Darren New schrieb: > As far as I understand it, Eiffel compilers don't even make use of > postconditions to optimize code or eliminate run-time checks (like null > pointer testing).
That's correct. I think a large part of the reasons why this isn't done is that Eiffel's semantics is (a) too complicated (it's an imperative language after all), and (b) not formalized, which makes it difficult to assess what optimizations are safe and what aren't. (Reason (c) is that Eiffel compiler vendors don't have the manpower for this kind of work, mostly in quantity but also, to some degree, in quality: people with a solid language semantics background tend to be repelled by the language inventor's know-it-all deny-the-problems don't-bother-me-with-formalisms attitude. He still has moved the state of the art ahead - mostly by pointing out a certain class of problems in OO designs and explaining them lucidly, and proposing solutions that hold up better than average even if still fundamentally flawed.) Regards, Jo -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
