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?
Australia | ftp://ftp.progsoc.uts.edu.au/pub/Eiffel/SmallEiffel/ |
---|---|
Austria | http://gd.tuwien.ac.at/pub/languages/SmallEiffel/ |
USA | ftp://ftp.cs.rit.edu/pub/mirrors/SmallEiffel/ |