Vcsn 2.4 (November 16th, 2016)

The Vcsn team is happy to announce the release of Vcsn 2.4, code-named "the quotient tools"!

Noteworthy changes include, besides a few bug fixes:

• an overhaul of the "Vcsn Tools" (previously known as TAF-Kit). Because the tools are now automatically generated, they are much more extensive than previously: (almost) all of the dyn algorithms are now available from the shell. It now also supports the 'daut' format for automata.

  $ vcsn thompson -Ee '[ab]*c' | vcsn proper | vcsn determinize | vcsn minimize | vcsn to-expression
  (a+b)*c
  
  $ vcsn random-expression -C 'lal(abc), z' '+, ., w., length=20, w="min=-2, max=10"'
  (a+<2>(ac)+<5>(acca))a
  

• an new method to construct an automaton from an extended expression: expression.inductive. This provides an alternative to expression.derived_term. Currently provides a single flavor: generation of standard automata.

  In [2]: vcsn.B.expression('! [ab]*a[ab]*').inductive().expression()
  Out[2]: +bb*
  
  In [3]: vcsn.B.expression('! [ab]*a[ab]*').automaton().expression()
  Out[3]: b*

• full support for quotient operators on all entities: labels, expressions, automata, expansions, etc.

  In [2]: c = vcsn.context('lan, q')
     ...: c
  Out[2]: {...}? -> Q
  
  In [3]: label = vcsn.context('law, q').label
     ...: label('abc') / label('c')
  Out[3]: ab
  
  In [4]: exp = c.expression
  In [5]: exp('ab').ldivide(exp('ab*c'))
  Out[5]: ab{\}ab*c
  
  In [6]: e = exp('ab').ldivide(exp('ab*c'))
     ...: e
  Out[6]: ab{\}ab*c
  
  In [7]: e.automaton().expression()
  Out[7]: b*c

Operators {\} (left quotient) and {/} (right quotient) are available in the rational expressions:

In [8]: e = exp('ab {\} abc*')
   ...: e
Out[8]: ab{\}abc*

In [9]: e.expansion()
Out[9]: \e.[b{\}bc*]

In [10]: e.derived_term().expression()
Out[10]: c*

In [11]: e.inductive().expression()
Out[11]: \e+cc*

• automaton.evaluate works properly on non-free automata, including multitape automata:

  In [2]: c = vcsn.context('lan(a-z), nmin')
     ...: a = (c|c).levenshtein()
     ...: a('foo|bar')
  Out[2]: 3

• input/output support for FAdo's format for transducers, and improved compatibility with OpenFST.

For more information, please, the NEWS file.

People who worked on this release:

• Akim Demaille
• Clément Gillard
• Lucien Boillod
• Sarasvati Moutoucomarapoulé
• Sébastien Piat
• Younes Khoudli

People who have influenced this release:

• Alexandre Duret-Lutz
• Jacques Sakarovitch
• Luca Saiu
• Sylvain Lombardy

Documentation

• Documentation of the Python interface
• The News File contains many examples
• The C++ reference manual

Available Ports

• Docker

Run this command to pull and start the Vcsn docker image on port 8888

docker run -d -p 8888:8888 lrde/vcsn:2.4

• Debian Jessie

Run this command

echo 'deb http://www.lrde.epita.fr/repo/debian/ stable/' >/etc/apt/sources.list.d/lrde.list
apt-get update
apt-get install vcsn
# Jupyter is not currently available on Debian
apt-get install python3-pip python3-dev libzmq3-dev
pip3 install jupyter

• Archlinux (AUR)

Run this command:

yaourt -S vcsn

• MacPorts

Run this command:

sudo port sync && sudo port install vcsn

Downloads

• Tarballs (sources to compile):
  • vcsn-2.4.tar.bz2 (1.5MB) (md5sum: 174b939d3e90cf5ad806d24e5d3084bd)
  • vcsn-2.4.tar.xz (1.3MB) (md5sum: bf3c39ed1dbef00437c3d67f7ab74dbb)

Requirements

In order to compile Vcsn 2.4, you need:

C++ compiler

Clang 3.6 or newer and GNU G++ 4.9 or newer are known to work properly.

Graphviz

The display of automata is made using AT&T Graphviz library. (On Ubuntu/Debian, install the following package: graphviz)

Boost

Boost (version 1.49 or later) provides free peer-reviewed portable C++ source libraries (at least the Boost.Python and Boost.Regex components, and probably others).

Flex

The Flex scanner generater, 2.5.37 or better.

Ccache

Compiler cache.

Doxygen

To build the C++ reference manual.

Python

Python 3 is required

IPython

Although not strictly needed, it is required if you want to enjoy the Vcsn interactive notebooks.