For those who have been following the progression of the .NET Framework and the multitude of languages that now run on the .NET common language specification (CLS), you'll be happy to note that there is now a full implementation of the Eiffel language on .NET. They said it couldn't be done. The CLS doesn't support multiple inheritance, or genericity, but they've found a way!

One of the most interesting aspects of the Microsoft� .NET Framework is the common basis it provides for implementing many different programming languages. One of the first language technologies to benefit from this openness was Eiffel, whose implementation by Interactive Software Engineering (ISE) was, in an early version, showcased at the very first public introduction of the .NET Framework in Orlando. That initial release featured a partial version of the Eiffel language, Eiffel#, described in the original version of this article, which is now obsolete. ISE has now completed the implementation of full Eiffel on the .NET Framework and a first integration into Microsoft� Visual Studio� .NET.