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                   THE EIFFEL CONSORTIUM

                     Part 1: Rationale


     This message and a companion one contain  an  important
announcement  on the evolution of Eiffel - and, we think, of
the discipline of software engineering.

     The first message (this one)  describes  the  rationale
behind the announcement.

     The second message gives practical details.

BACKGROUND

     There is a widespread and growing recognition that  the
Eiffel   programming   language  and  environment  hold  the
potential for a  dramatic  improvement  in  the  quality  of
software  being  developed routinely by the industry, and in
the productivity of those who develop it.

     Although Eiffel is being used worldwide by corporations
and  universities  for highly diverse projects, its progress
as an industry standard is still subject to  concerns  about
Eiffel's  perceived  proprietary nature. These concerns stem
from Eiffel's origin as a product from one specific  company
(Interactive Software Engineering).

     This situation is  particularly  ironic  when  assessed
against  the  excitement  that  Eiffel  generates among most
people  who  have  looked  at  it  carefully,  against   the
enthusiasm  of  its  users,  and  against  Interactive's own
attitude, which long ago put  the  language  in  the  public
domain  and  has  consistently  encouraged others to come up
with competitive  implementations.  Our  position  has  been
stated  loud and clear: although we do expect to profit from
the success of Eiffel, our primary interest is in making the
technology  succeed  on a broad scale.  We want to be one of
the players, but not the only one.  The more the merrier.

     To make this commitment to  diversity  and  competition
even  more  of  a  reality,  a major customer came up with a
suggestion: creating an Eiffel Consortium  -  in  the  style
illustrated   by   the   X  Consortium,  the  Open  Software
Foundation  or  X  Open.  We  enthusiastically   agreed   to
participate.

     Since  it  was  first  broached,  the  idea  has   been
discussed  and  refined  through numerous private e-mail and
fax messages and is now long past the  ``what  if?''  stage.
The Consortium is on its way to being formed.

     This message is aimed at making a wider community aware
of  what  we  think  will  be a milestone in the progress of
software engineering, and to enable anyone who has  not  yet
been  contacted  to  join in the initial group of consortium
founders.

CONSORTIUM ROLE

     The  Eiffel  Consortium  will  be  open  to  companies,
research  institutes and educational institutions interested
in using and advancing Eiffel technology.

     The  Consortium  will  serve  as  a  catalyst  for  the
widespread   acceptability  and  long-term  success  of  the
language,  libraries,  tools  and  method.  Thanks  to   the
consortium, the progress of Eiffel will no longer be tied to
the success of a single company.

     Another key advantage of  the  Consortium  will  be  to
enable users of Eiffel, especially companies which have made
a significant investment  in  the  technology,  to  exert  a
significant degree of control over its evolution.

     Finally, the formation of the Consortium  should  prove
to be the signal that many software developers are expecting
to start building what is one of the major aims  of  Eiffel:
an   industry  of  efficient,  reliable,  reusable  software
components available from many different sources.  This is a
unique  opportunity  both  for  large  corporations  and for
smaller ventures such as consulting houses.

CONSORTIUM ACTIVITIES

     The precise charter of the Consortium will be finalized
during the two planning meetings  (see companion message for
details).  Without  anticipating  on  the  result  of  these
meetings,   it  is  not  difficult  to  list  a  few  likely
activities.

     The  Consortium may have  committees   on such subjects
as library standardization and language standardization.

     It will collect dues from its members and will be  able
to  spend  the  money  on projects of general applicability;
examples of a project with  immediate  applicability  are  a
public-domain  Eiffel interpreter and a validation suite for
conforming implementations.

     The Consortium could also work with official  standards
bodies such as ANSI and ISO.

     Finally, members will be able to make contributions  to
the  Consortium  (such  as libraries and tools) and get back
other contributions made by their fellow members.

INTERACTIVE'S CONTRIBUTION.

     Although,  as  mentioned  above,  the  idea   did   not
originate  with Interactive Software Engineering, we find it
sufficiently attractive that:

1
     + We are willing to transfer the  registered  trademark
       `Eiffel' to the Consortium.

2
     + We are also prepared to release full control  of  the
       language evolution to the Consortium. This could take
       effect as early as April 16 (at a time when the  book
       ``Eiffel:   The   Language'',   providing  a  precise
       description  of  the  standard  language,   will   be
       published by Prentice-Hall or in press).

3
     + We  are considering giving to the Consortium, as part
       of our initial  contribution,  some  of  the  current
       Eiffel  Libraries,  especially  the   Data  Structure 
       Library,  which  plays  a  fundamental role in Eiffel
       software construction.

     All this, especially 2, may be viewed as a  major  risk
for Interactive.  We have enough confidence, however, in the
maturity of the  Eiffel  user  community  (as  evidenced  in
particular   by   the   quality   of   the   discussions  in
comp.lang.eiffel), and in the  potential  benefits  outlined
above, to be ready to take this step.

     Given the enthusiasm  with  which  the  draft  of  this
message  was received when we circulated it privately, there
appears to be no obstacle in  moving  the  idea  to  reality
quickly.   In  fact,  the consortium could be operational by
April  15.  Organizational  details   are   given   in   the
accompanying message.

     Any further comment will be welcome.

-- Bertrand Meyer
bertrand@eiffel.com

Note: Having received many interesting  replies  to  earlier
e-mail  messages,  I  considered  posting  a  selection.  On
further reflection, however, it  does  not  appear  fair  to
quote  the  correspondents anonymously, and the procedure of
asking each of them for permission to quote by name  is  too
cumbersome. So if you sent me some initial comments and feel
they are of interest to a wider group, please post them.



-- Bertrand Meyer
bertrand@eiffel.com