1. What is the Association for Logic Programming?

To keep up with the current state of logic programming technology, readers can join the Association for Logic Programming (ALP) and receive their Newsletter. For details on how to join or send in contributions, check http://www.cs.nmsu.edu/ALP/ or contact

Sandro Etalle <etalle@cs.utwente.nl>

The Prolog Resource Guide (v0.6) was printed in issue 5/1 of the Newsletter (Feb. 1992). This lists information concerning Prolog Archives, Books, Suppliers, etc. It is now maintained by Mark Kantrowitz (<Mark.Kantrowitz@glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu>), and used to be posted periodically to news://comp.lang.prolog.

2. Where can I get a free Prolog for system X (PC, Mac, Unix or other)?

The following are anonymous-FTP sites for free Prologs (or related languages) which are either in the public domain or are "copy-lefted" (permitted to be copied with some restrictions on commercial use).

(Please note that for extensive development work, users will probably want a robust interpreter or compiler with good debugging facilities and a standard syntax, among other things. While public-domain systems are a valuable service to the community, they do not necessarily have all these things, and users should weigh carefully what they want to do against the capabilities and costs of the available systems.)

ALF (Algebraic Logic Functional language)
Amzi! Prolog + Logic Server
Aquarius Prolog 1.0
Argo Prolog v.1.1
Arity/Prolog32
B-Prolog 8.1
BinProlog 7.0
Brain Aid Prolog (BAP) v1.4
C#Prolog
Ciao 1.4
clp(FD)
clp(FD,S)
CLP(R)
CxProlog
ECLiPSe Constraint Logic Programming System, subsuming Prolog.
IF Prolog V5.3
GNU Prolog
Jinni 2.27
JIProlog
KLIC
LPA Win-Prolog, demo version
MINERVA
Modular SB-Prolog (= SB-Prolog version 3.1 plus modules)
Open Prolog
Poplog Prolog
PIE2
QuProlog
Scryer Prolog
Strawberry Prolog
SWI Prolog
Tau Prolog
Trinc-Prolog
Visual Prolog
wamcc
XGP
XSB
Yap

3. What commercial systems are available? What about systems available for a price from research institutions?

Many commercial systems are listed in the Prolog Resource Guide. The Resource Guide also lists many systems which are not exactly "commercial", but available for a price from research institutions. The list of such systems was originally compiled by Chris Moss, of Imperial College. The rest of the Resource Guide was originally compiled by Dag Wahlberg, of Uppsala University.

The Prolog Resource Guide hasn't been updated lately, but nevertheless still contains some valuable information. It can be found at http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/Groups/AI/html/faqs/lang/prolog/prg/top.html.

4. How do I get in touch with my Prolog's users' group, sales representative, or technical support line?

Here are some e-mail addresses of these contacts, listed alphabetically by company or major product name.

ALS (Applied Logic Systems)
Amzi! inc.
Arity/Prolog32
Ciao, PiLLoW, WebDB, etc.
COSYTEC (CHIP V5)
ECLiPSe
Expert Systems Ltd. (Prolog-2)
GNU Prolog
LPA
MasterProLog
PDC Prolog
ProLog by BIM
Quintus
SICStus
Trinc / Trinc-Prolog
Turbo Prolog
Visual Prolog

5. I think language X is better than Prolog. What do you think?

These debates rarely result in any productive discussion. To some extent, one's favourite language is based on irrational ideology.

However, many people now agree that different languages are good for different things. Prolog seems to be good for problems in which logic is intimately involved, or whose solutions have a succinct logical characterization. Like other interactive, symbolic languages, Prolog is also good for rapid prototyping.

Also, note that there are many different "Prologs" and other logic programming languages available, all with different capabilities.

6. What are the recent developments?

There are some languages in development which do not have Prolog syntax, but do subsume and generalize Prolog's logic programming abilities.

Mercury
The Mozart Consortium:

Some other languages bring new developments while also supporting Prolog syntax and functionality as an option:

Ciao
Logtalk

7. My Prolog prof assigned me this problem. Can you help me with it?

If your instructor assigned it to you, he or she probably wanted you to do it yourself. If it's an introductory Prolog course, your question might be elementary to most readers, so it might be a waste of network resources to ask it. Please ask your instructor, a friend, a teaching assistant, or a local newsgroup for help first.

That being said, there are news://comp.lang.prolog/ readers who would be glad to help people making a legitimate attempt to learn Prolog.

8. Can you suggest some books on Prolog?

The Prolog Resource Guide (see above) contains a listing of Prolog books. It is maintained by Mark Kantrowitz (<Mark.Kantrowitz@glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu>), and posted periodically on news://comp.lang.prolog.

Here are some of the most popular books on Prolog.

Introductory
Advanced
Logic programming theory
Expert Systems

9. Are there any WWW archives of comp.lang.prolog ?

Yes, there are: Google Groups has archives of news://comp.lang.prolog/. They can be found at https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/comp.lang.prolog

10. How can I get the ISO Prolog standard? Where can I go for more information about it?

You can obtain the approved international standards from your national member body or directly from ISO (http://www.iso.org).

The working group on Prolog standardisation is ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG17 (http://www.sju.edu/~jhodgson/wg17/).

Contacts:

Further literature: "Prolog: The Standard (Reference manual)", P. Deransart, A. Ed-Dbali, L. Cervoni, Springer Verlag (1996). Extra information can be found on http://pauillac.inria.fr/~deransar/prolog/docs.html

http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/project/ai-repository/ai/lang/prolog/doc/standard/ contains the December 1991 draft, the March 1993 draft, Michael Covington's summary of it, and Richard O'Keefe's 1984 Prolog standard draft.

http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/ulrich/iso-prolog/ ISO Prolog works and related material by the convenor of WG17.

For questions about the standard, use this newsgroup or Stackoverflow.

11. How does the WAM (Warren Abstract Machine) work? How do I write a WAM-based compiler or a WAM emulator?

Reportedly the best tutorial is Hassan Ait-Kaci's book "Warren's Abstract Machine: A Tutorial Reconstruction" (MIT Press, 1991). The book is out of print, and available online at http://wambook.sourceforge.net.

12. Is there a WWW page on logic programming?

Yes, there is one by Jonathan Bowen; the URL is http://www.afm.sbu.ac.uk/logic-prog/. He invites us to mail him at <jonathan.bowen@sbu.ac.uk> with any relevant information for inclusion.

A collection of artifacts from logic programming languages beginning with Marseille Prolog is available from http://www.softwarepreservation.org/projects/prolog/index.html

A large amount of Prolog code is available from the CMU AI Repository: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/project/ai-repository/ai/lang/prolog/0.html

Recently, Stackoverflow has become a valuable resource for Prolog questions and answers: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/prolog

Another community resource is the #prolog IRC channel on irc.libera.chat.

13. Can I do Internet/WWW programming with Prolog?

Prolog is very suitable for this task. Several commercial and free implementations include special support for it. A page specifically on this topic (including some tutorials) is maintained at http://www.clip.dia.fi.upm.es/lpnet/lpnet.html. A public-domain library exists (PiLLoW) for several popular Prolog systems which helps in the task. See: http://www.clip.dia.fi.upm.es/Software/pillow/

14. Is there a WWW page with some tutorials on Prolog?

Beginner level:
Intermediate to advanced level:

15. How do I edit Prolog code?

Emacs and VIM ship with basic support for Prolog. A much improved Emacs mode is maintained by Stefan Bruda and available from https://bruda.ca/emacs/prolog_mode_for_emacs

Logtalk ships with various editing services for many common editors, also usable for Prolog.

SWI Prolog has a built-in Emacs clone called PceEmacs. There are also Emacs definitions that let you evaluate embedded queries: https://www.metalevel.at/ediprolog/. An SWI Prolog programming environment suitable for schools is available from http://lernen.bildung.hessen.de/informatik/swiprolog/indexe.htm

A Prolog plug-in for the "Eclipse"-IDE is available from: http://eclipse.ime.usp.br/projetos/grad/plugin-prolog/index.html

A sophisticated integrated editing and teaching environment with declarative debugging, termination analysis and many visualisations is available from http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/ulrich/gupu/

16. How do I publish Prolog code?

Logtalk ships with support for various syntax highlighters, also usable for Prolog. These include support for Pygments (used e.g. on Trac and GitHub), Rouge (use e.g. in GitLab), GeSHi (used e.g. on Wikis), minted and texments LaTeX packages (e.g. source code listings), Google Code Prettify, Source-highlight, Highlight, SyntaxHighlighter, and SHJS (JavaScript highlighter for e.g. web pages).

Frequently Asked Questions - `comp.lang.prolog`

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