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From: immo@ibmpcug.co.uk (Immo Huneke)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++,connect.audit
Subject: Re: Eiffel and C++
Message-ID: <1991Mar17.154433.23958@ibmpcug.co.uk>
Date: 17 Mar 91 15:44:33 GMT
Organization: The IBM PC User Group, UK.
Lines: 26

In article <39100@netnews.upenn.edu> alberto@grasp.cis.upenn.edu (Alberto Izaguirre) writes:
> Can someone tell me if Eiffel is better than C++.
> Or better can someone compare both of them.
> Tx, Alberto
In Logica several years back, we participated in an ESPRIT project (HTDS). A
preliminary investigation revealed that Eiffel was preferable to release 1 of
C++, but we couldn't afford it and eventually did the project quite success-
fully in Oregon C++, which was close to Release 2.
My opinion now is that both have shortcomings, and that you take your pick
according to what you are trying to do. I know C++ a bit better than Eiffel,
so the shortcomings I perceive in C++ are:
- lack of facilities for dynamic binding
- problems with garbage collection (there isn't any)
- no standard way of saving objects in a database or passing them between
  tasks.
On the plus side, it is very efficient, it does not suffer from Smalltalk-
like namespace pollution, and a lot of useful class libraries are now readily
available.
You may also be interested in looking at Objective-C from Stepstone Corp.
Brad Cox (founder of this company) thought up the idea of "software ICs" and
has been steadily expanding the available programme for the last five years.
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