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CatalaLang/catala: Programming language for law specification

github.com

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Re: CatalaLang/catala: Programming language for law specification

#111

Post by swayvil »

jeppester wrote: post #104

For years I've tried to convince my lawyer friend that something exactly like this would be great to have, and then it turns out to have existed probably all the time. I think this is truly awesome. Every law should be written in a language like this, and presented publicly with syntax highlighting and consistent formatting rules. Then it should be made part of the school curriculum to learn the law language. I belie…

And the links! OMG, you could trace precedents and justifications and citations all the way back to the ur-utterances of Hammurabi. Reading that stuff could be quite educational.

Re: CatalaLang/catala: Programming language for law specification

#113

Post by bg46z »

jeppester wrote: post #104

For years I've tried to convince my lawyer friend that something exactly like this would be great to have, and then it turns out to have existed probably all the time. I think this is truly awesome. Every law should be written in a language like this, and presented publicly with syntax highlighting and consistent formatting rules. Then it should be made part of the school curriculum to learn the law language. I belie…

Although in principle I agree with you, the law generally depends too much on interpretation and precedent to be expressed and understood like you’re hoping for.

Re: CatalaLang/catala: Programming language for law specification

#115

Post by natn »

turtleyacht wrote: post #37

It would be interesting to also "weave" in test cases. The workface of logic statements is exactly where bugs are introduced. Especially around temporal events, and that goes to formal models (and even more bugs). Typically, if there is a rule around height, there would be at least three tests¹: one taller, one equal to, and one shorter. (Without types or something, then also negative, null, and max/min boundary inpu…

imagine... TTD applied to laws.

Or take it a step further, write a test suite and automatically generate a range of possible laws that satisfy the tests.

Re: CatalaLang/catala: Programming language for law specification

#116

Post by slazaro »

I know that naming is hard, and it has already been mentioned in the comments here but... I can't believe that somebody named a programming language with the exact same name as an existing natural language spoken by millions of people.

It just seems like a bizarre decision that can't be a benefit at all and can only have negative consequences. Just googling things about it is going to be hard. Why immediately create potential problems for yourselves when you can choose a name that's not an issue?

Re: CatalaLang/catala: Programming language for law specification

#117

Post by CuriousCosmic »

retrac wrote: post #101
CuriousCosmic wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Catala still produces plaintext legal documents at the end of the day but can be seen as a markup language for those documents. But because that markup language is a whole lot more precise than the legal text itself, it can be a bit more versatile. Examples of how this could be useful: - Reducing the overhead for maintaining a list of semantic translations of that legal code into other languages. Of course the offici…

> Of course the official language is the only one that is "legal" If only! Here in Canada there are two official languages. All laws are drafted, and enacted, in both English and French. Both versions are equally valid, equally binding. And, sometimes, they don't say the same thing.

Yeah that's common in a number of other countries as well. I should have probably said "the official languages are the only ones that are legal" instead. In which case a tool like this could be useful for helping maintain that equivalence.

Re: CatalaLang/catala: Programming language for law specification

#118

Post by mrdoob2 »

slazaro wrote: post #116

I know that naming is hard, and it has already been mentioned in the comments here but... I can't believe that somebody named a programming language with the exact same name as an existing natural language spoken by millions of people. It just seems like a bizarre decision that can't be a benefit at all and can only have negative consequences. Just googling things about it is going to be hard. Why immediately create…

Came here to share the same thought.

Re: CatalaLang/catala: Programming language for law specification

#120

Post by mathisfun123 »

slazaro wrote: post #116

I know that naming is hard, and it has already been mentioned in the comments here but... I can't believe that somebody named a programming language with the exact same name as an existing natural language spoken by millions of people. It just seems like a bizarre decision that can't be a benefit at all and can only have negative consequences. Just googling things about it is going to be hard. Why immediately create…

goofy; the language you're talking about is Catalan of Catalonia, not `catala`.

> Just googling things about it is going to be hard

when you're looking for docs on go do you google just "go"?

edit: fine, it's called catalá in catalonian itself - this is so pedantic now that i might as well at this point say that the missing diacritic is sufficient to disambiguate.

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