New User Interface

This update makes significant changes to the Blawx user interface. A new leftbar with navigation and access to documentation has been added. The rightbar in the code editor and test editor have been converted into tabs. And the rule navigator which used to be on the left of the code editor now appears above the code editor when you choose the "Section" dropdown in the breadcrumb. Several buttons have been removed as redundant to the new breadcrumb, and others have been joined in a blawx command button in the test editor, which appears to the left of the tabs.

This is a first draft at a new interface, and an incomplete first draft. There is more to do. But this interface has all the functionality of the previous version, and gives us a better platform on which to make smaller changes going forward.

There are certainly bugs. Please let me know if you find any.

What's Changed

• new visual interface by @Gauntlet173 in #505

Full Changelog: v1.6.1-alpha...v1.6.2-alpha

Relationships

This release adds "relationships" to the ontology system in Blawx.

Where Categories and boolean attributes are things that are true about one object, and Attributes are things that are true about an object and a value (which can also be an object), Relationships are things that are true about between 3 and 10 objects or values.

The Rock Paper Scissors example has been updated. Other examples will be updated to use relationships in future releases.

This release is fully backward compatible with v1.6.0-alpha.

What's Changed

• Arity 3plus by @Gauntlet173 in #499

Full Changelog: v1.6.0-alpha...v1.6.1-alpha

Event Reasoning

This release is a major change to Blawx, which re-implements date math using s(CASP)'s numerical constraints, and then uses that date library to introduce new event reasoning features. Blawx now gives you the ability to say not only what legal conclusions or facts are true, or false, but also when they were true or false, and what events caused them to be true or false.

With this release, Blawx reaches the "feature-complete language" milestone, as it now supports all the basic reasoning capabilities of the world's best tools for Rules as Code.

Documentation for features and blocks has also been brought totally up to date, and a new Life Act example to demonstrate event reasoning has been added.

This release is not backward compatible. Instructions on how to upgrade code from v1.5.3-alpha to v1.6.0-alpha are in the CHANGELOG.md.

What's Changed

• Update docs by @Gauntlet173 in #476
• Event calculus by @Gauntlet173 in #493

Full Changelog: 1.5.3-alpha...v1.6.0-alpha

New Constraints, Multipart Questions

This release makes logical constraints work properly, makes numerical and disunity constraints display properly in explanations, and allows you to use more than one statement in the question block, considerably expanding the kinds of questions you can ask. It also adds examples for logical and numerical constraints, and updates the relevant documentation for constraints and questions.

What's Changed

• Constraints by @Gauntlet173 in #474

Full Changelog: v1.5.2-alpha...1.5.3-alpha

Speed Boost

This release significantly improves load times for the code editor and answers in test editor and scenario editor by pre-generating and caching the akoma ntoso representation of your rule text and the code editor navigation tree every time your rule text is saved. This also results in a slight slow-down when saving.

What's Changed

• speed up akoma ntoso and navtree display by @Gauntlet173 in #471

Full Changelog: v1.5.1-alpha...v1.5.2-alpha

Remove Default Applicability

Corrects a spelling error and a login link, and removes the default applicability used in v1.5.0 in favour of requiring the user to explicitly make rules applicable. Attributed rule blocks also no longer presume exceptions and applicability apply, as in most cases you don't need those features.

What's Changed

• Fix URL by @asmith26 in #462
• New applicability by @Gauntlet173 in #470

New Contributors

• @asmith26 made their first contribution in #462

Full Changelog: v1.5.0-alpha...v1.5.1-alpha

New Defeasibility

NB: Version 1.5.0-alpha is not fully reverse compatible with previous versions

See CHANGELOG.md for instructions on how to update Blawx code.

v1.5.0-alpha revises the way defaults and exceptions are dealt with, dramatically speeds up code using defaults and exceptions,
simplifies getting access to legislative text in explanations without using defaults and exceptions,
and makes it possible to specify objects to which a rule does not "apply." All examples have been updated to the new
block language, the Bird Act example has been modified to show the new features,
and the relevant documentation has been updated.

What's Changed

• New defeasibility by @Gauntlet173 in #465

Full Changelog: v1.4.1-alpha...v1.5.0-alpha

Explanation Bug Fixes

This release resolves two bugs where negated statements were not displayed correctly in explanations in the scenario editor, and where certain paragraphs were repeated in explanations in the scenario editor.

What's Changed

• Explanation bug fix by @Gauntlet173 in #446

Full Changelog: v1.4.0-alpha...v1.4.1-alpha

Version 1.4: New Booleans, New Scenario Editor

Not Backward Compatible

This release revises the way that Blawx deals with boolean attributes, and revamps the fact interface in scenario editor, both simplifying the interface and making it more powerful by allowing the user to specify true, false, and unknown fact statements. It also revises the semantics that the interview endpoint uses around uncertainty to better match with these new capabilities. Improvements have also been made to how the scenario editor generates explanations.

Code that was written before v1.4 will load in this release, but it will need to be manually repaired. Instructions on how to do that are located in the CHANGELOG.md. Block definitions that are no longer used in v1.4 are deprecated, and can be removed at any time. Once they are removed, pre-v1.4 code will not load properly.

What's Changed

• New booleans by @Gauntlet173 in #442

Full Changelog: v1.3.41-alpha...v1.4.0-alpha

One Django App

This release just refactors the code into a single Django application, and has no functional changes.

What's Changed

• One app by @Gauntlet173 in #438

Full Changelog: v1.3.40-alpha...v1.3.41-alpha