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authoraarne <aarne@cs.chalmers.se>2008-06-27 11:59:03 +0000
committeraarne <aarne@cs.chalmers.se>2008-06-27 11:59:03 +0000
commit73e401cee21fa61dcf9900d8d2b40ddd39f4e612 (patch)
treec5569db477fd0281162fd7ba29cf8e60d24b364e /index.txt
parent64d2a981a99c8f48f85c4efd0cecd1db1e5ce93a (diff)
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+
+
+%!postproc(html): "#BECE" "<center>"
+%!postproc(html): "#ENCE" "</center>"
+%!postproc(html): "#BESMALL" "<font size=-1>"
+%!postproc(html): "#ENSMALL" "</font>"
+%!postproc(html): "#BELARGE" "<font size=+2>"
+%!postproc(html): "#ENLARGE" "</font>"
+
+#BECE
+
+[doc/gf-logo.png]
+
+=Grammatical Framework=
+
+Version 3.0
+
+June 2008
+
+
+#BELARGE
+
+``[`` [Demos demos/]
+``|`` [Download download]
+``|`` [Libraries lib/resource/doc/synopsis.html]
+``|`` [Reference doc/gf-refman.html]
+``|`` [Tutorial doc/gf-tutorial.html]
+``]``
+
+#ENLARGE
+
+``[`` [Demos demos/]
+``|`` [Download download]
+``|`` [Developers doc/darcs.html]
+``|`` [Events doc/events.html]
+``|`` [Libraries lib/]
+``|`` [People doc/gf-people.html]
+``|`` [Projects doc/projects.html]
+``|`` [Publications doc/gf-tutorial.html]
+``|`` [Reference doc/gf-refman.html]
+``|`` [Tutorial doc/gf-tutorial.html]
+``]``
+
+#ENCE
+
+
+#BESMALL
+
+==News==
+
+27 June 2008: release of GF 3.0 and a new web page; the old web page is
+[here index-2.html].
+
+
+#ENSMALL
+
+
+==What is GF==
+
+GF, Grammatical Framework, is a programming language for
+**multilingual grammar applications**. It is
+- a **special-purpose language for grammars**, like YACC, Bison, Happy, BNFC,
+ but not restricted to programming languages
+- a **functional language**, like Haskell, Lisp, OCaml, Scheme, SML,
+ but specialized to grammar writing
+- a **natural language processing framework**, like LKB, XLE, Regulus,
+ but based on functional programming and type theory
+- a **categorial grammar formalism**, like ACG, CCG,
+ but different and equipped with different tools
+- a **logical framework**, like Agda, Coq, Isabelle,
+ but equipped with concrete syntax in addition to logic
+
+
+Don't worry if you don't know most of the references above - but if you do know at
+least one, it may help you to get a first idea of what GF is.
+
+
+==Applications==
+
+GF can be used for building
+- [text translators ]
+- [speech translators ]
+- [natural-language interfaces ]
+- [multilingual web pages ]
+- [multilingual authoring systems ]
+- [dialogue systems ]
+- [language training systems ]
+- [natural language resources ]
+
+
+==Availability==
+
+GF is **open-source**, licensed under [GPL ] (the program) and [LGPL ] (the libraries). It
+is available for
+- [Linux ]
+- [Mac OS X ]
+- [Windows ]
+- via compilation to [JavaScript ], almost any platform that has a web browser
+
+
+==Projects==
+
+GF was born in 1998 at Xerox Research Centre Europe, Grenoble in the project
+Multilingual Document Authoring. At Xerox, it was used for prototypes including
+a restaurant phrase book in 6 languages,
+a database query system in 7 languages,
+a formalization of an alarm system instructions with translations to 5 languages, and
+an authoring system for medical drug descriptions in 2 languages.
+
+Later projects using GF and involving third parties include, in chronological order,
+- GF-Alfa: natural language interface to formal proofs
+- GF-KeY: authoring and translation of software specifications
+- TALK: multilingual and multimodal spoken dialogue systems
+- WebALT: multilingual generation of mathematical exercises (commercial project)
+- MultiWiki: multilingual Wiki for restaurant reviews
+- SALDO: Swedish morphological dictionary based on tools developed for GF
+
+
+Academically, GF has been used in four [PhD theses ], and resulted in around
+fifty [scientific publications ].
+
+
+==Programming in GF==
+
+GF is easy to learn by following the [tutorial doc/gf-tutorial.html]. You can write your
+first translator in 15 minutes.
+
+GF has an interactive command interpreter, as well as a batch compiler. Grammars can be
+compiled to parser and translator code in many different formats. These components can
+then be embedded in applications written in other programming languages. The formats
+currently supported are:
+- Haskell
+- Java
+- JavaScript
+- Prolog
+- Speech recognition: HTK/ATK, Nuance, JSGF
+
+
+The GF programming language is high-level and advanced, featuring
+- static type checking
+- higher-order functions
+- dependent types
+- pattern matching with data constructors and regular expressions
+- module system with multiple inheritance and parametrized modules
+
+
+==Libraries==
+
+Libraries are at the heart of modern software engineering. In natural language
+applications, libraries are a way to cope with thousands of details involved in
+syntax, lexicon, and inflection. The [GF resource grammar library lib/] has
+support for an increasing number of languages, currently including
++ Arabic (partial)
++ Bulgarian
++ Catalan (partial)
++ Danish
++ English
++ Finnish
++ French
++ German
++ Hindi/Urdu (fragments)
++ [Interlingua http://www.interlingua.com/]
++ Italian
++ Norwegian bokmål
++ Russian
++ Spanish
++ Swedish
++ Thai (fragments)
+
+
+Adding a language to the resource library takes 3 to 9
+months - [contributions doc/projects.html]
+are welcome!
+
+% [doc/10lang-small.png]
+
+