The Kleene Language for Weighted Finite-State Programming

Abstract

Kleene is a high-level programming language for building, manipulating and testing weighted finite-state acceptors and transducers. It allows users to define networks using regular expressions and right-linear phrase-structure grammars, and it provides variables, functions and familiar control structures. Pre-edited Kleene scripts can be run from the command line, and a graphical user interface is provided for interactive programming and testing. The Kleene parser is implemented in JavaCC/JJTree, and the interpreter calls functions in the OpenFst library via the Java Native Interface (JNI). The design, implementation, development status and future plans for Kleene are described.