Re: CASL version 0.99 DRAFT

["Peter D. Mosses" <pdm@brics.dk>]

Dear Andrzej,

> Version 0.99 of the CASL summary is about to be released (for those
> who have not heard, it's really any day now). 

The day for the release of the DRAFT of v0.99 is now Monday 23 March.

The deadline for comments/objections on cofi-language will be Tuesday
7 April, and the FINAL document for v0.99 should be installed a day or
two later, i.e., just before Easter.

I must apologize to you all for the extended delay.  As I wrote to the
CoFI task group coordinators on Tuesday:

> Sorry, but I'd greatly underestimated the time and energy required to
> make this update of the Summary.  The main problem was that there was
> no longer any excuse for avoiding concrete syntax when summarizing the
> various constructs...  Another was that this v0.99 Summary really
> ought to be close to the final v1.0, so the pending improvements to
> the structure and formatting all had to be incorporated this time.
> And I must admit to a bad tendency to spend time on details that
> no-one may ever notice...  This was especially unfortunate as the
> Semantics group has been waiting to see the summary of the new and
> changed constructs.
> 
> Anyway, v0.99 of the Summary is finished (I think :-) and installed in
> 
>   http://www.brics.dk/Projects/CoFI/Documents/CASL/Summary-v0.99-draft/

N.B. Unless you have time to read and react to the current tentative
draft before noon on Monday 23 March, I recommend that you wait until
the announcement of its release, later on Monday, before printing it.
You might like to take the opportunity to browse the HTML version on
the web - please let me know of any problems with that!

For those who are now reading the current version and sending me
suggestions for improvements, I'll send notice of any significant
changes in the released version to this list, straight after the
release.

> Unfortunately, there is
> very little chance we have a serious go at the semantics before
> ETAPS'98 in Lisbon. However, the least we should do over the next week
> is to have a look at the changes and to do some guesswork to estimate
> if it is going to be possible to adapt, modify or even drastically
> (but sensibly) change what we have now to capture the current
> proposal.

I'm afraid that adding the concrete syntax to the Summary may have
made it less attractive to incorporate the entire Summary in the
Semantics document.  Since the aim of the formal semantics is now more
to check the result of, rather than guide, the CASL design, perhaps
it'd be best to remove the explanations from the source, leaving just
the sectioning and abstract syntax, before adding the semantic
definitions?  I'd be willing to install such a skeleton on FTP here,
once the final v0.99 has been installed.

> I suggest that within this short time everybody should have a go at
> the part of the CASL design for the semantics of which she/he was
> previously responsible. I hope that everybody will come to Lisbon with
> a clear view of where troubles may(not) arise and what the last
> suggested changes might be. Those who are not coming to Lisbon have a
> few days to express their doubts and suggest modifications by e-mail.
> 
> Let me remind you of the assignements:
> ...
>   Libraries: Peter (kibitzer Hans-Joerg)

OK

> Of course, comments from everybody else are more than welcome!

Cheers

Peter