Re: [CoFI] News - CASL v0.99 Summary installed

[pdmosses@brics.dk]

I wrote:

>   The long-awaited version 0.99 of the CASL Summary, adjusted to take
>   account of the recent changes to the abstract syntax, should become
>   available early next week. (Version 1.0 is to be the polished final
>   version, with hopefully only cosmetic differences from version 0.99.)

I must apologize for having let it take so long to produce the new
version of the CASL Summary, which is now installed at:

  http://www.brics.dk/Projects/CoFI/Documents/CASL/Summary-v0.99-draft/

As you'll see (I hope!) the Summary now incorporates CONCRETE SYNTAX
for all CASL constructs - although the parts of it concerned with
views and architectural specifications are still somewhat tentative.
This should make the Summary much more accessible than hitherto.

Moreover, the opportunity has been taken to tighten up the structure
of the Summary document, and to expand a bit the far too cryptic
explanations of structured and architectural specifications.  Also the
formatting for WWW browsing has been improved.

All this has entailed quite a lot of rewording in relation to the
previous version, 0.98 - but hopefully it has paved the way for a
comparatively painless transition to v1.0, later this spring...

The current document is labelled "v0.99-draft".  This is partly
because the changes have not yet been discussed or approved by the
participants of the CoFI Language Design task group; and partly to
avoid potential confusion if corrections or changes are found to be
necessary during the 14-day discussion period that is now starting on
the cofi-language@brics.dk mailing list:

  THE DEADLINE FOR COMMENTS IS 8 APRIL !

All being well, a stable version 0.99 will be installed shortly
thereafter (by Easter, perhaps).

Please try to read THIS version of the Summary very critically: it is
essentially the LAST CHANCE to make improvements to the design of CASL!
Appendix F of the Summary provides details of the various items still
needing attention before the design process can be regarded as
completely finished - including the update of the formal semantics,
and the completion of the prototype parsers.

I hope to meet many of you at the various events in Lisbon next week,
especially at the scheduled CoFI meetings.  The details concerning
which CoFI documents the meeting participants should bring with them
are about to be added to the schedule for the Lisbon meetings; please
check this before leaving.

Best regards

Peter Mosses

----   --------------------------------------------
\  /  | Peter D. Mosses - mailto:pdmosses@brics.dk |
CoFI  | Common Framework Initiative  - Coordinator |
/  \  | WWW URL: http://www.brics.dk/Projects/CoFI |
----   --------------------------------------------

PS  If you need to contact me in Lisbon, you may like to know that 
I'll be arriving on Saturday 28 March, attending the CMCS dinner,
staying at Hotel Continental, and leaving on Tuesday 7 April.  
Sunday 29 March I'm due to give a 1/2 day tutorial on CASL; and 
Sunday 5 April I'm involved in an IFIP WG1.3 meeting.  I'll try to
check for e-mail at least once a day during the week.