Further to the seeding of the binary framework and SDK as announced on
this list last year, Business Objects is pleased to announce that the
Open Quark Framework for Java has now been released as open source
under a BSD-style license.

The Open Quark Framework for Java includes a language, CAL, similar in
many respects to Haskell, which is compiled to efficient byte code on
the Java platform. The purpose of Open Quark began, and remains, the
ability to conveniently mix logic expressed in a natural functional
style with 'regular' Java code. Business Objects' interest in the
functional paradigm is that much of the logic to model complex data
semantics and to express data transformation is elegantly and reusably
represented as pure functions. This contrasts with the corpus of
application logic that represents workflow, UI, communications and
storage, which is predominantly coded directly in OO languages such as
Java but with which the data logic must interoperate. Despite the
original motivations for the Quark Framework, CAL is a completely
general purpose non-strict functional language and suitable for a
broad range of applications.

We have made available a suite of documentation, included in the
software packages and separately downloadable. These documents should
inform those with both a casual interest in the project (and its
similarities/differences to Haskell) as well as those who wish to
explore the language, SDK and tools in more detail.

Open Quark can be downloaded, with or without sources from:
http://labs.businessobjects.com/cal
Unlike with the previous 'seeding' regime, no registration is required
to obtain Open Quark.

Business Objects remains very active on the project and intends to set
up the necessary mechanisms to allow the community to contribute
easily to the project. While these arrangements will take a little
longer, we are already very happy to receive any/all comments,
suggestions and contributions. A discussion forum is already
available for such activity (see the main web page). A major priority
for the immediate future is to deepen the Eclipse integration in order
to improve the convenience for developers using CAL.

Luke Evans
Chief Scientist, VP Research, Business Objects