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authoraarne <aarne@cs.chalmers.se>2008-06-10 11:34:16 +0000
committeraarne <aarne@cs.chalmers.se>2008-06-10 11:34:16 +0000
commit9c75bddcfc0340b6e5dd06a23d686113532d2726 (patch)
treedd92729b90969007b5b8d7871b49014a2c11dd60 /doc
parent49dcc123b54f7a0bff065da09c014a6ae12c9348 (diff)
release document on gf3
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+GF 3.0
+Krasimir Angelov, Björn Bringert, and Aarne Ranta
+
+
+
+GF Version 3.0 is a major revision of GF. The source language is a superset of the
+language in 2.9, which means backward compatibility. But the target languages, the
+compiler implementation, and the functionalities (e.g. the shell) have undergone
+radical changes.
+
+The release of GF 3.0 is projected for 27 June. As usual, the developing sources
+are available all the time via Darcs.
+
+
+==New features==
+
+Here is a summary of the main novelties visible to the user:
+- **Size**: the source code and the executable binary size have gone
+ down to about the half of 2.9.
+- **Portability**: the new back end format PGF (Portable Grammar Format) is
+ much simpler than the old GFC format, and therefore easier to port to new
+ platforms.
+- **Multilingual web page support**: as an example of portability, GF 3.0 provides a
+ compiler from PGF to JavaScript. There are also JavaScript libraries for creating
+ translators and syntax editors as client-side web applications.
+- **Incremental parsing**: there is a possibility of word completion when
+ input strings are sent to the parser.
+- **Application programmer's interfaces**: both source-GF and PGF formats,
+ the shell, and the compiler are accessible via high-level APIs.
+- **Resource library version 1.4**: more coverage, more languages; some of
+ the new GF language features are exploited.
+
+
+==Non-supported features==
+
+There are some features of GF 2.9 that will //not// work in the 2.7 June release.
+- Java Editor GUI: we now see the JavaScript editor as the main form of
+ syntax editing.
+- Pre-module multi-file grammar format: the grammar format of GF before version 2.0
+ is still supported, but its include mechanism is not; this means that grammars
+ consisting of multiple files have to be concatenated before use.
+- Probabilistic GF grammars.
+- Some output formats: LBNF.
+- Some GF shell commands: while the main ones will be supported with their familiar
+ syntax and options, some old commands have not been included.
+
+
+Users who want to have these features are welcome to contact us,
+and even more welcome to contribute code that restores them!
+
+
+==GF language extensions==
+
+Operations for defining patterns.
+
+Inheritance of overload groups.
+
+