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108 lines
3.8 KiB
Markdown
108 lines
3.8 KiB
Markdown
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<center>
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<img src="https://github.com/CatalaLang/catala/raw/master/doc/images/logo.png" alt="Catala logo" width="100"/>
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</center>
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# Catala
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Catala is a domain-specific language for deriving
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faithful-by-construction algorithms from legislative texts. To learn quickly
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about the language and its features, you can jump right to the official
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[Catala tutorial](https://catala-lang.org/en/examples/tutorial).
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Join the Catala community on Zulip: https://zulip.catala-lang.org/!
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## Concepts
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Catala is a programming language adapted for socio-fiscal legislative literate
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programming. By annotating each line of the legislative text with its meaning
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in terms of code, one can derive an implementation of complex socio-fiscal
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mechanisms that enjoys a high level of assurance regarding the code-law
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faithfulness.
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Concretely, you have to first gather all the laws, executive orders, previous
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cases, etc. that contain information about the socio-fiscal mechanism that
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you want to implement. Then, you can proceed to annotate the text article by
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article, in your favorite text editor :
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<center>
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<img src="https://github.com/CatalaLang/catala/raw/master/doc/images/ScreenShotVSCode.png" alt="Screenshot" height="500"/>
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</center>
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Once your code is complete and tested, you can use the Catala
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compiler to produce a lawyer-readable PDF version of your
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implementation. The Catala language has been specially designed
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in collaboration with law professionals to ensure that the code
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can be reviewed and certified correct by the domain experts, which
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are in this case lawyers and not programmers.
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<center>
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<img src="https://github.com/CatalaLang/catala/raw/master/doc/images/CatalaScreenShot.png" alt="Screenshot" height="500"/>
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</center>
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The Catala language is special because its logical structure mimics
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the logical structure of the law. Indeed, the core concept of
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"definition-under-conditions" that builds on default logic has been formalized
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by Professor of Law Sarah Lawsky in her article
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[A Logic for Statutes](https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3088206).
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The Catala language is the only programming language to our knowledge that
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embeds default logic as a first-class feature, which is why it is the only
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language perfectly adapted to literate legislative programming.
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## Building and installation
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See [the dedicated readme](INSTALL.md).
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## Usage
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Use `catala --help` to get more information about the command line
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options available.
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## Examples
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See [the dedicated readme](examples/README.md).
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## Contributing
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See [the dedicated readme](CONTRIBUTING.md).
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## Test suite
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See [the dedicated readme](tests/README.md).
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## Documentation
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### Formal semantics
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See [the dedicated readme](doc/formalization/README.md).
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### Compiler documentation
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The compiler documentation is auto-generated from its source code using
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`dune` and `odoc`. Use
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make doc
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to generate the documentation, then open the `doc/odoc.html` file in any browser.
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## License
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The library is released under the [Apache license (version 2)](LICENSE.txt).
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## Limitations and disclaimer
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Catala is a research project from Inria, the French National
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Research Institute for Computer Science. The compiler is yet
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unstable and lacks some of its features.
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## Pierre Catala
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The language is named after Pierre Catala, a professor of law who
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pionneered the French legaltech by creating a computer database of law cases,
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Juris-Data. The research group that he led in the late 1960s, the
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Centre d’études et de traitement de l’information juridique (CETIJ),
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has also influenced the creation by state conselor Lucien Mehl of the
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Centre de recherches et développement en informatique juridique (CENIJ),
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which eventually transformed into the entity managing the LegiFrance website,
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acting as the public service of legislative documentation.
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