From mike@miketaylor.org.uk Mon Nov  4 10:29:39 2002
Date: Sun, 3 Nov 2002 20:58:27 GMT
From: Mike Taylor <mike@miketaylor.org.uk>
To: mike@seatbooker.net
Subject: cql-java 0.1 released!

Dear ZINGers,

I'm pleased to announce the initial release of "cql-java", a suite of
Free-as-in-freedom tools for handling CQL queries in Java.  It
provides a whole bunch of classes within the org.z3950.zing.cql
package, including:

* CQLNode and subclasses which together represent parse trees
* CQLCompiler which is what it says, and returns a parse tree
* A back-end that renders a parse-tree as XCQL
* Another back-end that renders back into CQL (i.e. a decompiler)
* CQLGenerator, which generates random CQL parse trees.

(This latter is useful for testing: for example, running a sequence of
1000 random "CQLgenerate | CQLParse"s has told me, among other things,
that the software correctly parses:

	(((("foo>bar" = "<xml.element>") and ((((("foo>bar" =
	"the complete dinosaur") not (dc.author = "<xml.element>"))
	and ((("foo>bar" >= "frog fish") not (dc.subject any
	"frog fish")) or ("foo>bar" all xml:element))) or (dc.title >=
	"<xml.element>")) and (bath.subject = comp.os.linux))) not
	(((bath.subject = "frog fish") not (bath.subject >= "")) and
	(dc.subject = "frog fish"))) not (dc.author <> xml:element))
	not (((((((((dc.subject = comp.os.linux) and (dc.author =
	"frog fish")) not ((bath.author = comp.os.linux) and
	(bath.title <> "<xml.element>"))) not (bath.subject =
	"frog fish")) or ((((bath.author = "<xml.element>") or
	(bath.author = "frog fish")) or (bath.subject = xml:element))
	and (dc.subject <> foo*bar))) not (dc.author <>
	"<xml.element>")) and (bath.title any
	"the complete dinosaur")) not (dc.title = comp.os.linux)) or
	(bath.subject = comp.os.linux))

... and you never know when that's going to come in useful :-)

The distribution also includes a rudimentary test-suite, intended not
only for this compiler, but for comparing the behaviour of any set of
CQL compilers.  (Mine and Adam's seem to be pretty much in agreement
on most things, except that his parses and then discards proximity
parameters, not yet generating any XCQL for them.  But mine has much
better diagnostics :-)

The software's home is at
	http://zing.z3950.org/cql/java/
where you can download version 0.1, or read the README file or
javadoc'd API documentation on-line.

I consider this release to be "alpha" quality -- that is, it's petty
much complete, tested and believed to be working (apart from one
rather subtle bug which is Hard to fix), but you'd not necessarily be
advised to use it in mission-critical applications yet.

Where it's no doubt weak is in the area of portability.  So far, it's
only ever been built and run under what I use, which is Sun's JDK 1.3
with IBM's Jikes compiler.  Please try it on other platforms -- both
running against the supplied jar-file, and compiling the source -- and
let me know what I need in the way of portability tweaks.

Thanks are due to everyone who's contributed to the development of the
CQL spec., and particularly to Adam and Rob, whose trailblazing
efforts with their own CQL compilers has prodded me into action where
inertia might otherwise have reigned.

That's it -- download, unpack, play, and send me feedback!  I'd like
to get this up to "1.0" level, releasable to the wider world, as soon
as possible.

 _/|_	 _______________________________________________________________
/o ) \/  Mike Taylor   <mike@miketaylor.org.uk>   www.miketaylor.org.uk
)_v__/\  "If any of the opposing players dance about or gesticulate
	 [...] it shall be deemed ungentlemanly conduct" -- FIFA law
	 15, FA board decision 3.