SmallEiffel for Debian


Contents of this document:

What is Eiffel

Eiffel is an Object-Oriented language designed by Bertrand Meyer. The aim of its designer was to make a language that implements a new culture of software development, focussing on the reuse of reliable components.

Reuse is promoted by the concept of design by contract, under which each component publishes a contract for what it will guarantee to do, given specified inputs and conditions.

See the Eiffel FAQ for more information.

What is SmallEiffel

SmallEiffel is a freeware version of Eiffel, released under the GNU licence. It was developed by Dominique Colnet.

For further information see the SmallEiffel FAQ.

SmallEiffel help

Environment variable

In order to use SmallEiffel tools, you must set and export the environment variable SmallEiffel by a command such as this (Bourne shell syntax):
export SmallEiffel=/usr/lib/smalleiffel
This command should be incorporated into your start-up environment, in such places as /etc/profile, ~/.bash_login or ~/.xinitrc.

Emacs

An Emacs .file is provided in /usr/lib/smalleiffel/misc/pointemacs.

Xemacs 20 provides support for Eiffel 3 (in the OO-Browser).

SmallEiffel Tools

smalleiffel.shA menu environment for easier handling of Eiffel editing and compilation.
compileCompiles Eiffel code into an executable.
compile_to_cCompiles Eiffel code into C.
compile_to_jvmCompiles Eiffel code into Java.
cleanRemoves intermediate files produced by compilation.
finderLocates classes along the given search path
prettyConverts an Eiffel class file into a standard presentation format.
print_jvm_classPrints the Java code produced by compile_to_jvm.
shortPrints the public interface of a class


Base Library

The Base or standard Library is a set of Eiffel classes that are provided with the language tools because some, at least, of them will be needed by every application. These classes can be used by any Eiffel program, and you should avoid using any of their names for your own classes, because by doing so you will mask the standard classes and make them unavailable.

Other Help

External itemsHow to call routines from other languages.
Cecil libraryHow to let other languages call Eiffel classes
SystemHow to configure the Small Eiffel system
GuruNon-compatible library



Maintainer

The Debian package of SmallEiffel is maintained by Oliver Elphick.

Release versions

SmallEiffel's first release was -1.0; the current release is -0.82. Since this does not fit into Debian's release scheme, the SmallEiffel Debian package 1.0 corresponded to SmallEiffel -0.85, and Debian package 1.1 to SmallEiffel -0.84. The Debian number of the current release is 1.3.0.82, which incorporates the upstream number as well as maintaining proper priority within the Debian system.

Future upstream releases of SmallEiffel will be renumbered on the same lines.



This page was last changed by Oliver Elphick on 28th January 1998.