Editing Eiffel (programming language) (section)

==Characteristics==
The key characteristics of the Eiffel language include:

* An object-oriented program structure in which a class serves as the basic unit of decomposition.<ref>{{cite web | title=Programming Languages - Eiffel | website=Department of Computer Science, Virginia Tech | url=https://courses.cs.vt.edu/~cs3304/Spring02/lectures/lect12.pdf | access-date=25 March 2023}}</ref>
* [[Design by contract]] tightly integrated with other language constructs.
* Automatic memory management, typically implemented by [[Garbage collection (computer science)|garbage collection]].<ref>{{cite web | author=Carl Friess|title=Eiffel Syntax Guide | website=Eiffel Syntax Guide | url=https://eiffel-guide.com/ | access-date=25 March 2023}}</ref>
* [[Inheritance (object-oriented programming)|Inheritance]], including [[multiple inheritance]], [[wikt:renaming|renaming]], [[Method overriding|redefinition]], "select", [http://docs.eiffel.com/book/method/et-inheritance#Non-conforming_inheritance non-conforming inheritance], and other mechanisms intended to make inheritance safe.
* Constrained and unconstrained [[generic programming]]<ref name="Claus">{{cite web | author=Claus Brabrand |title=The E I F F E L Programming Language | website=IT University of Copenhagen | url=http://www.itu.dk/people/brabrand/GSD-2013/Eiffel.pdf | access-date=25 March 2023}}</ref>
* A uniform [[type system]] handling both value and reference semantics in which all types, including basic types such as INTEGER, are class-based.
* [[Static typing]]
* [[Void safety]], or static protection against calls on null references, through the attached-types mechanism.
* Agents, or objects that wrap computations, closely connected with [[Closure (computer science)|closure]]s and [[lambda calculus]].
* ''Once'' routines, or routines evaluated only once, for object sharing and decentralized initialization.
* Keyword-based syntax in the [[ALGOL]]/[[Pascal (programming language)|Pascal]] tradition but separator-free, insofar as semicolons are optional, with operator syntax available for routines.
* Case insensitivity
* Simple Concurrent Object-Oriented Programming ([[SCOOP (software)|SCOOP]]) facilitates creation of multiple, concurrently active execution vehicles at a level of abstraction above the specific details of these vehicles (e.g. multiple threads without specific mutex management).