Explain EiffelStudio? What technology is used by EiffelStudio?

For Eiffel programming language, the development environment is provided by the Eiffelstudio. Both of these – the Eiffelstudio and Eiffel programming language have been developed by Eiffel software. Presently the version 7.1 has been released.

- Eiffelstudio consists a number of development tools namely:

1. Compiler
2. Interpreter
3. Debugger
4. Browser
5. Metrics tool
6. Profiler
7. Diagram tool

- All these tools have been integrated and put under the single user interface of the Eiffelstudio. 

- This user interface in turn is based on several UI paradigms that are quite specific to one another. 

- There has been done effective browsing through ‘pick and drop’ thing. 

- Eiffelstudio supports a number of platforms including the following:

1. Windows
2. Linux
3. Mac OS
4. VMS and
5. Solaris

- This Eiffel software product comes with a GPL license. 

- However, a number of other licenses are also available. 

- Eiffelstudio falls under the category of open source development. 

- The beta versions of the product of the following release are made available to the public at regular intervals. 

- The participation of the Eiffel community in the development of the product has been quite active. 

- A list of the open projects has even made available on the origo web site. 

- The host of this site is at ETH Zurich. 

- Along with the list, information regarding the discussion forums, basic source code for check out etc. also has been put up. 

- In the month of June 2012, the last version 7.1 was released and the successive beta releases were made available very soon after that.

Technology behind EiffelStudio

- The compilation technology used by the Eiffelstudio called Melting Ice is unique to the Eiffel software and is their trademark.

- This technology integrates the interpretation process of the elements with the proper compilation process. 

- This technology offers a very fast turnaround time. 

- This also means that the time taken for recompilation depends up on the size of the change to be made and not on the overall size of the program. 

- Such melted programs even though can be delivered readily but still a finalization step is considered important to be performed before the product is released.

- Finalization step involves a very highly optimized compilation process which takes a long time but the executable generated is optimized.

- The interpretation in eiffelstudio is carried out through what is called the byte code-oriented virtual machine. 

- Either .NET CIL or C is generated by the compiler. 

History of Eiffelstudio

- The roots of the Eiffelstudio date back to when the Eiffel was first implemented by interactive software engineering Inc. 

- The Eiffel software was preceded by the interactive software engineering Inc. -The first implementation took place in the year of 1986. 

-The current technology used in Eiffelstudio evolved from the earlier technology called the ‘Eiffel bench’ that saw its first use in the year of 1990. 

- It was used along with the version 3 of the Eiffel programming language. 

- In the year 2001, the name Eiffel bench was changed to what we know now, the ‘Eiffelstudio’. 

- This was also the year when the environment was developed to obtain compatibility with the windows and a number of other platforms. 

- Originally, it was only available for Unix platform.

- Since 2001, Eiffelstudio saw some major releases with some new features:

1. Version 5.0 (july 2001): The first proper version. Saw integration of the eiffelcase tool with the eiffelbench as its diagram tool.
2. Version 5.1 (December 2001): Support for .NET applications. Also called the eiffel#.
3. Version 5.2 (November 2002): The debugging capabilities were extended, an improved mechanism for C++ and C was introduced, eiffelbuild, roundtripping abilities etc. were added.