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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE pkgmetadata SYSTEM "http://www.gentoo.org/dtd/metadata.dtd">
<pkgmetadata>
	<herd>no-herd</herd>
	<maintainer>
		<email>maintainer-needed@gentoo.org</email>
	</maintainer>
	<longdescription lang="en">
		ATerm (short for Annotated Term) is an abstract data type designed for
		the exchange of tree-like data structures between distributed
		applications.

		The ATerm library forms a comprehensive procedural interface which
		enables creation and manipulation of ATerms in C and Java. The ATerm
		implementation is based on maximal subterm sharing and automatic garbage
		collection.

		A binary exchange format for the concise representation of ATerms
		(sharing preserved) allows the fast exchange of ATerms between
		applications. In a typical application---parse trees which contain
		considerable redundant information---less than 2 bytes are needed to
		represent a node in memory, and less than 2 bits are needed to represent
		it in binary format. The implementation of ATerms scales up to the
		manipulation of ATerms in the giga-byte range.

		Programming

		The ATerm library provides a comprehensive interface in C and Java to
		handle the annotated term data-type in an efficient manner. If the terms
		you handle are limited to a specific signature, you can use ApiGen to
		generate typed interfaces to the same ATerms. 
	</longdescription>
</pkgmetadata>