The International Organization for Standardization , widely known as ISO , is an international standard-setting body composed of representatives from various national standards organizations.... -standardized, object-oriented programming language
Programming language
A programming language is a machine-readable artificial language designed to express computations that can be performed by a machine, particularly a computer.... designed to enable programmers to efficiently develop extensible, reusable, reliable software. Eiffel is used in academia as a language for teaching computer-programming principles. Eiffel is used in the finance, aerospace, health-care, video-gaming, and other industries as a development platform. Since 1985, many suppliers have developed Eiffel programming environments.
The Eiffel language's design is closely connected with the Eiffel programming method.
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The International Organization for Standardization , widely known as ISO , is an international standard-setting body composed of representatives from various national standards organizations.... -standardized, object-oriented programming language
Programming language
A programming language is a machine-readable artificial language designed to express computations that can be performed by a machine, particularly a computer.... designed to enable programmers to efficiently develop extensible, reusable, reliable software. Eiffel is used in academia as a language for teaching computer-programming principles. Eiffel is used in the finance, aerospace, health-care, video-gaming, and other industries as a development platform. Since 1985, many suppliers have developed Eiffel programming environments.
The Eiffel language's design 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 or Programming by Contract is an approach to designing computer software. It prescribes that software designers should define Formal methods, precise and verifiable interface specifications for Component-based software engineering#Software component based upon the theory of abstract data types and the conceptual metaph... , command-query separation
Command-query separation
Command-query separation is a principle of Imperative_programming computer programming. It was devised by Bertrand Meyer as part of his pioneering work on the Eiffel .... , 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 programming languages.... , single-choice principle
Single choice principle
The single choice principle is a principle of imperative programming computer programming. It was defined by Bertrand Meyer as:"Whenever a software system must support a set of alternatives, one and only one module in the system should know their exhaustive list." It was applied when designing Eiffel .... , open-closed principle, and option-operand separation
Option-operand separation
Option-operand separation is a principle of Imperative_programming computer programming. It was devised by Bertrand Meyer as part of his pioneering work on the Eiffel .... .
Many concepts initially introduced by Eiffel have 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.
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 Contract or Programming by Contract is an approach to designing computer software. It prescribes that software designers should define Formal methods, precise and verifiable interface specifications for Component-based software engineering#Software component based upon the theory of abstract data types and the conceptual metaph... tightly integrated with other language constructs.
Automatic memory management, typically implemented by garbage collection
Garbage 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 used by Object that will never be accessed or mutated again by the Application software.... .
In object-oriented programming, inheritance is a way to form new class es using classes that have already been defined. The inheritance concept was invented in 1967 for Simula.... , including multiple inheritance
Multiple inheritance
Multiple inheritance refers to a feature of some object-oriented programming programming languages in which a class can inheritance behaviors and features from more than one superclass .... , renaming, redefinition, "select", non-conforming inheritance, and other mechanisms intended to make inheritance safe.
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 and was pioneered by Ada which appeared in 1983.... .
A uniform type system handling both value and reference semantics in which all types, including basic types such as INTEGER, are class-based.
Type safety (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 closure
Closure (computer science)
In computer science, a closure is a function that is evaluated in an environment containing one or more bound variables. When called, the function can access these variables.... s and lambda calculus
Lambda calculus
In mathematical logic and computer science, lambda calculus, also written as ?-calculus, is a formal system designed to investigate function definition, function application and recursion.... .
Once routines, or routines evaluated only once, for object sharing and decentralized initialization.
Algol , known colloquially as the Demon Star, is a bright star in the constellation Perseus . It is one of the best known eclipsing binary, the first such star to be discovered, and also one of the first variable stars to be discovered.... /Pascal
Pascal (programming language)
Pascal is an influential imperative programming and Procedural programming 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 structure.... 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 computing, optimization is the process of modifying a system to make some aspect of it work more efficiently or use fewer resources. For instance, a computer program may be optimized so that it executes more rapidly, or is capable of operating with less Computer data storage or other resources, or draw less power.... 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 general-purpose programming language. It is regarded as a middle-level language, as it comprises a combination of both high-level programming language and low-level programming language language features.... .
Eiffel Software is a software company specializing in object technology, especially tools, training and services for the Eiffel , originally introduced by the company in 1985.... , a company originally called Interactive Software Engineering Inc. (ISE) founded by Bertrand Meyer
Bertrand Meyer
Bertrand Meyer is an academic, author, and consultant in the field of computer languages. He created the Eiffel .... . Object-Oriented Software Construction
Object-Oriented Software Construction
Object-Oriented Software Construction is the title of a book by Bertrand Meyer, widely considered a foundational text of object-oriented programming.... 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 refers to a feature of some object-oriented programming programming languages in which a class can inheritance behaviors and features from more than one superclass .... , genericity, polymorphism, encapsulation
Encapsulation (computer science)
In computer science, Encapsulation is the hiding of the internal mechanisms and data structures of a software component behind a defined interface, in such a way that users of the component only need to know what the component does, and cannot make themselves dependent on the details of how it does it.... , 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.... is design by contract
Design by contract
Design by Contract or Programming by Contract is an approach to designing computer software. It prescribes that software designers should define Formal methods, precise and verifiable interface specifications for Component-based software engineering#Software component based upon the theory of abstract data types and the conceptual metaph... (DbC), in which assertions
Assertion (computing)
In computer programming, an assertion is a First-order logic placed in a program to indicate that the developer thinks that the predicate is always true at that place.... , 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.... s, and class invariant
Class invariant
In computer programming, a class invariant is an invariant used to constrain object s of a class . Method s of the class should preserve the 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
Abstract data type
In computing, an abstract data type is a specification of a set of data and the set of operations that can be performed on the data. Such a data type is abstract in the sense that it is independent of various concrete implementations.... 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".
EiffelStudio is a development environment for the Eiffel 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 also known as integrated design environment or integrated debugging 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.... . EiffelEnvision is a plug-in for Microsoft Visual Studio
Microsoft Visual Studio
Microsoft Visual Studio is an integrated development environment from Microsoft. It can be used to develop Console application 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 platforms supported by Microsoft W... 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:, Gobo Eiffel, SmartEiffel
SmartEiffel
SmartEiffel is a free software Eiffel compiler. It has been developed at the Lorraine Laboratory of Research in Information Technology and its Applications , an institute affiliated to the INRIA, on the campus of Nancy-Universit? in Lorraine .... —the GNU implementation, based on an older version of the language—and Visual Eiffel
Visual Eiffel
Visual Eiffel is an implementation of the Eiffel 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 function s and avoids program state and immutable object data.... 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 Computer 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 ISO
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.... . The standard was developed by ECMA International, which first approved the standard on 21 June 2005 as ECMA standard 367, Eiffel: Analysis, Design and Implementation 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 implements 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 software Eiffel compiler. It has been developed at the Lorraine Laboratory of Research in Information Technology and its Applications , an institute affiliated to the INRIA, on the campus of Nancy-Universit? in Lorraine .... 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 , and
Bertrand Meyer: Object-Oriented Software Construction, Prentice Hall: first edition, 1988; second edition, 1997.
Syntax and semantics
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 construct, 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 Smalltalk, 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 Eiffel provides syntax for.
"Hello, world!"
A programming language's look and feel is often conveyed using a "Hello, world!" program. Such a program written in Eiffel might be:
class
HELLO_WORLD
create
make
feature
make
do
print ("Hello, world!%N")
end
end
Design by Contract or Programming by Contract is an approach to designing computer software. It prescribes that software designers should define Formal methods, precise and verifiable interface specifications for Component-based software engineering#Software component based upon the theory of abstract data types and the conceptual metaph... 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 is a principle of Imperative_programming computer programming. It was devised by Bertrand Meyer as part of his pioneering work on the Eiffel .... : 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.
Method overloading is a feature found in various programming languages such as Ada , C Sharp , C++, D and Java that allows the creation of several subprograms 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 function.... . 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 "+" operator 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]) are
n := il.item
wl.put (w)
INTEGER resp. 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 an inherit 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 in
class C inherit
A
redefine f, g, h end
B
redefine u, v end
Deferred classes and features
Classes may be defined with deferred 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 through rename 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 reads
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 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 programming
Functional programming
In computer science, functional programming is a programming paradigm that treats computation as the evaluation of function s and avoids program state and immutable object data.... , allow a similar pattern using continuations, closures
Closure (computer science)
In computer science, a closure is a function that is evaluated in an environment containing one or more bound variables. When called, the function can access these variables.... , or generators
Generator (computer science)
In computer science, a generator is a special subroutine that can be used to control the iteration behaviour of a control flow#Loops. 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 and Ruby
Ruby (programming language)
Ruby is a dynamic programming language, reflection , general purpose object-oriented programming language that combines syntax inspired by Perl with Smalltalk-like features.... .
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 instruction
a.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 iteration
my_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 ? 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 ?-calculus, is a formal system designed to investigate function definition, function application and recursion.... . An agent expression such as action2 (?, y) with some operands closed and some open corresponds to a version of the original operation curried
Currying
In computer science, currying, invented by Moses Sch?nfinkel and Gottlob Frege, and independently by Haskell Curry, is the technique of transforming a function that takes multiple parameter 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 has been recently generalized to allow defining an agent without reference to an existing routine (such as my_action, my_condition, action2), through inline agents as in
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 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 the once 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 libraries 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 that is used to restrict Instantiation of a class to one object-oriented programming.... in many programming languages, and to the Borg pattern
Singleton pattern
In software engineering, the singleton pattern is a design pattern that is used to restrict Instantiation of a class to one object-oriented programming.... used in Python.
The ECMA specification allows variants of "once" (qualified by a keyword in parentheses, e.g. once (THREAD): once per process, once per thread, once per object. However, this is not yet fully implemented by current compilers (typically, only PROCESS and THREAD).
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 through
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) 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 in
Bastille_day := [14, "July", 1789]
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 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 statement , Instruction or function calls of an imperative programming or functional programming computer program are execution 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 SCOOP (software)
Scoop (software)
Scoop is a content management system originally developed by Rusty Foster. Scoop's focus is on collaborative publishing, and its feature set is geared toward encouraging user contributions and participation.... , or Simple Concurrent Object-Oriented Programming, not yet part of the official language definition but available as an add-on from ETH Zurich
ETH Zurich
ETH Z?rich or Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Z?rich is a science and technology university in the Z?rich, Switzerland. Locals sometimes refer to it by the name Poly, derived from the original name Eidgen?ssisches Polytechnikum or Federal Polytechnic Institute.... .
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
[1] a + b
is conceptually understood as if it were a function call
[2] a.plus (b)
with target a, feature plus and argument b.
Of course [1] 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 written
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 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 procedure
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 phone_book ["JILL SMITH"] is a synonym for number := phone_book.item ("JILL SMITH")), provided the declaration of item now starts (replacement for [3]) with
item 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 tokens make, 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]
Curly brace or bracket programming languages are those which use balanced brackets to make block s in their syntax or formal grammar, mainly due to being C -influenced.... s, 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_programming computer programming. It was devised by Bertrand Meyer as part of his pioneering work on the Eiffel .... 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:
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 originally developed in 1972 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories to implement 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 . The most common reason for wanting to transform source code is to create an executable program.... s except one (Visual Eiffel
Visual Eiffel
Visual Eiffel is an implementation of the Eiffel developed and distributed by Object Tools GmbH, a German company.Visual Eiffel provides an integrated development environment running on Microsoft Windows.... ) output C source code
Source code
In computer science, source code is any collection of statements or declarations written in some human-readable computer programming language.... 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 transformations, as an intermediate step before gener... , to submit to a C compiler, for optimizing
Optimization (computer science)
In computing, optimization is the process of modifying a system to make some aspect of it work more efficiently or use fewer resources. For instance, a computer program may be optimized so that it executes more rapidly, or is capable of operating with less Computer data storage or other resources, or draw less power.... and portability
Porting
In computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable Computer program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed .... . 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 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 in the Common Language Infrastructure and in the .NET Framework.... (Common Intermediate Language) code. The SmartEiffel
SmartEiffel
SmartEiffel is a free software Eiffel compiler. It has been developed at the Lorraine Laboratory of Research in Information Technology and its Applications , an institute affiliated to the INRIA, on the campus of Nancy-Universit? in Lorraine .... compiler can also output Java bytecode
Java bytecode
Java bytecode is the form of instructions that the Java virtual machine executes. Each bytecode instruction or opcode is one byte in length; however, not all of the possible 256 instructions are used.... .
External links
, , August 2006.
web site of the company that introduced Eiffel, was Interactive Software Engineering (ISE).
Open source is an approach to design, development, and distribution offering practical accessibility to a product's source . Some consider open source as one of various possible design approaches, while others consider it a critical Strategy element of their business operations.... Eiffel compiler with .
Open source is an approach to design, development, and distribution offering practical accessibility to a product's source . Some consider open source as one of various possible design approaches, while others consider it a critical Strategy element of their business operations.... implementation of Eiffel creating native code for X86 systems (Windows, Linux)
Nonprofit International Consortium for Eiffel.
Community around standard Eiffel
Includes a comprehensive Eiffel Software Directory
