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Latest Soar Download

The current version of Soar is 9.6.4.

If you would like to build Soar from the current source code, you'll need to acquire the source from our git repository on GitHub.

Soar 9.6.4 Release Notes

New Features

  • New special-purpose RHS functions for working with headings and range in navigation domains:
    • extrapolate-x-position
    • extrapolate-y-position
    • select-point-closest-to-vector
    • haversine
  • Scene names (S1, S2, etc.) used in SVS commands are now case-insensitive, which is consistent with Soar's handling of state names (#426)
  • Soar now supports LTI aliases. Thanks to Aaron Mininger!
    • This means you can assign permanent aliases to LTIs in commands such as smem --add { (@test1 ^name test1 ^info @info1) (@info1 ^number 1) }.
    • These are then referenceable in commands such as smem --query and smem --remove.
    • Also printed in the output of print, as well as smem --history, smem --export and visualize smem.
  • Java SML bindings: Don't throw exception in static block when Soar lib isn't found (#491)
    • Previous behavior was to throw an exception at class load time, which would completely prevent an application from loading

Bug fixes

  • Fix compilation with --no-scu (#500). Thanks to James Boggs!
  • Escape empty strings when printing symbols in productions, etc. (#484)
    • Without the escaping, productions printed this way are not correct Soar syntax and therefore are not sourceable!
  • Don't ignore duplicate justifications (#529)
    • O-supported justifications that are duplicates can be created when the state changes but returns to its original value again. Previously Soar would ignore duplicate justifications, which would then prevent the expected RHS changes from being applied. Now, the previous justification is removed and the new one is added.
  • cd command with no parameters now works as documented in the manual (previous behavior was a simple segfault!) (#494)

Infrastructure improvements

  • In-progress CMake-based build system (thanks to Moritz Schmidt!)
  • Look specifically for Tcl 8 when building (Soar is not yet compatible with Tcl 9)

Cruft and cleanup

  • Lots of compiler warning fixes
  • Compiler strictness increased

VisualSoar

Project Stability Improvements

  • Newly designed JSON format for VisualSoar projects combining the datamap, operator hierarchy/project layout, and comment files into one file (#38, #5)
    • Far less likely to be corrupted
    • More human-readable
    • More machine readable (tool developers welcome!)
    • More robust to collaboration (no non-deterministic output, fewer git conflicts, easier to resolve if they do occur)
    • Handles arbitrary enum strings, attribute and operator names, etc.
    • VisualSoar will write your project in the new format automatically, but will ask you to delete the old project files yourself. Effort was taken to eliminate any chance of data loss or other unwanted surprises.
  • Read/write project and config files atomically
    • Prevents corruption if an error occurs during read/write
  • Fix cross-platform incompatibility issues in config files
  • Improve error messages, fewer hidden from users
  • Improve undo stack management
    • Compound edits such as the comment/uncomment actions are now applied atomically, meaning they can be undone/redone in one step
    • Fixed issues that caused the undo stack to be unexpectedly cleared
  • Improve close/save action workflows to reduce surprises (such as closing and saving everything without confirmation!)

CLI Support

VisualSoar can now run project datamap validation from the command line by passing the arguments --check productionsAgainstDatamap --project <path>, where <path> is the path to your project .vsa or .vsa.json.

There is a also a new GitHub Action to enable you to check your projects automatically when you push to GitHub.

Ergonomics and Bug Fixes

  • Fix Soar Runtime menu functions (connect to kernel, source agent, etc.) (#33)
  • Make comment/uncomment actions inverses of each other and fix issues with extra lines getting commented
  • Display number of feedback messages in the status bar
    • A quick way to see if you are making progress on eliminating datamap errors
  • allow underscores in attribute names (#32)
  • Support ctrl-A "select all" shortcut
  • Fix undo/redo shortcuts
  • Fix website links in help menu, and open the browser automatically
  • Improve searchbox and related ergonomics (#57)
    • Wrap search by default
    • Don't close the searchbox after searching
    • Populate the searchbox with selected text (for the editor view)
    • Fix shortcuts for searchbox and many other commands
    • Use command on Mac instead of ctrl for all shortcuts
    • Allow closing any dialog box with the escape key
  • New shortcut: ctrl/cmd-, to open preferences
  • New preferences:
    • Save project when datamap check passes
    • Run datamap check after saving project
  • ctrl/cmd-= and ctrl/cmd-- to increase/decrease font size
  • Responsively re-tile all frames when main window is resized
  • Better resizing of feedback list when the main window is resized
  • Improved auto-complete UI
  • Auto-complete for variables that match their attribute name

Infrastructure

  • Add continuous integration (via GitHub actions)
  • Introduce JUnit for unit testing
  • Build native binaries in CI via jpackage
  • Update to Java 11, which is already required by other Soar tools (#29)

Debugger

  • Update links in help menu and open them in a browser automatically (#482)
  • Add new "Browse settings files..." option in file menu
  • Support select-all shortcut in all text windows via cmd/ctrl-a
  • Copy/paste fixes
    • Paste directly into command box instead of the output window
    • Fix issue causing paste of 'c' or 'v' into the command box upon copy/paste
  • Account for half-scrolled lines in right-click (#417)
  • Fix preference file issues (#509)
    • Don't enter infinite loop when reading an incomplete XML file
    • Read/write preference XML file atomically to avoid corruption
  • Fix broken cd button on Windows (#452)
  • Improved CLI parameter handling for debugger (#510)
    • Parameters are now parsed with the commons-cli library
    • --help and incorrect parameters now show CLI parameter documentation, so users don't have to go to the website