Greetings Soar users,

Release 0.6 of the Soar Development Environment (SDE) is now available.  This
version has significant changes in how it tracks files and productions, and
along with that some important new capabilities and changes to the user
interface.  New features include:

 * Actively tracks files and productions that comprise a task
 * Commands for pattern-matching search on LHS's of all productions in a task
 * Commands for string-based query-replace across all files of a task
 * Support for Soar 6.2 and NNPSCM. 

More details are provide in the file "README" that comes with the
distribution.  Please make sure to read this file when you pick up SDE, since
it currently provides the only documentation of the new features.  The first
time you use SDE 0.6 may be confusing unless you have read the descriptions
in the README file.

Unlike previous releases of SDE, this version does not support Emacs version
18 nor Epoch.  You must be running GNU Emacs version 19.22 or higher or Lucid
Emacs 19.9 or higher in order to use this version of SDE.  My apologies for
the difficulties this will cause some of you, but Emacs 18 has a limitation
which prevents the implementation of some of the new features in SDE.

Another change is that the packages "gmhist", "comint", "cmushell",
"background", "popper" and "epoch-pop" are no longer included as part of the
SDE release.  These are only useful with Emacs 18.

Included in this release is a utility for converting Soar 6 programs to
NNPSCM.  It uses some of the new features of SDE 0.6.  Please read the
file "conversion-notes.txt" included with SDE for instructions.

This update is only available as a complete package; I regret I don't have
time to create diff files.  (They would be too cumbersome anyway.)  Your best
option is to put this new release in a SEPARATE directory parallel to your
current SDE directory, and tell users at your site to modify their .emacs
files to refer to this new directory.

You should keep around the previous release of SDE, so that you can go 
back to it in case you encounter serious problems with the new version.


OBTAINING AND INSTALLING THE PACKAGE
------------------------------------

The latest version of SDE is available via AFS as the file

    /afs/cs.cmu.edu/project/soar/public/sde-0.6.tar.Z

It is also available via anonymous ftp from host ftp.eecs.umich.edu in the
directory "outgoing/hucka" and from host centro.soar.cs.cmu.edu in the
directory "/afs/cs.cmu.edu/project/soar/public".  Again, the file is named
"sde-0.6.tar.Z".  If you would like help with using anonymous ftp, feel free to
send me a message and I will explain the procedure.

To install the full system:

1) Find a directory where you wish to install the package.  (At U-M we
   currently put it in ~soar/projects/sde.)  If you had a previous version of
   SDE, save your "sde-site.el" file first and later merge its contents into
   the "sde-site.el" file supplied with this update.

2) Transfer sde-0.6.tar.Z to your desired directory, cd to that directory, and do

            zcat sde-0.6.tar.Z | tar xvf -

3) Execute "make" in that directory.  This will compile the .el files.  If
   GNU emacs at your site is not called "emacs", but something else (e.g.,
   some places use "gmacs"), then compile the .el files using the alternative
   command "make EMACS=xxxx" where "xxxx" is the name of your emacs program.

4) At U-M, where SDE is installed in ~soar/projects/sde, users can set
   up their Emacs to use SDE by adding the following to their ~/.emacs files:

     (setq load-path (cons (expand-file-name "~soar/projects/sde") load-path))
     (load "sde")

   To use SDE at your site, change the pathname "~soar/projects/sde" to
   correspond to the location of the SDE files at your site.  

5) Once you have SDE installed, please read the on-line manual, especially
   the Appendix titled "Changes and Compatibility", for information about SDE.


MISCELLANEOUS
-------------

Please report bugs, problems, questions and suggestions.  There is a command
"ESC x sde-feedback" available especially for this purpose in SDE.  I can't
guarantee immediate response but I promise I won't ignore you.  This first
general release is incomplete and has rough edges; please be patient and
above all, convey your feedback.

Michael Hucka (hucka@engin.umich.edu)
