The Eiffel Library Standard, Vintage 95

The Eiffel Library Standard, Vintage 95

Introduction

[This introduction is not part of the Standard.]

To favor the interoperability between implementations of Eiffel, it is necessary, along with a precise definition of the language, to have a well-defined set of libraries covering needs that are likely to arise in most applications. This library is known in Eiffel as the Kernel Library.

The present document defines a standard for the Kernel Library. If an Eiffel implementation satisfies this Standard - under the precise definition of Kernel Compatibility given in section 2.2 - it will be able to handle properly any Eiffel system whose use of the Kernel Library only assumes the library properties defined in this Standard.

The Eiffel Library standardization process, as described in Appendix A of the present document, is based on a dynamic view which, in the spirit of Eiffel's own "feature obsolescence" mechanism, recognizes the need to support evolution while preserving the technology investment of Eiffel users. One of the consequences of this dynamic view is to define vintages corresponding to successive improvements of the Standard. The present document describes Vintage 95, valid for the calendar year 1995.

1 Contents of this Standard

1.1 Definition: this Standard
1.2 Scope of this Standard
1.3 Other documents

2 Compatibility Conditions

2.1 Definitions
2.2 Kernel compatibility
2.3 Flatshort Conventions
2.4 Flatshort Compatibility

3 Required Classes

4 Required Ancestry Links

5 Short Forms of Required Classes

5.1 Class GENERAL
5.2 Class ANY
5.3 Class COMPARABLE
5.4 Class HASHABLE
5.5 Class NUMERIC
5.6 Class BOOLEAN
5.7 Class CHARACTER
5.8 Class INTEGER
5.9 Class REAL
5.10 Class DOUBLE
5.11 Class POINTER
5.12 Class ARRAY
5.13 Class STRING
5.14 Class STD_FILES
5.15 Class FILE
5.16 Class STORABLE
5.17 Class MEMORY
5.18 Class EXCEPTIONS
5.19 Class ARGUMENTS
5.20 Class PLATFORM
5.21 Class BOOLEAN_REF
5.22 Class CHARACTER_REF
5.23 Class DOUBLE_REF
5.24 Class INTEGER_REF
5.25 Class POINTER_REF
5.26 Class REAL_REF