Open Quark Framework for Java

Transition to new site, repository, etc...

2007-12-10T19:12:00.000-08:00

The transition to the new site (openquark.org) is going well.
We have the new web site up, a new wiki, and the new subversion repository (complete with ViewVC web browser).

We're just finalising the new Contributor Agreement, and a bit of policy. Then, hopefully, the doors will be open again for contributions on the project.

We're also working on getting a Bugzilla instance up and running for defect and enhancement request tracking. If all goes well this will be added to the list of available tools on the web site.

Embedded CAL

2007-09-28T18:10:00.000-07:00

Andrew Eisenberg's work on embedding CAL editors into Java source (in lieu of Java expressions) has now been made available for downloading on the main Quark page. See the previous posting here entitled "Sneak Preview".

This download isn't a part of the main Open Quark distribution (at least not yet), but it is a very nice experimental addition to the Eclipse tooling for Open Quark, and could be taken forward as a fully supported tool in the future. As always we (and Andrew!) would appreciate feedback.

1.6.1

2007-09-24T09:16:00.000-07:00

Version 1.6.1 of the Quark Framework for Java is now available. The full release notes are available here.

While this is a point release (for bug fixes and small features), it has a number of interesting features. Chief amongst these is the inclusion of concurrency modules. Version 1.6.0 included internal support for concurrent CAL but lacked the library support to make this convenient and practical. This release includes missing library support allowing parallel function application to be programmed elegantly.

The Eclipse tooling continues to improve in this version, with a new Quick Outline view, and other enhancements.

This release also includes a new document, "Getting Started with Open Quark", which aims to help new users determine where to find information in the other collateral.

As usual, we highly value feedback and contributions to the project. Please visit our discussion forum.

Sneak preview

2007-08-30T16:00:00.000-07:00

Our Summer intern, Andrew Eisenberg has been busy working on how to embed CAL fragments directly inline Java source within Eclipse. This is Andrew's last week before he returns to the University of British Columbia to complete his PhD. Accordingly, Andrew has made some videos to demonstrate his work.

We will shortly make the software and other collateral available, but by way of a 'sneak preview' the videos are now accessible for viewing online.

The demo is in four parts:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Those who just want to cut to the chase may be able to skip right to Part 4, which offers a full worked scenario and discusses some more advanced features.

1.6 in the wild!

2007-08-30T10:11:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, the Quark team completed another release and so the Quark Framework for Java V1.6 is now available in the usual place.

This release is quite rich in features, with a number of new libraries added that we hope will be of interest to people.

As usual, we are really keen for people to provide all kinds of constructive feedback on our Google Group, and of course the team is now setting about the next release.

Additionally, we expect to have a some very interesting auxiliary work posted up soon - the results of our intern Andrew Eisenberg. Andrew is just finishing up his time with us and preparing to return to the University of British Columbia to continue with his PhD. All will be revealed (we hope) within the next few weeks.

Long time no post...

2007-08-01T17:25:00.000-07:00

...mostly because of my nice long Summer vacation :-)

While I was away though, the team produced release 1.5.1. This release has a range of improvements as listed in the release notes.

An interesting experimental feature is the ability to share the state of a program across multiple concurrently executing threads (as opposed to the ability we've had for ages to concurrently compile and execute logic that doesn't mutually update states of a common program). We anticipate that this feature will grow into a convenient and fully-supported feature of the framework. In the meantime however, it allows people to play with "parallel CAL" so long as they are prepared to do some work to set up scenarios and are happy to take a performance hit.

The benchmarks at the "Computer Language Benchmark Game" site were updated with 1.5.1.

Looking forward to 1.6 now, we expect to deliver a bevy of features and new libraries. Over the next several weeks, some details will be posted on the forum to whet appetites and solicit feedback.

Version 1.5.0 released!

2007-06-15T21:02:00.000-07:00

Today we released V1.5.0 of Open Quark.

We managed to complete the standalone JAR feature to our satisfaction, and there are quite a number of Eclipse plug-in enhancements in this version, including wizards for setting up new projects and modules - hitherto a little awkward, as this had to be done manually.

Documentation is also updated and available in the Eclipse plug-in for the first time as help.

See the main Quark Framework page for more details, and please provide feedback on the CAL Language Google Group.

A worthwhile short delay?

2007-06-07T23:50:00.000-07:00

OK, we think we're going to delay the release to next week now. We made the call because of the potential to include a cool extra feature that we think may benefit a cross-section of users. This is the ability to have Quark produce small 'baked' JARs containing only the executable Java classes and an entry point to a CAL function of type [String] -> () i.e. a main function taking string arguments.

I use the term "baked" above, because such JARs will not include a Workspace with the metadata necessary to be able to use the contents dynamically (such as in the many cases where we use Quark as a functional metaprogramming library for Java, typically creating transient functions under application control). However, this is great for writing straightforward apps and utilities. Being small and having much less metadata to load up to support dynamic programming means that startup time is drastically improved too with this deployment model.

So, hopefully we'll be able to dot the I's and cross the T's on this feature for next week, and if it makes it into the next revision then we will probably badge it as Open Quark 1.5.

Next release

2007-05-30T11:29:00.000-07:00

It looks like things are coming together for a release next week. As already noted, this should include a bevvy of Eclipse plug-in improvements (including the very welcome New Module wizard). We also expect to deliver a few other features including a CAL formatter/pretty printer. This will be used (amongst other things) to format the Gem Cutter generated code nicely, which should be of benefit to those using the tool during a project, or to learn functional programming.

Onward, again...

2007-05-01T12:32:00.000-07:00

1.4.0 seems to be doing well in the wild. We are now into the next development cycle, with the following release likely to appear within the next month. The plan is for this to be a 'point release' with a mixture of bug fixes and a few minor features, including some in the ever-improving Eclipse support.

One such Eclipse feature in the pipeline is a "New CAL Module Wizard". Now that we have the foundational Eclipse features, we are turning our attention to making sure that Eclipse has enough convenience features to streamline workflow. This is especially useful for CAL neophytes who would currently have to manually create a well-structured CAL file in the right module hierararchy - a bit of a roadblock if you are trying to figure things out for the first time!

Video showcasing the Eclipse Plug-in 1.4.0

2007-04-26T16:28:00.000-07:00

We've posted a new video that shows the CAL tooling available in the 1.4.0 version of the Eclipse Plug-in. This is available on the main CAL page.

In 1.4.0, the plug-in was improved considerably over 1.3.0. There's still plenty of work to do, but the plug-in now features most of the bread-and-butter features you've come to expect from a modern IDE (and in particular, Eclipse).

1.4.0 Released!

2007-04-12T23:35:00.000-07:00

A new version of the Quark Framework for Java has been released today. See the main Quark Framework page.

Please provide feedback on the forums.

Final countdown

2007-04-09T15:56:00.000-07:00

Open Quark Framework release 1.4.0-0 is almost ready - we're shooting for Wednesday or Thursday, after final documentation and testing.

This release is quite feature rich. Here is the "What's New" section from the upcoming release notes:

The CAL Eclipse Plug-in is now open-sourced under the Eclipse Public License.
- The CAL Eclipse Plug-in is a separate download, with its own release notes.
- Some components of the plug-in are licensed under the BSD license of Open Quark (see the plug-in zip for details).
New features in the CAL Eclipse Plug-in:
- CAL Workspace view provides a categorized tree of all CAL entities in the workspace
- CAL Outline view shows the CAL entities in a particular module
- CAL metadata editing support
- Auto-complete in the CAL editor
- Rename refactoring
- Organize imports refactoring
- CAL Perspective
- CAL branding plug-in
CAL Eclipse Plug-in documentation:
- New "Using CAL with Eclipse" document
- New video "CAL Eclipse Plug-in Features"
Lazy pattern matching: new CAL syntax to lazily unpack data constructors and records within a let expression.
Improved readability of generated Java sources for understanding the Java code actually generated from CAL sources:
- Java expression pretty printer, shorter un-desugared CAL identifier names, improved generated Java source file organization.
CAL and the Computer Language Shootout Benchmarks
- benchmarks and a document summarizing results on CAL performance for the Shootout benchmarks (http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/)
Various bug fixes, library enhancements and documentation updates

Next week...

2007-04-05T10:36:00.000-07:00

Slightly later than expected to allow for final testing and documentation, we now expect the next release of the Open Quark framework to be released next week.

This upcoming release is quite feature-rich, including big strides forward on the Eclipse tooling, new CAL language features, and an improved global optimiser.

Further details, of course, will be in the upcoming release notes. Developers are also posting a number of new articles to the forums.

Lazy local pattern matching

2007-03-23T08:52:00.000-07:00

While the upcoming release has a lot to do with improving the CAL Eclipse Plugin, we continue to work on the core framework, and even language features. One such language feature that should be putting in an appearance soon is called "lazy local pattern matching".

Both current methods of decomposing values (case expresssions and data constructor field selection expressions) cause a value to be evaluated to weak head normal form (WHNF) - i.e. so the top level constructor of the value is known. The new syntax will allow pattern matching on the LHS of a LET definition e.g.:


  // list cons patterns:
  public foo3 = let 
                  a:b = [3]; 
                in
                  a;

  // tuple patterns:
  public foo4 = let 
                  (a, b, c) = (b, c, 1.0); 
                in 
                  a+b+c;

  // record patterns:
  public foo5 = let 
                  {a} = {a = "foo"}; 
                in 
                  a;
  public foo6 = let 
                  {_ | a} = {a = "foo", b = "bar"}; 
                in 
                  a;

The difference between this syntax and case or field selection expressions is that the RHS of the LET definition is not evaluated until some value in the LHS is evaluated.

More details on this feature will be published soon.

NEW Forum (Google Groups)

2007-03-10T13:30:00.000-08:00

Based on feedback and personal experience in using the Diamond site Forum (the Business Objects forum for developers), we have decided to create a forum for Open Quark in a more neutral and convenient location. So, we have created a new Google Group called "CAL Language Discussion".

We will be continuing to monitor the Diamond Forum, but expect most new activity to occur in the new group. We will also try to post 'tricks and tips' articles to the new group periodically, so it can be more than just a location for Q&A.

There is a link to the new group in the side bar of this blog.

Experiments with Google Video

2007-03-10T11:20:00.000-08:00

For a long time now, the Research Group here at Business Objects has used video to demonstrate progress on projects. A number of videos are available on the Open Quark main page.
One of the challenges of videos of course, is that they are delivered in a particular format, which may or may not be best, or even appropriate, for any given platform/viewer.

Theoretically then, something like Google Video could really fit the bill, offering web-based video playback on all platforms. So, recently I have been experimenting with Google Video as a channel for demonstration videos (which are of course screen captures). Results so far have left a lot to be desired, and I'm wondering whether this is simply a combination of the content type (screen objects and text) and the fidelity possible with Google's streaming/viewer technology at this point. Alternatively, I haven't found the magical format to upload yet to get a high-fidelity transcoding to their live format.

Google recommend MP4 video at 640x480, deinterlaced at 30fps, with MP4/AAC audio. I have tried to provide almost extactly this format in the uploaded source (exception being 8fps as 30fps is a bit of overkill for a screen capture), and have experimented a little with a few different settings. The latency involved in getting a video live on Google makes experimentation a little awkward, and so far none of the results have been particularly better than any other.

So, if anyone knows a way to get the best results out of Google Video for this kind of content, I'd love to hear from you!

Early March update

2007-03-06T08:39:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I posted an update here, so here goes...

We're making good progress on the next release, which predominantly features a number of improvements to the Eclipse support as I noted here before. We're aiming for a release this month (March).

Feedback on the Quark Framework so far has been very encouraging - though for some reason most of it has been via private email. I don't know whether this is because people are shy about commenting publically (!), or because our forum isn't working properly. The latter is entirely possible, as we have had problems before. Just in case, we are planning to create a new public forum with a 3rd party service (Google Groups is one possibility).

We have recently updated the Wikipedia content for the Quark Framework and CAL. There was already a short summary there, created by Tom Davies, which has now been expanded, with a separate page to describe the Quark Framework and CAL language in more detail.

Now that Open Quark is released we have been able to turn some attention to creating materials that communicate some of the more interesting areas of the implementation in a more formal way. We have also been invited to guest lecture at some of the local Vancouver universities, which will hopefully be the first of many occasions where we have the opportunity to speak about our motivations, and showcase details of the framework.

Onward...

2007-02-09T12:19:00.000-08:00

Following the release of the Open Quark Framework (build 1.3.0_0), we are of course hard at work with the next version. So, what is coming next?

We are spending some effort now to move our Eclipse integration forward. The Eclipse support has had to take a lower priority over the core framework since its inception, and is only just now beginning to move beyond a 'rudimentary' phase. With the work on the compiler's static analysis and rewrite optimisations now where we want it to be, we are able to put a little more emphasis on developer tooling and in particular bringing the Eclipse integration up to snuff. To begin with, there are many utilities and tools offered in the CAL shell, ICE, which we are integrating into the Eclipse plugins. This work will improve code browsing and navigation, with language sensitive search and renaming. Automatic import management (organise imports and auto-add 'usings') will be added. Intellicut and code completion will be included in the Eclipse editor. We'll also be adding a metadata editor. Finally, we want to begin integrating the debug capabilities of ICE into Eclipse. The full manifestation of some of our plans for a graphical debugger will take many months, but some basic capabilities should be doable relatively quickly.

Besides Eclipse, the Gem Cutter is continuing to be improved. The Value Panels for records has been improved quite a bit and a record extraction feature has been added to avoid having to use a Code Gem to get access to record fields. CALDoc browsing has also been improved to deal with the hierarchical module names that were a recently added feature of CAL.

Open Quark Available

2007-01-29T18:45:00.000-08:00

Open Quark is now properly downloadable from the Business Objects Labs web site, the earlier problems with the server having now been fixed.

Open Quark posted, but server problem remains

2007-01-25T23:43:00.000-08:00

The updated Quark page containing the first open source distributions of the Quark Framework were pushed to the public web site today, but unfortunately there is a problem with the resources server not picking up the new files (Zips, docs etc) that are a part of this update. Hopefully, this unfortunate situation will be resolved very shortly.

Open Quark 1.3.0 ready

2007-01-25T10:47:00.000-08:00

The first Open Quark build (1.3.0) is complete and ready to go. Unfortunately, we're waiting for a problem with our corporate web tools to be fixed before we can publish. Hopefully this is hours rather than days.

Open Quark is now... Open!

2007-01-18T12:11:00.000-08:00

It's with a great deal of pleasure that I can announce that we've completed all the steps internally on the road to offering the Business Objects Quark Framework as a true open source project, and will now imminently publish a new version of the project with sources - as the real Open Quark Framework!

We have chosen to go with a BSD style license initially. This will allow us to publish most of the sources associated with the project, with what is hopefully the most attractive terms for its use and inclusion in other works. Business Objects itself will be reconsuming this project for its own uses. There is a relatively small amount of code, notably the Eclipse plugin, that we are unable to offer sources for at this time, but we are continuing to work to resolve this limitation.

Looking forward, we will be engaging in conversations regarding the hosting of this project by one of the established FOSS foundations, at which point a future version may change to use another OSS license. In the meantime, we will continue to host downloads of the Open Quark Framework on the Business Objects Labs pages. We are also working on a Contributor Agreement that will allow contributions of fixes and features to the project while we continue to host it.

The Open Quark Framework team here at Business Objects is naturally excited about the value they have created in the framework and tools. We are particularly now very enthusiastic about the potential for working with a community of those wishing to deploy solutions that include the framework, and with those wishing to help move it forward.

The first version of the framework for download, with sources, will be pushed to the Labs page in the next few days.

Progress on Open Sourcing the Quark Framework

2007-01-11T10:15:00.000-08:00

We are making progress on our legal and technical preparations to release the sources of the Quark Framework.

The hope is that we will have the process completed in the next few weeks, which will enable us to update the downloadable Open Quark archive to include source (or at least have a version that does). Once this is established, the most critical and 'legally significant' step in the process will be complete. The next step will be to complete a Contributor Agreement that will allow people to donate changes to the code for us to integrate, and of course the necessary processes for communication and coordination to allow this to occur practically.

Looking forward, we would like to find a FOSS foundation that would be interested in hosting the Quark Framework. Subsequent to the initial open source release, we will be working to establish contacts with such organisations and opening conversations in that direction.

Meanwhile, development on the framework and tools continues apace. The next release will include hierarchical module names, improvements to APIs, enhanced foreign declarations with new casting function generators. We are continuing to develop the Eclipse integration too, with improvements to the editor as well as the addition of a number of search/navigation features that are already available in ICE.

Hopefully 2007 will be an exciting year for the Quark Framework, with major activities to make it a practical choice for people wishing to leverage the advantages of the lazy functional paradigm in Java.

Build 140

2006-12-07T13:53:00.000-08:00

The latest update to the Quark Framework, now posted to the Business Objects Labs page includes a number of new features and some substantial new samples that we hope will illustrate how to use a number of SDK features together in real Java applications.

Amongst the new features included in this release are ways to conveniently express casts between foreign types, and the ability to easily declare input and output between CAL Lists and any Java structure accessible with an iterator.

As usual, please see the release notes on the Labs page (which are available without downloading the software package) for further details.

In the works

2006-11-22T04:52:00.000-08:00

We are getting close to another release of the Quark Platform with a few new features, and a larger Java sample to demonstrate a number of the Java integration features being used together in a 'real' application. Look for an announcement here within the next few weeks.

...et voila!

2006-10-28T14:25:00.000-07:00

The promised refresh is now available from the regular Business Objects Labs page for the Quark Framework.

This update includes a large amount of new material. Specifically, we have now opened all the Java SDKs that allow embedding of the Quark Framework in Java applications. Functions/Gems can be searched for, modules loaded/unloaded, adhoc compositions made, evaluated monolithically or in steps with 'continuations' etc. etc.

Downloading the main software ZIP will get you all the new libraries, tools, documents and samples. For convenience (and for those not wishing to register), the documents, CALDoc and Javadoc are separately available/browsable.

We continue to work on further samples and case studies, especially now around how to use the newly published SDKs. Look for announcements about these in the usual places (including here).

As usual, please provide any and all feedback, and I would encourage people to do so on the Quark Framework forum, rather in in private email (though I'm happy to continue receiving this), as it gives everyone a change to participate in group discussion.

Coming up next...

2006-10-21T14:42:00.000-07:00

Hopefully next week we will be releasing an important update to the Quark Framework that we are seeding under our labs license (pending ongoing consideration about the right FOSS approach).

So far, the software we have made available has mostly enabled people to play with the CAL language and tools. We have not yet made available the full Java SDKs that allow the Quark Framework and arbitrary functional logic to be embedded in regular Java apps. Our tools have a way to generate JAR's, but to generate entry points to logic therein requires the SDK.

The next release, therefore, will open the Java SDK, which will allow:

Simple evaluation of functional logic included in CAL files or JARs.
Dynamic discovery of functions by type (such as "What are all the functions that take an Int and return a String?").
Advanced evaluation concepts, such as extracting parts of a result at a time, with the ability to restart a suspension to get more results.
Applying and querying for metadata. Includes enumeration of Gems with particular metadata set, or extracting properties set on a specific Gem (again, useful in dynamic programming where such properties might be menu text, usage descriptions, default argument values etc.)
Construction of new Gems on-the-fly using a high-level composition API (a programmatic equivalent of using the Gem Cutter)
Construction of new Gems and other entities using a lower-level 'source model' API (a programmatic equivalent of using the CAL language)
Setting locally constant properties into an ExecutionContext, so that Gems running in that environment can directly access this state.
Sharing ExecutionContexts or keeping separate environments depending on the threading strategies in the Java code.
Registering objects for clean-up automatically when the functional environment is disposed
Creating and disposing of transient modules, for Java code to maintain scratch areas for temporary compositions used as abstract building blocks or specific single-shot transformations.

While the Quark Framework has at its core a serious and general purpose functional language, the Java integration is the whole purpose of its existence and the motivation for Business Objects to create this technology.

Watch this space for more news...

CAL Eclipse Plug-in is now available

2006-10-19T00:07:00.000-07:00

We have made our CAL Eclipse Plug-in available for download via an Eclipse update site. See the main Quark Framework labs page for details. Instructions on how to install the plug-in and how to get set up are to be found in the Eclipse Plug-in release notes, also available on this page.

At this point, the plug-in is relatively simple. It consists of a CAL Editor, a CAL Builder, and a few other features. It continues to be a work in progress, and updates will be posted at appropriate intervals. Some developer tools that do not yet have Eclipse UI, can be used through running ICE in the Eclipse console and issuing commands there. Some examples of this can be seen in the CAL and ICE video.

Some samples available in discussion forum

2006-10-18T13:43:00.000-07:00

There are a couple of straightforward samples posted in the discussion forum.

The first of these is a simple CAL solver for Sudoku puzzles.
The other sample is a straightforward hybrid example that plots 1D Cellular Automata, and uses CAL to compute the cell generations, while plotting them to a window implemented by regular Java classes (source included).

Initial Software Download Available

2006-10-14T00:36:00.000-07:00

The Research Group at Business Objects is very pleased to announce the availability of the initial release of the Business Objects Quark Framework for Java software. This is available for downloading at the Business Objects Labs site.

This initial release is primarily designed to allow people to get familiar with CAL, the Gem Cutter and the ICE shell. This version does not yet include the Eclipse integration, nor the Java SDK that would allow full integration of Quark logic into Java applications. An update, to be delivered within a week or two, will provide both of these additional capabilities.

As well as the software download, we have made available two more documents:

The Gem Cutter Manual: a beginner's guide to using the Gem Cutter and graphical language

Effective CAL: a guide to best practices when programming in the CAL language

We would be very happy to receive comments or questions on our new discussion forum that is now live. This is linked to from the labs page (see above link).

P.S. Yes, we realise this was built and released on a Friday the 13th. All we can say is that we tested it and our computers failed to melt down as some might predict. While Business Objects offers no warrantees regarding this software we think you're probably safe giving it a go ;-)

CALDoc now available to browse or download

2006-10-06T21:58:00.000-07:00

As promised, we have now published the HTML CALDoc of the CAL library modules that we expect to make available shortly with the initial release of the Quark Framework for Java.

The CALDoc is available to browse or download here

Stay tuned

2006-10-04T17:48:00.000-07:00

We are working to make the Quark framework and tools (as shown in the videos) available under Business Objects 'early access' Labs license. See Business Objects Labs for details. Hopefully the wait won't be too long (a week or two). In the meantime, we are expecting to share the generated HTML library documentation (within a few days).

DivX videos for download

2006-10-01T12:27:00.000-07:00

I've put up a new page on the .mac site for people to download DivX versions of the original videos posted there as streaming QuickTime 7 movies. This is an attempt to cater for those for whom QuickTime is not an option (Linux users for instance). I don't spend much time in Linux these days, so I may be a little out of touch with what works best there, but hopefully DivX serves the purpose.

Of course, you are looking at a rather large download per file, but the quality seems to be good.

I'm open to suggestions if this doesn't work satisfactorily.

CAL User's Guide posted

2006-09-30T01:06:00.000-07:00

I have just posted the CAL User's Guide here.

The CAL User's Guide is a general guide to the CAL language. It is designed to be easy to read, even for developers new to the functional paradigm, and has the following sections:
1. Getting Started with CAL
2. Language Reference
3. Standard Library Reference
4. Appendices (conventions, style guides, etc.)

This material is provided for the continued purpose of seeding some information on the Quark Framework for Java and generating feedback and discussion to help us in our planning regarding the future of this technology. So, once again, we would be delighted to receive feedback, questions or comments.

CAL for Haskell Programmers

2006-09-28T19:33:00.000-07:00

People familiar with Haskell will be curious as to how CAL differs from the Haskell language, and what motivates these differences. We have now posted a document addressing this here.

Bonus Screenshot1

2006-09-28T15:50:00.000-07:00

This image shows the definition of the standard function 'map' expressed in the graphical language of the Gem Cutter.

Of particular note is the white Gem on the Table Top with the name "demoMap". This is an Emitter of the target Gem (i.e. the result) and represents a recursive call. By default, an Emitter has no local arguments and so it's output type is the same as the value passed into its corresponding Collector. However, one is able to 'retarget' arguments from definition upstream of a Collector to the Collector itself, whereby any Emitters for that Collector will appear with 'local' arguments. If that sounds complicated, it really takes longer to say it than it does to grok when you are in front of the Gem Cutter :-)

Screenshots posted

2006-09-28T15:41:00.000-07:00

I have posted some screenshots to the .mac site, to cater for those who do not have QuickTime 7, or who are experiencing service problems or long download times with the videos.

Although the caption size is limited, I have tried to highlight what is going on in each image.

To get to these (and the videos) use the link in the right margin, or click here

New video

2006-09-28T01:31:00.000-07:00

While we are in the process of preparing somewhat more technical material to share, I have also published one more video to the location currently hosting our demonstration videos

[If anyone is curious, after some experimentation this was the easiest, fastest way to host some streaming videos of reasonable quality]

The new video is a tour of some developer tool features, including:

Searching
Metadata browsing and editing
CALDoc tags
CALDoc HTML generation
CALDoc browsing, with dynamic HTML navigation and search
Various refactorings: rename, add type declaration, organise imports
JAR file export

What is all this about?

2006-09-28T00:28:00.000-07:00

Business Objects wishes to establish dialogue with researchers, teaching staff and the software community at large regarding a technology, code-named Quark, that has been developed in its Research Group since 1999. To this effect, announcements have been made on some special interest group mailing lists, and some early information about Quark has been made available. Further information is being prepared, and we are hoping to make the actual software available soon, under an 'early access' style license (no support). The purpose of such consultation is to establish whether Quark is of sufficient interest to various parties to warrant its proper release as some form of 'software libre', and/or whether there is interest in collaboration on further development.

Quark is a framework for the definition and execution of functional components on the Java platform. The motivation for this was the ability to create certain kinds of business logic as reusable, dynamically composable pieces. These discrete units of composable logic are called "Gems", and these can be created with a number of developer tools, or generated programmatically under the control of a Java application. Gems compile on-the-fly to very efficient Java bytecode, and can be used in a regular Java program with considerable flexibility. The side-effect of focusing on our specific goals then, has been the creation of a high-performance, general purpose functional language, having tight integration with the Java platform and language.

As we are at the very beginning of the rollout of information to the community, there may be frequent further announcements. To avoid too many update posts to mailing lists, and to encourage some more specific and lengthy discussion on Quark, this blog has been set up. This might be a temporary home for such discussion, but should allow an exchange of information and ideas to begin quickly.