The outstanding Eiffel compiler now available

The outstanding Eiffel compiler now available

[Halstenbach ACT GMBH]

Halstenbach is pleased to announce that version 3.0 of iss-base
is ready for beta testing. If you would like to participate as a beta
tester, you can download versions for Windows NT/95/98 from the
following sites:

http://www.halstenbach.com or
http://www.halstenbach.de.

A version for Linux will soon be available.

Halstenbach's iss-base 3.0 is a major new release with many new features
and improvements, making it the outstanding Eiffel compiler for commercial
use.
The highlights of the new version are:

  o Improved compilation speed. iss-bench has been consistently
    improved in compiler speed with each new release in both melted
    and final modes. The table below shows compilation times to
 produce a workbench version on a Pentium Pro under Windows NT:

                   | Large project | Medium project
        Version    | ~1900 classes | ~ 600 classes
        --------------------------------------------
        1.52       |    144m 16s   |     16m 50s
        1.6        |     50m 22s   |      6m 51s
        2.0        |     43m 03s   |      5m 50s
        3.0 Beta   |     20m 25s   |      3m 32s

  o Greatly improved C compilation speed. The C compilation of the
    generated C code has improved by a factor of 4 to 20 times!

  o Considerably smaller executables. The size of the generated executables
    has decreased by about 30% depending on the size of the project.
    For example, the size of the compiler went from 6.4 MB (V 2.0) to 4.7 MB
    (V 3.0), despite the addition of new functionality.

  o Comprehensive debugging support. Former versions of iss-base took a
rather
    unusual approach to debugging, which led to several limitations. Now the
    debugger provides you with all the functionality you can expect from a
first class
    development tool:
        - Full stop point management
        - Ability to step into routines
        - Ability to interrupt your application at any time
        - Access to all locals and arguments on the call stack

  o Full support for generating DLLs (under Windows) and shared libraries
    (under Unix). It is possible to generate Eiffel DLLs or shared libraries
    that can be used by applications written in Eiffel or other languages
such
    as C or C++.

  o New project specification. Projects are now file based and not
    directory based, which provides a more flexible and intuitive way
    of handling multiple projects.

  o Major IDE enhancements:
        - Ability to browse uncompiled systems or classes
        - Ability to browse precompiled libraries directly
        - Saving of environment settings on a per-project basis
          (e.g., windows sizes, stop points) so that you do not lose
          your project workspace when you exit from a project.
        - Better management of stop points.
        - Interactive interface for project creation of different
          projects types (i.e., executable, precompile, DLL or component
          base projects).

  o Extended Ace syntax to handle Windows-specific resources.


The libraries have been improved as well:

  o Additional base library components:
        - Support for platform-independent event-driven computational model
          that gives you the freedom of parallel computing without the
hassles
          of multithreaded programming.
        - Powerful cluster for process management that fully supports
          inter-process communication. This makes it particularly easy
          to split up your application into different processes or to
          use existing programs together with your application.
        - Additional support for handling localization that allows
          your application to support multiple languages. Language-dependent
          features include sorting, currency and numeric settings.

  o iss-ole, a new component supporting OLE/Active-X
 This new component is an Eiffel-based framework enabling
 the simple use of OLE/Active-X-based software components in
 iss-base applications. The framework is fully integrated into the
 iss-base dialog management system. OLE and Active X controls can
 be embedded into the application user interface with iss-build, the
 iss-base user-interface and application builder. The controls as well
 as the corresponding association of events to commands can be
 configured with iss-tune; here the configuration and interface
 information is determined automatically by the iss-tune system.
 If desired corresponding Eiffel wrapper classes can be generated for
 the OLE/Active X controls so that calls to the control's functions can
 be realized in Eiffel applications just as easily as function calls
 to the standard controls of the graphical library iss-vision. Moreover,
 the framework supports the OLE "structured storage" mechanism,
 fully dynamic calls to OLE control functions as well as the control of
 OLE servers (e.g., MS Winword).

For more information or downloading your beta version, visit our web site at

    http://www.halstenbach.com or
    http://www.halstenbach.de

Re: The outstanding Eiffel compiler now available

[Larry Kilgallen]

In article <705062$ooo$1@mdnews.btv.ibm.com>, David N. Smith <dnsmith@watson.ibm.com> writes:
> In article <8pj207.5be.ln@mail> Halstenbach ACT GMBH, info@halstenbach.de
> writes:
>>Halstenbach is pleased to announce that version 3.0 of iss-base
>>is ready for beta testing.
> 
> I'm not sure what the 'rules' are on the other groups to which this
> advertisement was posted, but in c.l.s we generally frown on long
> advertising posts. It's been discussed at length in the past and the
> agreement, as I recall, was that short announcements of new things is OK,
> but they should point to where more info can be found rather than being
> sales brochures themselves. 

I am not disturbed at all by the tone, but I am plenty disturbed by
the fact that it has nothing to do with Ada.  The Internet newgroups
are not supposed to be a marketing playground where you figure that
folks interested in X, Y or Z might also be interested in W.  So far
as I can see, the subject announcement has nothing to do with those
other groups either.

Larry Kilgallen

Re: The outstanding Eiffel compiler now available

[David N. Smith]

In article <8pj207.5be.ln@mail> Halstenbach ACT GMBH, info@halstenbach.de
writes:
>Halstenbach is pleased to announce that version 3.0 of iss-base
>is ready for beta testing.

I'm not sure what the 'rules' are on the other groups to which this
advertisement was posted, but in c.l.s we generally frown on long
advertising posts. It's been discussed at length in the past and the
agreement, as I recall, was that short announcements of new things is OK,
but they should point to where more info can be found rather than being
sales brochures themselves. 

Part of it is in the tone; announcements are OK but advertising is not:

>Halstenbach's iss-base 3.0 is a major new release with many new features
>and improvements, making it the outstanding Eiffel compiler for commercial
>use.

Dave

_____________________________________________
David N. Smith
IBM T J Watson Research Center, Hawthorne, NY
Mailto: dnsmith@watson.ibm.com
Home Page: http://www.dnsmith.com/
_____________________________________________
Any opinions or recommendations are those 
of the author and not of his employer.