
                         Frequently Asked Questions

   Table of contents

   Q01: [1]Is it possible to have the complete Eiffel source code of
   SmartEiffel?
   Q02: [2]Is it possible to use SmartEiffel for large/commercial
   applications?
   Q03: [3]Is it possible to do incremental compilation with
   SmartEiffel?
   Q04: [4]Is there a SmartEiffel mailing list?
   Q05: [5]What is the semantics (meaning) of a manifest string?
   Q06: [6]Is it difficult to switch from ISE to SmartEiffel?
   Q07: [7]Is it possible to use the Boehm-Demers-Weiser garbage
   collector with SmartEiffel?
   Q08: [8]Why don't you post more messages in newsgroups and/or mailing
   lists?
   Q09: [9]Is there a mechanism to precompile libraries?
   Q10: [10]How is SmartEiffel compiled?
   Q11: [11]How do I keep informed about SmartEiffel?
   Q12:
     [12]What documentation is provided with SmartEiffel?
   Where can I find Eiffel documentation?
   Q13: [13]How can I help ?
   Q14: [14]Why don't you change this and add that?! It would be much
   better/cooler/whatever !
   Q15: [15]How to customize the Garbage Collector for a new architecture
   ?
   Q16: [16]What is SmallEiffel compared to SmartEiffel ? 

   Questions and answers


   Q01: Is it possible to have the complete Eiffel source code of
   SmartEiffel?
   A01: Since it is the GNU Eiffel Compiler, the complete source code of
   SmartEiffel is of course in the distribution. The source code for
   additional libraries is also provided.

   Q02: Is it possible to use SmartEiffel for large/commercial
   applications?
   A02: It is very possible to use SmartEiffel for a large application.
   An Eiffel compiler is a really big project and SmartEiffel itself is
   fully written in Eiffel. SmartEiffel is completely free and any
   private company can use SmartEiffel freely, and distribute (or sell)
   freely the products made with it. They do not have to pay royalties.
   Also note that only classes which are closely related to the compiler
   itself are under GPL (actually, only classes of directory
   SmartEiffel/tools are under GPL). Other classes are _not_ under GPL in
   order to let people completely free (i.e. all classes of
   SmartEiffel/lib). Always keep in mind that SmartEiffel doesn't come
   with any warranty (please read the COPYING file in the distribution).
   As explained in the header of non-GPL files, the only important thing
   is to kept the header unaltered when the corresponding source file is
   provided in your product. For extended support, donations as well as
   consulting, see [17]here.

   Q03: Is it possible to do incremental compilation with SmartEiffel?
   A03: Because of the SmartEiffel type inference mechanism, SmartEiffel
   always produces all needed C files from scratch. As old C files are
   automatically saved, only modified C files are recompiled. See
   [18]man/compile for details.

   Q04: Is there a SmartEiffel mailing list?
   A04: Yes! SmartEiffel users and developpers can share their
   experiences and ideas by subscribing to the [19]SmartEiffel official
   mailing list.

   Q05: What is the semantics (meaning) of a manifest string?
   A05: Bertrand Meyer clearly explains the semantics of manifest strings
   in section 18.5 on page 653 (and previous sections for background) of
   Object-Oriented Software Construction (Second Edition). A manifest
   string expression (in declaration) is not a constant but a reference
   to a shared object. A variable initialized with a manifest string is
   equivalent to a once function, so the string may change! For example:
      Message: STRING is "abc"
   is equivalent to
      Message: STRING is
        once
          !!Result.make (3)
          Result.append_character ('a')
          Result.append_character ('b')
          Result.append_character ('c')
        end
   SmartEiffel implements manifest strings in this way.
   Be aware that manifest string expression may be written in two ways:
      str := "abc"
   This is the standard manifest string expression.
      str := once "abc"
   This is the once manifest string expression.
   In the first case, new string is allocated each time the line is
   executed. In the second case you've got a once result like in
   declaration described above, so the string may have changed. See
   [20]man/compile_to_c for the flag -manifest_string_trace which help
   finding memory leaks from non-once manifest strings.

   Q06: Is it difficult to switch from ISE to SmartEiffel?
   A06: 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 SmartEiffel.ARRAY inherit SmartEiffel.COLLECTION and that ISE
   library also have a class COLLECTION. By the way, subclasses of
   ISE.COLLECTION cannot be used. The ISE.LINKED_LIST can be used in
   conjunction with SmartEiffel.ARRAY because ISE.LINKED_LIST do not
   inherit ISE.COLLECTION (no clash).

   Q07: Is it possible to use the Boehm-Demers-Weiser garbage collector
   with SmartEiffel?
   A07: Yes.
   You just have to disable the generation of the GC by SmartEiffel
   (option -no_gc) and replace it by the BDW library. Note that the BDW
   GC can be easily added because SmartEiffel only uses
   malloc/realloc/calloc.
   You can download the BDW library from :
          [21]http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Hans_Boehm/gc

   How to integrate the Boehm-Demers-Weiser garbage collector with
   SmartEiffel (from a message of Dietmar Wolz) :
    1. Make the gc.a file from the BDW package. Then move this gc.a file
       to /usr/lib/libgc.a.
    2. Move gc.h the to working directory and add the following lines:
       #define malloc(n) GC_malloc(n)
       #define calloc(m,n) GC_malloc((m)*(n))
       #define realloc(p,n) GC_realloc((p),(n))
       #define free(p) GC_free(p)
    3. instead of calling
           "compile -o executable -boost -O root"
       now call
           "compile -o executable -boost -O root -no_gc -lgc -include
       gc.h


   Q08: Why don't you post more messages in newsgroups and/or mailing
   lists?
   A08: First, because we strongly believe that too much information
   kills information. Scientists call this "cognitive overload". :)
   Second, because we don't have the time. It takes an awful amount of
   time to follow discussions, whichever their quality. We try to do
   that. But it's even more time-consuming to be part of them. So, we
   often have too choose betwen posting/mailing, and working directly on
   SmartEiffel. Since our mailboxes tend to overflood, we generally
   choose the latter :)

   Q09: Is there a mechanism to precompile libraries?
   A09: No, there is no such mechanism in SmartEiffel. But if you're
   concerned about compilation speed, don't worry, precomputed libraries
   are not the only way to be fast ! Just try SmartEiffel, and you'll see
   :)

   Q10: How is SmartEiffel compiled?
   A10: With Eiffel optimization options -boost and -no_gc. The garbage
   collector is indeed useless on the SmartEiffel commands: since
   SmartEiffel did not include a GC in its first versions, we were very
   careful about memory when we developped it.
   With C compilation optimizations turned on (it depends on the C
   compiler used; we generally use GCC).
   The resulting executables are stripped.

   Q11: How do I keep well informed about SmartEiffel?
   A11: The best way is to keep an eye on our web pages, more especially
   on the [22]What's New? page and the [23]History of Changes.
   People who want detailed information may also decide to stay tuned to
   [24]the SmartEiffel mailing-list or even look at the [25]bug-tracking
   system.

   Q12: What documentation is provided with SmartEiffel?
   Where can I find Eiffel documentation?
   A12: The documentation provided with SmartEiffel is a transcript of
   what you can find on the original SmartEiffel Web site, at
   [26]http://SmartEiffel.loria.fr. It is related only to the use and
   internals of SmartEiffel (yes, we know we still have to improve it ;)
   ).
   For information and documentation about the Eiffel language, check the
   links on our [27]Internet resources page. Note that we are not aware
   of any complete Eiffel language manual freely available on the Web
   (yet?).

   Q13: How can I help ?
   A13: The best way to help SmartEiffel and its users is probably to
   pick up some area you're interested in, and develop with SmartEiffel
   your own library, application, tool, extension, etc., releasing it to
   other users.
   To avoid duplicate efforts, we suggest you have a look to [28]what
   other people are already doing around SmartEiffel and help them if
   something that's of interest to you is already under work. There are
   actually very good things in there, some we were not even aware of,
   when they were under development ! :)
   You may have a look to the [29]future plans and have a look into the
   bugs database (access via the [30]bug report page on the SmartEiffel
   web site.
   Finally, you may also consider funding the development of particular
   features you wouls like to have.
   Another very good way to help us is to follow the [31]bug report
   guidelines when you find some problem with SmartEiffel :))

   Q14: Why don't you change this and add that?! It would be much
   better/cooler/whatever !
   A14: People must understand that we can't always do everything. We
   simply can't. Because we don't have the time. Whether we like it or
   not, we also have other things to do than provide free stuff, modify
   our compiler and/or libraries to please everybody. We do as much as we
   can, but we don't do miracles, sorry.
   Since SmartEiffel is free of charge and open-source, people who do
   need things we don't provide can always implement them and have them
   benefit everybody. A good way to do this is to start working on it,
   and ask other people (i.e. not the SmartEiffel team ;) ) to join and
   help. See the [32]"How can I help ?" question.
   Alternatively, someone or some company who does need us to implement
   something may always consider funding a bit the development of
   SmartEiffel... After all, we've even heard that some people were
   selling sofware and making a bit of money with it... ;)))

   Q15: How to customize the Garbage Collector for a new architecture ?
   A15: The [33]install command is supposed to tune the GC automatically
   for you. Unfortunately, on some systems, this is not yet automatic.
   Here the way to fix your installation manually (hence to provide a
   patch for the install command itself).
   The content of file SmartEiffel/sys/gc indicates the appropriate
   `mark_stack_and_registers' C function for your system. As an example,
   if the file SmartEiffel/sys/gc contains on the very first line the
   name linux.c, the file SmartEiffel/sys/gc_lib/linux.c is used to get
   the appropriate definition of the `mark_stack_and_registers' C
   function. This definition is automatically included in the generated C
   files (use the -verbose flag to check for the path of the selected
   gc_lib file).
   If the very first line of the file SmartEiffel/sys/gc is NONE, the
   compiler will continue to emit a warning about GC configuration and
   will use the default SmartEiffel/sys/gc_lib/generic.c definition. To
   fix this, you have to select the appropriate file of the
   SmartEiffel/sys/gc_lib directory and update SmartEiffel/sys/gc
   accordingly.
   In order to check the GC, you should be able to run all files of the
   SmartEiffel/misc/benchmarks/gc directory. If you don't find an
   appropriate file for your system in the SmartEiffel/sys/gc_lib
   directory, you should first check that the generic.c definition works.
   The generic.c file contains some more information to allow you to
   write your own new configuration.

   Q16: What is SmallEiffel compared to SmartEiffel ?
   A16: SmallEiffel is the former name of the SmartEiffel project. We
   changed because we thought the compiler had become smart enough ;) For
   a list of changes between the last version of SmallEiffel and the
   first one of SmartEiffel, have a look [34]there.

                                   [Line]

             Copyright © Dominique COLNET and Suzanne COLLIN -
                         [35]<SmartEiffel@loria.fr>
                Last modified: Mon Sep 23 10:49:06 CEST 2002
                                      

References

   1. file://localhost/home/colnet/man/SmartEiffelFAQ.html#Q01
   2. file://localhost/home/colnet/man/SmartEiffelFAQ.html#Q02
   3. file://localhost/home/colnet/man/SmartEiffelFAQ.html#Q03
   4. file://localhost/home/colnet/man/SmartEiffelFAQ.html#Q04
   5. file://localhost/home/colnet/man/SmartEiffelFAQ.html#Q05
   6. file://localhost/home/colnet/man/SmartEiffelFAQ.html#Q06
   7. file://localhost/home/colnet/man/SmartEiffelFAQ.html#Q10
   8. file://localhost/home/colnet/man/SmartEiffelFAQ.html#Q08
   9. file://localhost/home/colnet/man/SmartEiffelFAQ.html#Q09
  10. file://localhost/home/colnet/man/SmartEiffelFAQ.html#Q10
  11. file://localhost/home/colnet/man/SmartEiffelFAQ.html#Q11
  12. file://localhost/home/colnet/man/SmartEiffelFAQ.html#Q12
  13. file://localhost/home/colnet/man/SmartEiffelFAQ.html#Q13
  14. file://localhost/home/colnet/man/SmartEiffelFAQ.html#Q14
  15. file://localhost/home/colnet/man/SmartEiffelFAQ.html#Q15
  16. file://localhost/home/colnet/man/SmartEiffelFAQ.html#Q16
  17. file://localhost/home/colnet/support/support.html
  18. file://localhost/home/colnet/man/compile.html
  19. file://localhost/home/colnet/support/mailing-list.html
  20. file://localhost/home/colnet/man/compile_to_c.html
  21. http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Hans_Boehm/gc/
  22. file://localhost/home/colnet/general/whatsnew.html
  23. file://localhost/home/colnet/misc/HISTORY.html
  24. file://localhost/home/colnet/support/mailing-list.html
  25. file://localhost/home/colnet/support/bug_report.html
  26. http://SmartEiffel.loria.fr/
  27. file://localhost/home/colnet/general/resources.html
  28. file://localhost/home/colnet/general/repository.html
  29. file://localhost/home/colnet/papers/future.html
  30. file://localhost/home/colnet/support/bug_report.html
  31. file://localhost/home/colnet/support/bug_report.html
  32. file://localhost/home/colnet/man/SmartEiffelFAQ.html#Q13
  33. file://localhost/home/colnet/man/install.html
  34. http://SmartEiffel.loria.fr/misc/HISTORY.html#1.0
  35. mailto:SmartEiffel@loria.fr
