资料来源 : WordNet®

Eiffel
     n : French engineer who constructed the Eiffel Tower (1832-1923)
         [syn: {Alexandre Gustave Eiffel}]

资料来源 : Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing

Eiffel
     
         An {object-oriented} language produced by {Bertrand
        Meyer} in 1985.  Eiffel has {classes} with {multiple
        inheritance} and {repeated inheritance}, {deferred class}es
        (like {Smalltalk}'s {abstract class}), and {cluster}s of
        classes.  Objects can have both {static type}s and {dynamic
        type}s.  The dynamic type must be a descendant of the static
        (declared) type.  {Dynamic binding} resolves {multiple
        inheritance} clashes.  It has flattened forms of classes, in
        which all of the inherited features are added at the same
        level and {generic class}es parametrised by type.
     
        Other features are {persistent object}s, {garbage collection},
        {exception} handling, {foreign language interface}.  Classes
        may be equipped with {assertions} (routine preconditions and
        postconditions, class {invariant}s) implementing the theory of
        "{Design by Contract}" and helping produce more reliable
        software.
     
        Eiffel is compiled to {C}.  It comes with libraries containing
        several hundred classes: data structures and {algorithm}s
        (EiffelBase), graphics and user interfaces (EiffelVision) and
        language analysis (EiffelLex, EiffelParse).
     
        The first release of Eiffel was release 1.4, introduced at the
        first {OOPSLA} in October 1986.  The language proper was first
        described in a University of California, Santa Barbara report
        dated September 1985.
     
        Eiffel is available, with different libraries, from several
        sources including {Interactive Software Engineering}, USA (ISE
        Eiffel version 3.3); Sig Computer GmbH, Germany (Eiffel/S);
        and {Tower, Inc.}, Austin (Tower Eiffel).
     
        The language definition is administered by an open
        organisation, the Nonprofit International Consortium for
        Eiffel (NICE).  There is a standard kernel library.
     
        An {Eiffel source checker} and compiler {front-end} is
        available.
     
        Latest version: 4.2, as of 1998-10-28.
     
        Latest version: ISE Eiffel version 3.3.
     
        See also {Sather}, {Distributed Eiffel}, {Lace}, {shelf}.
     
        E-mail: .
     
        ["Eiffel: The Language", Bertrand Meyer, P-H 1992].
     
        (1998-11-15)