Re: real time

[email protected] wrote:
> I will be searching the archive for information about using Eiffel in real time
> applications.  I thought I would post this message though, to see if anyone
> knows, quickly, if Eiffel can be used for real time applications.

It depends how hard your real time requirements are. Eiffel is garbage
collected. The different Eiffel compilers have different collection
strategies (SmartEiffel: mark and sweep, EiffelStudio: copy, tecomp:
mark and sweep).

A collection cycle has no definitive upper bound on how much time it
takes. But nearly all Eiffel compilers let you switch off garbage
collection before calling certain time critical functions. With this
strategy you have a certain control over the time, when collection
cycles can happen.

The Eiffel compiler tecomp has announced a compile time garbage
collection in its roadmap (not yet implemented). This strategy let the
compiler recognize at compile time when an object is no longer
reachable. With that no garbage collection cycles can interfere with
real time requirements.

Helmut