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Java IMHO is a hardcore OO language.

Some have dared go further

There is nothing available for Linux as good as Delphi, although ISE Eiffel comes close. Delphi is highly respected by language experts in the know, such as Jean Ichbiah designer of Ada. Delphi allows rapid development yet enforces good software engineering practices. In terms of speed of development and robust software, C++ is far behind.

You are certainly correct about C++, which is the perfect language for meeting its goals. Of course, those goals, C compatibility and shielding programs from effects of features they don't use (see Soustrup, I believe the title is Design and Evolution of C++, have little to do with life cycle effectiveness.

Java is cleaner, but basically combines the elegant simplicity of C++ with the blinding speed of Smalltalk. (I am a Sun Certified Java Programmer.)

For a really clean first language and nice first book, check out Switzer's Introduction to Eiffel. The GNU Eiffel compiler runs from the command line and generates good code. A spiffy commercial object oriented interactive development environment is also downloadable. Eiffel makes life complicated for the compiler, not the programmer.

GNU's implementation is called SmallEiffel and runs on Linux and many other operating systems. Bertrand Meyer's ISE Eiffel which offers the ease of Delphi development is available for Windows and Linux. It is a gem. A great resource for those interested in Eiffel is the online Eiffel Liberty Journal.

GNU's implementation is called SmallEiffel and runs on Linux and many other operating systems. Bertrand Meyer's ISE Eiffel which offers the ease of Delphi development is available for Windows and Linux. It is a gem. A great resource for those interested in Eiffel is the online Eiffel Liberty Journal.

GNU's implementation is called SmallEiffel and runs on Linux and many other operating systems. Bertrand Meyer's ISE Eiffel which offers the ease of Delphi development is available for Windows and Linux. It is a gem. A great resource for those interested in Eiffel is the online Eiffel Liberty Journal. In my opinion there are very few languages which offer direct support for quality software engineering. Ada, Sather, and Eiffel would certainly be near the top of my list.

GNU's implementation is called SmallEiffel and runs on Linux and many other operating systems. Bertrand Meyer's ISE Eiffel which offers the ease of Delphi development is available for Windows and Linux. It is a gem. A great resource for those interested in Eiffel is the online Eiffel Liberty Journal. In my opinion there are very few languages which offer direct support for quality software engineering. Ada, Sather, and Eiffel would certainly be near the top of my list.

ISE's IDE opens windows for classes, routines, etc. The windows show different views of their contents. The class views, selectable with a mouse click, include editable source, short (showing signatures with preconditions, post conditions, and invariants), clickable (source with class names, feature calls, etc., clickable so they can be dropped on other windows or used to open new windows), flat (complete source including all ancestor classes as if the class had been defined without inheritance), ancestor class tree, descendent class tree, client class list, and supplier class list. The window for routines is similarlarly powerful. All of this is tightly integrated with an incremental compiler and an elegant object oriented source level debugger.

There are many buttons, many capabilities, but all designed consistently. I could teach any skilled object oriented programmer (ie, one who doesn't confuse C++ syntax with OO programming) how to use this IDE in less than 1/2 hour.

This anonymous coward is Tom Morrisette, aka eiffelpgmr@excite.com

Disclaimer: I have been friends with the people at ISE since the first edition of Bertrand Meyers Object Oriented Software Construction deeply changed my approach to software in 1988, and I worked on a consulting contract with them in 1994. My only contact with ISE since 1994 has been as a customer.

Delphi is a great tool and I look forward to seeing it available on Linux. It is light years ahead of VB. I recently started working on my master of software engineering degree and have been introduced to Eiffel. This is a totally OO language that looks very elegant to me so far. It is available on both Windows and Linux. You can get a fully functional (not time-limited)copy of it here. The only thing with the free copy is that is gives a pop-up for 10 seconds each time you launch the tool that asks you to buy it.

I'd appreciate more details on why you think ISE's IDE is so bad.

When I worked with EiffelBuild, IDE's GUI generator in 1994, it needed better support for multideveloper projects. And EiffelCase, IDE's CASE tool, hasn't completely supported the goal of seamless (from analysis through implementation) engineering and reengineering at the level that ISE enthusiasts would like. But these deficiencies are well outside what I think you are referring to in your IDE criticism, and they are deficiencies primarily because ISE has raised the standards.

I encourage /. readers to form their own opinions by going to ISE's web site and download EiffelBench, their IDE, for a free time limited trial. Of course, you can also use the language completely free with SmallEiffel, the GNU eiffel compiler.

Disclaimer: In 1994 I was employed on an Eiffel project through ISE, but my only relationship with them since then has been as a customer.

This anonymous coward is Tom Morrisette, eiffelpgmr@nni.com.

C++ is unbeatable where the criteria are upward compatibility from C and imposing absolutely zero cost for unused features.

Java shines at exporting executables across heterogeneous networks.

Perl raises the complexity of what may be reasonably done with ad hoc, quick and dirty solutions. And although I haven't used them, it's OO capabilities look like good steps in the right direction.

The same is true of other languages. Each can be useful. Each can be misused. Attacks and flaming don't accomplish much besides temporary emotional gratification to the writer.

All that said, I recommend taking a look at Eiffel. Compared to all other languages I know, Eiffel is the only commercial language that gets static typing exactly right, implements multiple inheritance powerfully and flexibly, provides generic and constrained generic classes without multiple copies of code, supports design by contract in the language itself, and has a coherent OO approch to exception handling. Here are some links:

SmallEiffel The GNU Eiffel Compiler compiles to C and JVM.

Eiffel Forum Eiffel Archive with free software and lots of links.

Eiffel Liberty Journel Lots more links to all sorts of good OO references

Interactive Software Engineering Home page of the company that introduced Eiffel, with hundreds of pages of scholarly OO papers and EiffelBase, the open source library with 140 classes and thousands of methods