-- This is the READ_ME file of SmallEiffel -- 1. - What is SmallEiffel ? - SmallEiffel is an Eiffel compiler for the Eiffel language defined by Bertrand Meyer. SmallEiffel is the GNU Eiffel Compiler. SmallEiffel also features many Eiffel tools and a very large library of classes: collections, dictionaries, linked lists, sets and many other data structures, portable input output facilities, iterators, number computation, sorting, etc. Tools of SmallEiffel (i.e. compile, short, pretty, compile_to_c, finder, compile_to_jvm, print_jvm_class and install) are free software distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL) as published by the Free Software Foundation. General interest classes of the library (i.e. all classes of directory "SmallEiffel/lib") are not under GPL: they are free and you can do what you want with them. As an example, you can sell any executable software produced with the SmallEiffel compiler if this software does not use classes of directory "SmallEiffel/tools". For more information about commercial applications written in SmallEiffel, please read the file SmallEiffelFAQ included in the man directory of this distribution. You can download the latest official version of SmallEiffel at: http://SmallEiffel.loria.fr 2. - Brief Description of SmallEiffel - It is intended to be a complete, though small and very fast, free Eiffel compiler. It is available for a very wide range of platforms: GNU/Linux, GNU/Hurd, FreeBSD, BSD/OS, NetBSD, OpenBSD, HP-UX, IRIX, XENIX, Solaris, DOS, OS2, WINDOWS NT/95/2000, Macintosh, NeXT, Amiga, AmigaDE/Elate, BeOS, QNX, VMS, etc. Actually, SmallEiffel should run on any platform for which an ANSI C compiler exists. The current distribution includes an Eiffel to C compiler, an Eiffel to Java bytecode compiler, a debogger, a documentation tool, a pretty printer and various other tools. SmallEiffel is the result of a research project of the LORIA, a joint computer science research center in Nancy, France. It has been developed by Dominique Colnet and the SmallEiffel group. This project began in 1994, and since the very first public release in September 1995, SmallEiffel has been used worldwide by increasingly numerous individuals and Universities. 3. - Contents of the SmallEiffel directory - 3.1. - man directory - Miscellaneous help files. If you don't have outside connection to our WEB site at http://SmallEiffel.loria.fr, you can browse the man directory using the index.html file of this man directory. Actually, this directory also contains generated simple text files (i.e. *.txt files). There is a SmallEiffelFAQ and documentation for all commands of SmallEiffel. Do not forget to read the "support.txt" file too. (If you don't have enough money to support the SmallEiffel project, please, just send me a postcard. It is really important for us to receive this kind of feedback). 3.2. - bin directory - The place where executable files will be put by the installation process. 3.3. - tutorial directory - Some demonstrations and examples in Eiffel. 3.4. - lib directory and sub-directories - The lib directory contains general interest classes which are not under GPL. This directory contains only non-GPL files. You are free to do what you want with those files, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. You can modify it as you want, provided the header is kept unaltered when some source file is provided. You are allowed to redistribute it and sell it, alone or as a part of another product or executable. 3.4.1. - lib/kernel directory - The kernel classes set of class includes very low level classes like string.e, integer.e, character.e, real.e, boolean.e and double.e for example. Because class array.e is closely linked with the Eiffel definition, this class as well as collection.e and native_array.e are also in this kernel directory. 3.4.2. - lib/base directory - Various kinds of collections (fixed_array.e, linked_list.e, two_way_linked_list.e). Hash table (dictionary.e). Sets (set.e). 3.4.3. - lib/io directory - Input output facilities to manipulate file as well as directories. 3.4.4. - lib/iterator directory - Most collection-like classes can be traversed using the iterator.e abstract class. All implementations of our iterator.e class are stored in this directory. Also have a look in the SmallEiffel/tutorial directory for examples. 3.4.5. - lib/random directory - Random numbers generation. See also the SmallEiffel/tutorial directory for examples. 3.4.6. - lib/number directory - The arbitrary precision NUMBER library. This library is useful for handling very large numbers (i.e. greater than the one of the architecture). See also the SmallEiffel/tutorial directory for examples. 3.4.7. - lib/time directory - Classes to manipulate date and time in various language (french, english, german, italian, etc.). 3.4.8. - lib/sorting directory - Classes to sort collections. 3.5. - tools directory - The Eiffel source code of all SmallEiffel tools (commands 'compile', 'compile_to_c', 'pretty', 'short', 'compile_to_jvm', 'print_jvm_class', `ace_check' ...). All files of this directory are closely related to our Eiffel compilation tools. Please note that all files of this "tools" are under GPL license. 3.6. - bin_c directory - The generated C code of command compile_to_c in -boost mode without GC support. Those generated C files are used during the installation process to bootstrap the compiler and tools. 3.7. - short directory - This directory contains various available output format descriptions for the `short' command. See also the short command documentation in the man directory. 3.8. - sys directory - System information. This directory also contains hand written C code to customize the runtime. (See also file system.txt of the man directory for more information about this sys directory.) 3.9. - misc directory - Miscellaneous files. Information about the history of the project is in file HISTORY.txt. Credits are in file THANKS.txt. Also have a look at the WeNeedFeedBack.txt file too. 3.10. - contrib directory - Useful software not written by the SmallEiffel team. 4. - Installation - 4.1. - General information - The "install" command is the installation program for SmallEiffel The GNU Eiffel Compiler. This command (class install.e) is entirely written in Eiffel and is the recommended way to install SmallEiffel The GNU Eiffel Compiler. The install.e source code as well as the generated C code install.c are in the SmallEiffel directory. The very first step in installing SmallEiffel is to unpack the SmallEiffel directory somewhere on disk. The second step is to set the "SmallEiffel" environment variable to the full path leading to the "SmallEiffel/sys/system.se" file. The last step is to compile the install.c file and to run it from the SmallEiffel directory. The install command will do the rest of the work and will try to report possible problems. 4.2. - Installation on GNU/Linux/gcc - Choose some place on the disk to unpack the se.tgz archive: cd InstallationDirectory; tar xzvf se.tgz Update your .bashrc file (or equivalent) with the following two lines: export SmallEiffel=InstallationDirectory/SmallEiffel/sys/system.se export PATH=InstallationDirectory/SmallEiffel/bin:$PATH Then, in a freshly created shell window, just type: cd InstallationDirectory; cd SmallEiffel; make automatic 4.3. - Installation on UNIX like platforms - If you are under some UNIX (including GNU/Linux) system, and if you prefer to use a csh like shell. Chose some place on the disk to unpack the se.tgz archive: cd InstallationDirectory; gunzip se.tgz ; tar xvf se.tar Update your .cshrc (or equivalent) file with the following two lines: setenv SmallEiffel InstallationDirectory/SmallEiffel/sys/system.se setenv PATH InstallationDirectory/SmallEiffel/bin:$PATH Then, in a freshly created shell window, just type: cd InstallationDirectory; cd SmallEiffel; make Actually, the Makefile which is in the SmallEiffel directory automatically compiles and launches the install command in -interactive mode. Thus, you will be asked for the C compiler you prefer to use. 4.4. - Installation on Windows98/NT/2000 - If you are using a Windows system, a precompiled install.exe is available too in the SmallEiffel directory, you just have to run it. 4.5. - Installation on Amiga VP on Elate - Thanks to Joe Kiniry , SmallEiffel also work on Amiga VP on Elate. If you have problems or questions about SmallEiffel on Amiga VP on Elate, please contact Joe Kiniry first. IMPORTANT: The AmigaDE/Elate 1.1 release still has several bugs in the vpcc compiler, particularly in the optimizer. This release should build properly with the -O1 flag, but when building Eiffel programs in general you'll have to try different optimization flags to see what works for your particular situation. In general, it is suggested that you always try -O0 first, and if that doesn't work, try -O1 then -O2. You will know if a compilation failed due to optimizer bugs if you get a duplicate symbol error or similar. 4.5.1. - How do I install the pre-built SmallEiffel from the AmigaDev or KindSoftware web sites? - Change directory to the root of your Amiga filesystem and unpack the full gzipped tar file. E.g. cd /; tar xzf SmallEiffel-0.75-Elate.tgz You must set a shell variable called "SmallEiffel" to location of "system.se" file in the install. Thus, typically, the following line goes in your shell startup file (/etc/shell.rc): set SmallEiffel /lang/eiffel/sys/system.se If you are going to leave the Eiffel executables where they sit after the build, you should add /lang/eiffel/bin to shell.path in your shell startup. E.g.: New contents for /etc/shell.rc: # Pathnames set shell.path $shell.path /lang/eiffel/bin # SmallEiffel set SmallEiffel /lang/eiffel/sys/system.se Otherwise, consider using the cpt tool to move all binaries in /lang/eiffel/bin to /app/stdio. 4.4.2. - What do you need to know to build SmallEiffel on Amiga VP on Elate? - If you are building your own release (i.e. you downloaded the source from the Loria web site), you install SmallEiffel on AmigaDE/Elate just like on all other systems; follow the install directions that come with the package, using AmigaDE/Elate conventions, and you are all set. You must have the cpt ("copy tool") tool installed to build SmallEiffel. The build process initially writes executables in the bin_c directory. They are then moved later in the build process to the bin directory. The cpt tool can currently be obtained from the Amiga Support Network . The cpt tool was written by Jesse McClusky. As usual, you must have the aforementioned shell variable "SmallEiffel" set correctly before building. To build from scratch, just type "make elate". 4.5.3. - What is known to work and not work on Amiga VP Elate? - All the compiler tools work correctly, including compiling to JVM code. The Elate garbage collector is robust but does not properly compile and link with all optimizer switches. As mentioned above, there are several known bugs in vpcc on AmigaDE/Elate. Follow the directions above and you should be able to get garbage collection working with any Eiffel program on AmigaDE/Elate. I have tested all inter-language feature call variants (Eiffel code to C and C++, C and C++ from Eiffel, Java to and from Eiffel) and all of these work great under the AmigaDE/Elate! Problems? Questions? Drop me a line. Joseph Kiniry http://www.cs.caltech.edu/~kiniry/ 4.6. - Installation on other systems - On other systems, the very first step for installation is to C compile the install.c file in order to run it. 5. - Bug Reports - Thank in advance for bug reports. Don't forget to have a look first in the misc/NOT_YET_IMPLEMENTED.txt file. Please, try to isolate the bug as much as possible. The best is to be able to create a single file, as small a possible (which includes the bug). Please report the bug in our mailing list: http://SmallEiffel.loria.fr/support/mailing-list.html November 16th 2001. D.Colnet - SmallEiffel@loria.fr