SmartEiffel is a

free Free may refer to: Concept * Freedom, having the ability to do something, without having to obey anyone/anything * Freethought, a position that beliefs should be formed only on the basis of logic, reason, and empiricism * Emancipate, to procur ...

Eiffel Eiffel may refer to: Places * Eiffel Peak, a summit in Alberta, Canada * Champ de Mars – Tour Eiffel station, Paris, France; a transit station Structures * Eiffel Tower, in Paris, France, designed by Gustave Eiffel * Eiffel Bridge, Ungheni, M ...

compiler In computing, a compiler is a computer program that translates computer code written in one programming language (the ''source'' language) into another language (the ''target'' language). The name "compiler" is primarily used for programs that ...

. The compiler translates Eiffel code either to C or

Java bytecode In computing, Java bytecode is the bytecode-structured instruction set of the Java virtual machine (JVM), a virtual machine that enables a computer to run programs written in the Java programming language and several other programming languages, ...

. Hence it can be used to write programs that run on virtually any platform for which an

ANSI C ANSI C, ISO C, and Standard C are successive standards for the C programming language published by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 22/WG 14 of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the ...

compiler or a

Java virtual machine A Java virtual machine (JVM) is a virtual machine that enables a computer to run Java programs as well as programs written in other languages that are also compiled to Java bytecode. The JVM is detailed by a specification that formally describes ...

exist. SmartEiffel has been developed at the ''Lorraine Laboratory of Research in Information Technology and its Applications'' (LORIA), an institute affiliated to the French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control (INRIA), on the campus of

Nancy-Université Nancy-Université federated the three principal institutes of higher education of Nancy, France, Nancy, in Lorraine (region), Lorraine, France before their merger into the University of Lorraine: * Henri Poincaré University (UHP, also known as ...

Lorraine Lorraine , also , , ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franconian: ''Lottringe''; german: Lothringen ; lb, Loutrengen; nl, Lotharingen is a cultural and historical region in Northeastern France, now located in the administrative region of Gr ...

. The project was initiated in 1994 by the French researcher Dominique Colnet. The compiler was then called ''SmallEiffel'', in reference to the

Smalltalk Smalltalk is an object-oriented, dynamically typed reflective programming language. It was designed and created in part for educational use, specifically for constructionist learning, at the Learning Research Group (LRG) of Xerox PARC by Alan Ka ...

language. In 1995, the compiler was able to compile itself for the first time. In 1998, on the occasion of a visit to LORIA by

Richard Stallman Richard Matthew Stallman (; born March 16, 1953), also known by his initials, rms, is an American free software movement activist and programmer. He campaigns for software to be distributed in such a manner that its users have the freedom to ...

, the project became part of the

GNU Project The GNU Project () is a free software, mass collaboration project announced by Richard Stallman on September 27, 1983. Its goal is to give computer users freedom and control in their use of their computers and computing devices by collaborati ...

. In December 2002, the project was renamed SmartEiffel and reached version 1.0. In September 2004, SmartEiffel reached version 2.0. In May 2005, after divergences with the working group for the normalization of the Eiffel language, the SmartEiffel project announced that they would not implement the ECMA TC39-TG4 norm.

External links

''The Grand SmartEiffel Book''
– official wiki
''Efficient Dynamic Dispatch without Virtual Function Tables: The SmallEiffel Compiler''
; Olivier ZENDRA, Dominique COLNET and Suzanne COLLINE ; 1997 ; Centre de Recherche en Informatique de Nancy Campus Scientifique, Bâtiment LORIA Compilers Free compilers and interpreters {{free-software-stub

See also

External links