New version of 'short' available

From: neil@aldur.demon.co.uk (Neil Wilson)
Date: Sat, 7 Aug 1993 09:38:25 +0000

A new beta release (1.2) of 'short' is available from the Stuttgart
Eiffel archive (ftp.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de) in directory
/pub/eiffel/eiffel-3/sig

Command line processing is now included in the short system. Short can
now cope with multiple input files, the standard input and deal with
most file errors.

Short now depends on the argument cluster which is available from
the same archive and directory.

Short supports the following options:

        -V, +version, -h, +help
                Displays the 'short' version information and gives the
                usage help message for the command.

        -e, +abstract, +eiffel
                Produces a fully deferred version of the input class(es)
                which will compile just like any other class (hopefully :-)

        -l <class_name>, +view <class_name>
                Produces the output from the point of view of the class
                <class_name> - the "short form for <class_name>".
                Special handling for ANY and NONE of course. By default
                short outputs the "short form for ANY".

        -f, +full
                Produces the short form including all the feature
                blocks.  (Implemented as the "short form for NONE".)

        -p, +parents
                Retains the inheritance clause in the output. The default is
                to drop it.

        -b <number>, +blank <number>
                Indent levels by <number> characters. 

        -c <number>, +column <number>
                Width of the output is <number> characters. Should be
                greater than 20.

Obsolete features are not retained. Obsolete classes retain no features.

The output of the tool now conforms to the layout rules in Appendix A of
ETL and should look like the 'short' examples in the book. As much as is
possible the output and command line options conform to ISE's 2.3
version of 'short'.

This release of short has been tested on all the v1.21 Eiffel/S
libraries, itself and the argument clusters, plus any other class
fragments I had lying around at the time.

My biggest debt is of course to David Morgan. This version is only
really a tiny modification of his work. His ELEXER Eiffel 3 parser
remains the core of the tool.  I though am responsible for any remaining
deficiencies or problems with this release.

Problems, suggestions, comments, criticisms to me please. All gratefully
received - I can't improve my Eiffel if somebody doesn't tell me where I
blew it.


>25  COOL(C++, Cfront 2.1, from GE)

COOL is a C++ class library developed at Texas Instruments.

Features are:
1. Rich set of containers like Vector, List, Hash_Table, Matrix, etc...
2. Hierarchy is shallow with no common base class, rather than deep like NIHCL.
3. Functionality close to Common Lisp data structures, like GNU libg++.
4. Template syntax very close to Cfront3.x, g++2.x.
5. Free, with good documentation, and extensive test cases.

Light version of COOL from General Electric:
1. Hairy macros, run-time type, exceptions removed for mainstream C++
   compatibility
2. Free of memory leaks and bound violations. Leaks and bounds are checked
   with Purify.
3. Has memory management and efficient copy in expressions like:
  Set c = a+b+c;    
  Pointers are shared with Handle and Reference count. Deep copy in
  expressions are replaced by shallow copy.
4. Compatible with Cfront2.1, and is being converted to Cfront3.0. You can
  build both static and shared library on SunOS 4.1.x

1. original version from Texas Instruments:
   at csc.ti.com, get pub/COOL.tar.Z
2. Cfront2.1 version modified by General Electric:
   at cs.utexas.edu, get pub/COOL/GE_COOL2.1.tar.Z

I am working on Cfront3.0 version of COOL, using the Beta 3.0 from Sun. I am
experiencing problems with instantiation and specialization of templates.  So
Cfront3.0 version of COOL won't be available until Sun's Cfront 3.0 is
released with bugs fixed.

Van-Duc Nguyen
General Electric 
Research & Development Ctr
1 River Road, Room K1-5C39.
Schenectady, NY 12301.
Phone: (518) 387-5659
Fax:   (518) 387-6845
nguyen@crd.ge.com


>26  idl.SunOS4.x, idl.Solaris2.x