from introduction/about.txt:

  Eiffel is a systematic approach to the construction of quality software,
  including a language, a method, libraries, and development environments. 

  The language was designed in 1985 by Bertrand Meyer of ISE. The current
  language version is Eiffel 3, described in detail in Meyer's book "Eiffel:
  The Language" (Prentice Hall, 1992). Many other books are available on the
  language and the method. The language is non-proprietary. 

  The aim of Eiffel is to improve the quality of software systems and the
  productivity of the development process. It particularly promotes the
  production of software that has the following qualities: reliability
  (absence of bugs) extendibility (ease of change) reusability (reliance of
  libraries of packaged components) and portability (adaptability on many
  platforms with full source compatibility). Eiffel also makes it possible
  to produce compilers, such as ISE's, which generate extremely efficient
  code. 

More docs are in ``${PREFIX}/eiffel/doc'' and ``${PREFIX}/eiffel/introduction''
Some examples are in ``${PREFIX}/eiffel/examples''.

eric.
--
erich@rrnet.com