utool: The Swiss Army Knife of Underspecification

NEWS: Utool 3.1.1 has been released on 24 November 2006. It is a bugfix release of Utool 3.1, which introduced much improved GUI functionality, a new codec format, improved example support and server communication, and much more. Get it on the download page, or start it directly via Webstart.

Project description

utool is a tool that performs various tasks related to scope underspecification, a particular technique in computational semantics of natural language. It implements the most efficient known solver for underspecified descriptions, will convert between various underspecification formalisms, and does a variety of helper jobs.

utool is implemented in Java, and is thus efficient and portable. It can be used as a command-line tool, via a GUI, or as a server. It is well documented and distributed under the GPL.

utool was created within the CHORUS project at Saarland University (Computational Linguistics and Programming Systems Lab). The primary developers are Alexander Koller, Stefan Thater, and Michaela Regneri, with help by Marco Kuhlmann.

How to get started

The fastest way to start Utool is by clicking here. You will need to have Java 5.0 or higher installed on your system, and your browser must be configured to use Java Web Start.

We would then suggest you have a look at the manual, which includes a tutorial.

If you would like to install Utool locally for repeated use, or Webstart doesn't work for you, you can download the Jar. There are binary and source distributions; the source distribution is interesting only for advanced users and the curious.

If you want to find out more about how Utool works, or why we find underspecification important, take a look at the section "for researchers". There you will find a technical explanation of the solver and some benchmarks that compare utool to other underspecification solvers.