The GF Grammar Development Tools

Translation systems in MOLTO are based on multilingual grammars written in GF (Grammatical Framework). The traditional environment available to GF grammar developers consist of the GF command shell, a generic text editor and the GF documentation. This is a simple and effective environment for the experienced grammar developer. To better support less experienced grammar developers, one of the goals of the MOLTO project is to create an IDE (Integrated Development Environment) for GF grammar development, and an appropriate GF compiler API to support the IDE.

In this talk we will first give a summary of the main functionalities of the traditional GF tools: grammar compilation, error detection, testing, and visualization. Then we will show a prototype of a web-based grammar development environment and briefly discuss the wide range of options available when building a GF IDE, and how this might affect what you require from the GF compiler API.

The web-based environment will enable the creation of web-based translation systems without installation of any software. It gives the quickest conceivable access to GF to novice and occasional users. But the API is general enough even to serve power users, who run the tools on their own favourite desktop environment but want to profit from IDE facilities such as project management and library browsing.