-- This is the READ_ME.txt 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 but under the MIT/X-11 licence. 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 debugger, 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 files under the MIT/X-11 licence. 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 and
footer are 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.

*** The following tour of the library is somewhat dated. Please refer
*** to the online documentation at the following address for a more
*** up-to-date description:
***
*** http://smarteiffel.loria.fr/libraries/index.html

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.

3.10. - contrib directory - 

Useful software not written by the SmartEiffel team.

4. - Installation -

4.1. - General information -

In the following sections, there are instructions to install the
SmartEiffel distribution on various common platforms. For convenience, we
keep the old name "se.tgz". This name must be replaced by the name of the
file you downloaded (SmartEiffel-x.y.tgz where x.y is the release number).

4.2. - Installation on GNU/Linux -

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 line:
    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 platforms -

Choose 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 line:
    setenv PATH your/installation/directory/SmartEiffel/bin:$PATH

Alternatively, update your .bashrc file (or equivalent) with the
following line:
    export PATH=your/installation/directory/SmartEiffel/bin:$PATH

Alternatively, if you use ksh or some other shell, take the appropriate
steps to modify your configuration file to take into account the path to
the SmartEiffel binaries.

Then, in a new shell, 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.

Or you can download the prepackage version of SmartEiffel and directly
install 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 -

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.

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
