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Basic Data Structures 0.8

Written by Nicolas Waquier (nicolas@esclare.fdn.org)

8 March 1995.
Targets TowerEiffel 1.3.1

Introduction

Structure is intended to be the first Reusable Component in Eiffel based on PELKS, and so, independent of any compiler/implementer.

As a true Reusable Component, it comes with complete documentation, BON diagrams, short form of the classes, a test framework and examples of extensions.

Licensing

Structure is released under the Gnu general license.
Other arrangements on request.
It's freely usable (correction, inheritance, client/supplier, extension)

documents: a set of documents related to this library, bon diagrams.
ds_basic: the 'structure' clusters (list, sort...) - sort is not polished neither as tested is list.
ds_reuse: components builds from 'structure' (examples)
ds_test: test classes
readme: release notes
short: the short form of some classes
tools: some tools (shell scripts, nextstep icons...)

Requirements

TowerEiffel 1.3.1.

If you use another compiler, please help me make this cluster implementation independent (send me the output of your compiler, your comments or advice...)

Development platform

nextstep/486

Background

Today, commercial libraries are built on compiler suppliers' libraries. For example, EPWL on the Eiffel/S library; EiffelParse-Lex on the ISE BASE library; Tower Motif components on Eiffel Booch components. This is a limiting factor, regarding diffusion, availability, interoperability, etc... The industry is still looking for plug and play Eiffel components.

The Eiffel community needs more libraries (Reusable Components), public domain, shareware or commercial. Having to develop a new RC, having to choose a library you will be tied to, is limiting, and prevents such growth.

Some compilers can be purchased without a data structure library (Eon/Eiffel, the basic TowerEiffel system). Do you want to spend six weeks to develop such a library before starting the real work?

Difficulties

At the time of building this cluster, the PELKS recommendations were not implemented by available compilers. Structure is developed with TowerEiffel, and for now, can't be used with other compilers without substantial modifications.

Limitations

For now, there is no persistence or concurrency mechanism.
Working alone, I had some difficulties finding the right class names and feature names, and I had to refine the class hierarchy many times, mainly by trial and error.
As long as I have no (declared) user or contributor, I won't use the 'obsolete' mechanism. I will do so as soon as I have users.