Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!ucsd!hub!bertrand
From: bertrand@hub.ucsb.edu (Bertrand Meyer)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++
Subject: Re: Hey Bjarne!  Some Questions
Message-ID: <455@hub.ucsb.edu>
Date: 29 Feb 88 08:34:39 GMT
References: <1271@devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV> <7682@alice.UUCP> <2257@unicus.UUCP>
Organization: University of California, Santa Barbara
Lines: 41
Summary: Multiple inheritance and others in Eiffel
	 ("C++ only" fans please skip)


	Writing a note about another object-oriented language in the C++
newsgroup will probably anger some (although mentions of Objective-C are
apparently not infrequent). To anybody who will resent this message,
I apologize. But ignorance of the Eiffel solutions seems so pervasive that
I believe it to be a service to your community (beyond any self-serving
purpose that will be seen in this move) to draw your attention to them.

	Intervening here too often would clearly be improper, so I would urge
anybody who wants to converse with me to use mail rather than postnews.
I have often had trouble with outgoing mail, so if you don't get a reply
from me send me your message again with your Post Office address.
FAX (number below) is also OK. Clearly there will be an Eiffel newsgroup
anyway someday. (Anyone interested may contact me.)

	The object of this intrusion is actually stated quite briefly: although
I browse only occasionally through network news in general and the C++
newsgroup in particular, I am puzzled each time to see how the C++
community seems to be chasing after solutions to problems we settled
long ago with Eiffel. Take multiple inheritance, for example: it has been
there from the beginning, and done I believe quite cleanly (see e.g. the
solution to the name clash issue etc.). Or include files:
there is none (repeat, none) in Eiffel, and no global variables either: all
inter-class relationships are managed automatically by the environment. And
exceptions (the most recent addition): they are clean, simple, and based on
a comprehensive theory of software correctness.

	Enough. Those who have read so far and want to know more can get
literature from me. By the way, we are a commercial organization
(so what? AT&T is not a philantropic society), founded by scientists who
believe enough in the soundness of what they do to have put their careers
on the line.

Bertrand Meyer
Interactive Software Engineering Inc.
270 Storke Road Suite 7 - Goleta CA 93117
Telephone (805) 685-1006 - FAX (805) 685-6869

Europe: Societe des Outils du Logiciel
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