ELJ 0.5, Open Source Projects for Eiffel

  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: uwe@elj.com

THE ELJ PROJECT ANNOUNCES THE RELEASE OF ELJ 0.5, OPEN SOURCE PROJECTS 
AND LIBRARY BINDINGS FOR EIFFEL

Germany -- November 9, 2002. The ELJ Project is pleased to announce the 
release of version 0.5, bringing extensive Linux support to the project.

Additions:

    * WX_SASH_WINDOW
    * WX_SASH_LAYOUT_WINDOW
    * Z_*_STREAM compression classes, with example
    * BZ_*_STREAM compression classes, with example
    * WX_WIZARD, related classes, with example
    * WX_MINI_FRAME
    * WX_CALCULATE_LAYOUT_EVENT
    * WX_LAYOUT_ALGORITHM
    * WX_QUERY_LAYOUT_EVENT
    * Upgraded Scintilla binding to version 1.48
    * Upgraded SQLite binding to version 2.7.2
    * Added controller concept (and related classes)
    * EWX_DATE_PICKER
    * EWX_TIME_PICKER
    * WX_CALENDAR_DATE_ATTRIBUTE

Improvements:
    * Class documentation improved to where 'short'form
          is meaningful.
    * commented examples to make them more useful
    * Numerous bug fixes
    * Enhanced WX_APP_BASE
    * enhanced WX_WINDOW
    * C++ code is now Ansi C++ compatible

Changes:
    * Now using GOBO's version of regular expressions
          (The ELJ version will no longer be supported.)


The ELJ Project supports several applications, relational databases, 
native libraries and bindings to popular APIs. We are actively seeking 
Linux talent to help with such issues as generating RPMs and improving 
portability.

Applications:
    * ELJ GIRLS -- a CRM, especially for software companies, based on
      wxWindows and Firebird. http://www.sf.net/projects/elj-girls
    * SeBench -- an IDE for SmallEiffel. (part of the ELJ project)

Also included in the downloads are:
    * XmlViewer -- based on ELJ and Gobo
    * Numerous examples for the wxWindows and database bindings.

Native Libraries:
    * Perlish -- a library that provides some Perl functionality to
      Eiffel programs

Database Interfaces:
    * Firebird http://firebird.sourceforge.net
    * Berkely DB (SleepyCat) http://www.sleepycat.com
    * MySQL http://www.mysql.com
    * PostgreSQL http://www.postgresql.com
    * SQLite http://www.sqlite.org

GUI/OS Support:
   * Win32 API (eljWin32api)
   * wxWindows (wxEiffel) http://www.wxwindows.org
   * OpenGL (proof of concept only)

Compression:
    * zlib http://www.gzip.org/zlib/
    * bzip2 http://sources.redhat.com/bzip2/

The ELJ project is actively developing SmallEiffel bindings to various 
databases and GUI libraries. Geoff Eldridge, the founder of ELJ, likes 
Eiffel for it's clear syntax and semantics, and the self-documenting 
aspects of Eiffel contracts that reduces his need for reference 
materials. "So I am self-contained in my code development and hence have 
more time to think about the problem and its solution." Geoff also 
believes that DbC "is just brilliant. Once you have experienced DbC you 
feel exposed with other languages without the facility." Geoff also 
finds Eiffel to be very malleable, even though it is a statically typed 
language.

Uwe Sander, the workhorse of the ELJ project who is currently writing 
much of the code, agrees. "Design and development are closely related 
when working with Eiffel, not strictly separated foes." Uwe also 
appreciates SmallEiffel's support for interfacing to C and C++.  "The 
integration with existing C code is now much better than it is in any 
other language I know, including C++. You can easily mess up a C++ 
project and let the old C style rule the project. Such a thing will 
never happen in an Eiffel project. It is always clear which language 
contains the top level logic."

The ELJ GIRLS project is a successful example of a medium size 
application built with SmallEiffel and the ELJ libraries. It proves that 
the principle of DbC and Eiffel inheritence, combined with a subset of 
the currently available libraries, is the right way to achieve 
applications with good runtime performance, few errors with reduced 
testing time, and source that is very easy to extend.

Geoff Eldridge, notes that the ELJ Project is now two years old. "We 
have come a long way over the last two years. The project has been very 
fruitful in acheiving it's stated goal of bringing much-needed 
functionality to SmallEiffel developers. The project is seeing a growing 
base of users that are taking advantage of SmallEiffel and the 
functionality offered by the ELJ and GOBO projects. As the libraries are 
stablising, our efforts are now focusing on the important documentation 
and marketing processes. We look forward to seeing where the ELJ project 
will be in another two years time."

For more information about the ELJ project, visit:
http://elj.sourceforge.net

For more about the SmallEiffel compiler, visit:
http://smalleiffel.loria.fr

For more on the Gobo project, visit:
http://www.gobosoft.com

Other Eiffel resources include the Eiffel Discussion Board on
http://www.eiffelforum.org/

Visit the IRC channel for eiffel, named #eiffel on
irc.openprojects.net

Comp.lang.eiffel at Google Groups:
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&group=comp.lang.eiffel

Cetus Links:
http://www.cetus-links.org/oo_eiffel.html