--- Mark Kvale <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I would opt for a couple of small examples that are almost > self-explanaotry > and then describe in a high level way a seriously useful Prolog > application.
Sounds workable. > However, I am happy to be a devil's advocate as well :-) Here are > some > aggressive questions you might have to field from folks who have > heard of > Prolog: Wonderful idea! Thanks. Let me know if you think I'm goofing any of these. Preface: I'd like to show programmers how to use Prolog from their Perl programs, not just how to use Prolog. > 1) Prolog was hot in the 80's but is hardly ever used these days. If > it hasn't stood the test of time, why should I care? Prolog has traditionally been viewed as rather slow and, due to the nature of its design, debugging is sometimes a painful experience. Further, because so many programmes are weaned on imperative or OO languages, Prolog just seems "foreign". Building large applications can be cumbersome, as a result of these factors. I argue that programmers should use Perl for the bulk of the work and use Prolog for those portions of the application where a rule-based approach is clearly merited, or where data is heavily relational in nature. Thus, they can leverage the strengths of logic programming only when it's cleary a good choice. > 2) There are about 20 Prolog compilers out there, all incompatible > due to a > weak language spec. This a recipe for vendor lock-in; how could I > make my > prolog programs last? Hopefully, my long-term goal is to port the bulk of AI::Prolog to C and write a "sugar" wrapper that allows someone to write logic programs in Perl. Eventually, I might consider a WAM (Warren Abstract Machine) in Parrot. I'd like to avoid the external dependencies. However, for the time being, if you can figure out Language::Prolog::Yaswi, it's a good choice, though it does require SWI-Prolog. > 3) Why is Prolog a good match with Perl? Perl can already handle functional, OO, and imperative progamming. However, if a declarative approach is merited, it's rather tough to pull that off in Perl. I'd like to solve that. > 4) Pretty CS langauages are all well and good, but how do I get real > work > done? Are there Prolog bindings for databases, network and systems > libraries, graphical toolkits? Is there a decent Prolog IDE? I would argue that most of that should be done in Perl and let the Prolog layer handle only those bits that Perl is not well suited for. Cheers, Ovid If this message is a response to a question on a mailing list, please send follow up questions to the list. Web Programming with Perl -- http://users.easystreet.com/ovid/cgi_course/
