What's new:
===========

ISE Eiffel 4.2 is a major new release which incorporates
many new features and improvements to existing mechanisms.
Highlights:

- EiffelCom library for use of Eiffel with COM, OLE.

- Eiffel2Java library: call Java applets and other
  Java facilities from Eiffel.

- EiffelThreads library: full-fledged implementation
  of multithreading (Windows, Posix/Linux, Solaris,
  VxWorks), with an extensive set of threads
  capabilities and close connection with the
  garbage collection mechanism (one GC per
  thread, enabling independent execution).

- Full implementation of the Precursor construct
  as described in "Object-Oriented Software Construction",
  2nd edition (and, we know, awaited impatiently
  by many users).

- Considerably faster compilation.

- Graphical profiler, for detailed analysis of running
  times.

- A greatly improved EiffelCase analysis and design
  workbench. This is the only tool we know that truly
  fulfils the promise of seamless development offered
  by object technology: going back and forth between
  high-level graphical views of systems, and their
  actual source text. EiffelCase in particular has
  a great reverse engineering facility, which produces
  clear graphical views of systems, which can then be
  modified to re-generate code. A "Merging Tool" enables
  users to reconcile, feature by feature, the changes
  they may have made separately to the textual view
  (Eiffel text) and to the graphical view (EiffelCase
  diagrams). As an example application, we now systematically
  use EiffelCase for our hands-on object technology
  classes, as well for our analysis/design/implementation
  consulting, and have found it to be attractive to both
  beginners and seasoned software engineers, as well
  as to managers who need to see global schemata of
  system architecture, system dictionaries/glossaries
  etc.

- Numerous improvements, both functional and of speed,
  to the EiffelBench graphical development environment.
  The interface has also been enriched with new, intuitive
  user interaction mechanisms. "Clickable" elements are
  underlined, HTML-browser style, for even more intuitive
  browsing. Searching is faster as well as drag-and-drop
  and other operations.

- New, improved version of the Legacy++ tool for wrapping
  C++ classes into Eiffel classes (now handles many subtle
  facilities of Visual C++). Helps move away from C++
  without losing one's investment.

- More information in generated C code, enabling the
  use of a C debugger. (Although most Eiffel users will never
  need to see the generated C, even less debug it -- there
  is a powerful Eiffel debugger in EiffelBench to avoid that --,
  this facility is of great interest to some projects, in
  particular to users of Embedded Eiffel who may need to
  perform debugging on a target platform that only has
  C tools.)

- Many improvements to other tools and libraries, such as
  EiffelNet (client-server object management system),
  EiffelBase (the fundamental library of data structures
  and algorithms), EiffelVision (portable graphics),
  WEL (the Windows Eiffel Library -- for programming
  graphical applications under Windows).

- Eiffel generator for Cayenne's Object Team analysis
  tool, supporting UML and OMT.

Interactive Software Engineering, Inc.
ISE Building, 2nd floor, 270 Storke Road, Goleta CA 93117
Telephone 805-685-1006
Fax 805-685-6869
Information e-mail <info@eiffel.com>
Customer support e-mail <support@eiffel.com>
Web: www.eiffel.com