-- This is the READ_ME file of SmartEiffel --

1. - What is SmartEiffel ? -
SmartEiffel is an Eiffel compiler for the Eiffel language defined 
by Bertrand Meyer. SmartEiffel is the GNU Eiffel Compiler. SmartEiffel 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 SmartEiffel (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 "SmartEiffel/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 SmartEiffel compiler if this software 
does not use classes of directory "SmartEiffel/tools". For more information
about commercial applications written in SmartEiffel, please read the file
SmartEiffelFAQ included in the man directory of this distribution.

You can download the latest official version of SmartEiffel at:

   http://SmartEiffel.loria.fr

2. - Brief Description of SmartEiffel -

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, SmartEiffel 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. 

SmartEiffel 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 SmartEiffel group.

This project began in 1994, and since the very first public release in 
September 1995, SmartEiffel has been used worldwide by increasingly 
numerous individuals and Universities. 

3. - Contents of the SmartEiffel directory -

3.1. - man directory - 
Miscellaneous help files. If you don't have outside connection to our WEB
site at http://SmartEiffel.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
SmartEiffelFAQ and documentation for all commands of SmartEiffel. Do not
forget to read the "support.txt" file too. (If you don't have enough money
to support the SmartEiffel 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 SmartEiffel/tutorial directory for 
examples.

3.4.5. - lib/random directory - 
Random numbers generation. See also the SmartEiffel/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 SmartEiffel/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 SmartEiffel 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 SmartEiffel team.

4. - Installation -

4.1. - General information -
The "install" command is the installation program for SmartEiffel The GNU
Eiffel Compiler. This command (class install.e) is entirely written in
Eiffel and is the recommended way to install SmartEiffel The GNU Eiffel
Compiler.

The install.e source code is in SmartEiffel/tools directory,
the generated C code install.c is in the SmartEiffel directory.
Other pre-compiled files are in SmartEiffel/install/germ, they are provided
to have a first eiffel compiler. This compiler will be used to compile
the eiffel compiler from eiffel source code. Then all other tools
can be compiled.

The very first step in installing SmartEiffel is to unpack the SmartEiffel
directory somewhere on disk. The next step is to compile the install.c
file, then to run it from the SmartEiffel 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 PATH=your/installation/directory/SmartEiffel/bin:$PATH
Then, in a freshly created shell window, just type:
    cd your/installation/directory; cd SmartEiffel; make all

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 PATH your/installation/directory/SmartEiffel/bin:$PATH
Then, in a freshly created shell window, just type:
    cd your/installation/directory; cd SmartEiffel; make interactive
Actually, the Makefile which is in the SmartEiffel 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 SmartEiffel directory, you just have to run it. 

4.5. - Installation on Amiga VP on Elate -
Thanks to Joe Kiniry <kiniry@acm.org> and Rudi Chiarito
<rudi@amiga.com>, SmartEiffel also work on the Amiga VP on the Elate
platform from Tao Group. If you have problems or questions about
SmartEiffel on Amiga VP/Elate, please contact Joe Kiniry
<kiniry@acm.org> first.

IMPORTANT: The AmigaDE/Elate 1.3 release has some bugs in the vpcc
compiler, particularly in the optimizer. This release builds properly
with any optimization you like, 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, you can compile
programs with any optimization you like if you use -boost (that is, if
you do *not* want to have any checks enabled). If you need to run
with checks, or run in the debugger, compile with -O0 only. The
default configuration (compiler.se in the pre-build Elate binary of
SmartEiffel 1.1) ships with -O0 as the default.

4.5.1. - How do I install the pre-built SmartEiffel from the
         AmigaDev.net, KindSoftware.com, or SmartEiffel web sites? -

Change directory to the root of your Amiga file-system and unpack the
full gzipped tar file. E.g.
   cd /; tar xzf SmartEiffel-1.1-Elate-1.3.tgz
You can set a shell variable called "SmartEiffel" to location of
"system.se" file in the install (default location for Elate system is
/lang/eiffel/.serc). Thus, typically, the following line
goes in your shell startup file (/etc/shell.rc):
   set SmartEiffel /lang/SmartEiffel-1.1/sys/system.se
If you are going to leave the Eiffel executables where they sit after
the build, you should add /lang/SmartEiffel-1.1/bin to shell.path in
your shell startup. E.g.: New contents for /etc/shell.rc:
   # Pathnames
   set shell.path $shell.path /lang/SmartEiffel-1.1/bin
   # SmartEiffel
   set SmartEiffel /lang/SmartEiffel-1.1/sys/system.se

Otherwise, consider using the "cpt" tool to move all binaries in
/lang/SmartEiffel-1.1/bin to /app/stdio or /lang/eiffel.

The new naming convention for the install has been chosen so that
multiple version of the SmartEiffel compiler can be easily supported.

4.5.2. - What do you need to know to build SmartEiffel 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 SmartEiffel 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
SmartEiffel. 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
<http://www.amigadev.net/>. The cpt tool was written by Jesse
McClusky.

As usual, you must have the aforementioned shell variable
"SmartEiffel" 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 <kiniry@acm.org> http://www.kindsoftware.com/

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 or in our bug tracking system.
For more information about bug reporting:
http://SmartEiffel.loria.fr/support/bug_report.html

6 Juny 2003. D.Colnet - SmartEiffel@loria.fr