and/or an extended support, you will have to pay a reasonable fee (each year) for it. It is also possible to discuss specific needs you may have in your business. Please contact Dominique COLNET at colnet@loria.fr for more information. [You may also want to do so if you want to support the SmallEiffel team financially and help them keep up the good work!]

A05: Is it possible to do incremental compilation with SmallEiffel?
Before release -0.91 the answer was no. With the current release, the answer is now YES. Because of the SmallEiffel type inference mechanism, SmallEiffel always produces all needed C files from scratch. As old C files are automatically saved, only modified C files are recompiled. See compile for details.

A06: Electronic Information available for SmallEiffel.
The official SmallEiffel page is not yet available. We recommend Geoff Eldridge's page for Eiffel information: http://www.progsoc.uts.edu.au/~geldridg/ This very nice page also contains indexed information for SmallEiffel.

A07: What about the Guru section?
Some feature sections of the SmallEiffel library are labelled with:

feature -- The Guru section :
If you really need your software to be portable to other Eiffel compilers, do not use these features.

A08: Is it difficult to switch from ISE to SmallEiffel?
If your original ISE software only uses simple types like INTEGER, STRING, ARRAY, BOOLEAN, CHARACTER and DOUBLE, it is usually very simple. It is a little bit difficult for simple input/output (used with predefined `io') because some features have different names. If your original software heavily relies on the EiffelBase library, it may be very difficult. For example, one must keep in mind that SmallEiffel.ARRAY inherits SmallEiffel.COLLECTION and that the ISE library also has a class COLLECTION. By the way, subclasses of ISE.COLLECTION cannot be used. The ISE.LINKED_LIST can be used in conjunction with SmallEiffel.ARRAY because ISE.LINKED_LIST does not inherit ISE.COLLECTION (no clash).

A09: Are there Mirror ftp sites for SmallEiffel?

Australiaftp://ftp.progsoc.uts.edu.au/pub/Eiffel/SmallEiffel/
Austriahttp://gd.tuwien.ac.at/pub/languages/SmallEiffel/
USAftp://ftp.cs.rit.edu/pub/mirrors/SmallEiffel/



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This page was last changed by Oliver Elphick on 28th August 1997.