A library for Fluid Construction Grammar that allows to inspect and modify the configuration of a grammar through FCG's interactive web interface. If you have a Babel version of March 2022 or later, the grammar configurator is already part of your installation.
The grammar configurator is a graphical tool to design the configuration of an FCG grammar. It takes the shape of an interactive form embedded in FCG’s web interface. The grammar configurator can be used to create a new configuration from scratch, or to visualize and potentially alter the configuration of an existing grammar. The output of the grammar configurator is a ready-to-evaluate def-fcg-constructions macro call. This macro call is printed to the output buffer of your Common Lisp editor.
In order to use the grammar configurator, the folder grammar-configurator should be moved to Babel’s folder systems/fcg, and a reference to the files should be added to systems/fcg/fcg.asd after the module :constructional-dependencies, as follows:
(:module grammar-configurator
:serial t
:components ((:file ”grammar-configurator”)
(:file ”html”)
(:file ”css”)
(:file ”js”)))
Additionally, :cl-json should be added to the :depends-on list of the :fcg system, just after :s-dot. The grammar configurator is automatically loaded upon loading the :fcg system, into the :fcg package. The code was designed for compatibility with the current version of babel-core (https: //gitlab.ai.vub.ac.be/ehai/babel-core – commit 451f0bfe99306bc8d4d2114f478bc8a2f2d42658 and has been tested using Clozure Com-mon Lisp version 1.12. A demonstration of the possibilities is included in the file demo.lisp.
The grammar configurator consists of a combination of Common Lisp code for interacting with the FCG platform (grammar-configurator.lisp), Lisp-generated html code for the structure of the web form (html.lisp), Lisp-embedded css code for the visual appearance of the form (css.lisp), and Lisp-embedded JavaScript code for the facilitating interaction with the form (js.lisp).
The web form is created from the macro configure-grammar. Via the function do-configure-grammar, the html code for the form is generated through calls to the functions in html.lisp. These functions receive the construction inventory as argument and should return html code to be pushed to the web interface. Upon hitting the Configure button, the JavaScript function configureGrammar() is called. This function extracts all information from the form, structures it, and calls the Lisp function do-make-grammar-configuration with the information from the form as argument. The information is then parsed and printed to the output buffer of the Lisp editor of the form of a def-fcg-constructions macro call.
If properly installed as explained above, the grammar configurator is loaded with the :fcg system, into the :fcg package.
(ql:quickload :fcg)
(in-package :fcg)
The grammar configuration can be used to create a new configuration from scratch, or to visualize and potentially alter the configuration of an existing grammar. Let us first consider the case where you would like to create a grammar from scratch. The grammar configurator can be launched by evaluating the following macro call:
(configure-grammar)
The grammar configurator interface should now have appeared in the FCG web interface (http://localhost:8000 by default).
The grammar configurator interface consists of a number of collapsible/expandable elements (denoted by ‘+’ and ‘-’). The form is initialised by sensible default values. Hitting the Reset button at the bottom will reset these values.
Hitting the Configure button will write the configuration to the output browser of your Common Lisp editor. You can then copy/paste this configuration to your grammar file and add constructions to the construction inventory.
If the aim is to inspect or alter the configuration of an existing construction inventory, the configure-grammar macro can be called with construction inventory as argument.
(load-demo-grammar) ;; loads a grammar into *fcg-constructions*
(configure-grammar *fcg-constructions*)
The grammar configurator now reflects the current state of the configuration of the chosen grammar and can be used to browse through it in a graphical way. The configuration can alsobe adapted using the form. Upon hitting the Configure button, the adapted configuration is printed to the output browser of your Common Lisp editor.