The "magic" of Prolog is built upon two interesting concepts : Unification ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unification_(computer_science)... ) and Backtracking ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backtracking ). Often bad teachers only present the declarative aspect of the language. By virtue of being declarative, it allows to express inverse problems in a dangerously simple fashion, but doesn't provide any clue for a so…
A unique property of Prolog is that, given an answer, it can arrive at the original question (or, a set of questions – speaking more broadly).
Or, using layman terms, a Prolog programme can be run backward.
What is it like? 50 years of historic cruft. Questionable whether there are more trip hazards than usefulness for ordinary coding. A fractured community which feels like there are more Prolog systems than Prolog code. Learning Prolog is less "how do I do things in Prolog" and more "how do I contort my things to avoid tripping over Prolog?". A few dedicated clever people and idealists and dreamers talking about ontolo…
What do you mean by LISP as a siren call?
I’ve just started learning clojure and besides the lack of static types (which is pretty harsh for me), it seems like a fun and practical language.
What is it like? 50 years of historic cruft. Questionable whether there are more trip hazards than usefulness for ordinary coding. A fractured community which feels like there are more Prolog systems than Prolog code. Learning Prolog is less "how do I do things in Prolog" and more "how do I contort my things to avoid tripping over Prolog?". A few dedicated clever people and idealists and dreamers talking about ontolo…
What do you mean by LISP as a siren call? I’ve just started learning clojure and besides the lack of static types (which is pretty harsh for me), it seems like a fun and practical language.
Clojure is probably the most beautiful language I've ever worked with. Nothing is perfect, but Clojure is very simple and elegant.
What do you mean by LISP as a siren call? I’ve just started learning clojure and besides the lack of static types (which is pretty harsh for me), it seems like a fun and practical language.
Clojure is probably the most beautiful language I've ever worked with. Nothing is perfect, but Clojure is very simple and elegant.
Only downside is I don't know Java, so some things that should be obvious are opaque to me.
I interviewed and helped hire Mark Thom, the original author of Scryer. I also follow Scryer with interest, even though most of my limited Prolog use has been with SWI Prolog (and one large project with ExperProlog in the 1980s). One thing to check out: Prolog plays fairly well with Python, providing opportunities for hybrid projects.
To playing well with Python, this was on a front page some time ago: https://arxiv.org/abs/2308.15893 "The Janus System: Multi-paradigm Programming in Prolog and Python"
The authors were fairly prominent Prolog researchers. It's sad Van Roy is retiring and nobody is taking this forward. AliceML, a StandardML dialect inspired by Oz is also abandonware.
My honest opinion is to avoid Prolog for most enterprise needs in favor of a regular general purpose programming language that calls out to a mathematical or constraint solver via API when the need arises. This way you get a language that is easier to learn with a strong ecosystem of libraries along with a solver that is built for your particular problem.
Prolog may excel in some niche cases that are documented out there which is fine. For the majority of cases I can think of...it is too esoteric.
Prolog is SUPER cool though as is it's history. You should definitely play with it a bit.
Prolog, and Constraint Programming especially are great to have in your toolbox. I’ve done research in the field for years, and my job in the industry today is writing Prolog. There are real issues with Prolog: - no proper module nor package system in the modern sense. - in large code bases extra-logical constructs (like cuts) are unavoidable and turn Prolog code into an untenable mess. SWI prolog has single-sided un…
I'd advise to not use Prolog as general-purpose programming language, but as an embedded DSL or as a service for the part it's really suited for (if your app involves exploration and search over a large combinatorical space in the first place, such as in discrete optimization in industry, logistics, and finance). You really don't need yet another package manager and pointless premature modularization for modelling yo…
I concur, Prolog particularly excels at being an advanced configuration, embeddable DSL that allows one to express system configurations that would otherwise be not easily possible using a bespoke configuration language or a format. I have used an embedded Prolog core to express complex installation configurations in the past with a great success, and I would do it again for the right problem space.
Prolog, and Constraint Programming especially are great to have in your toolbox. I’ve done research in the field for years, and my job in the industry today is writing Prolog. There are real issues with Prolog: - no proper module nor package system in the modern sense. - in large code bases extra-logical constructs (like cuts) are unavoidable and turn Prolog code into an untenable mess. SWI prolog has single-sided un…
I'd advise to not use Prolog as general-purpose programming language, but as an embedded DSL or as a service for the part it's really suited for (if your app involves exploration and search over a large combinatorical space in the first place, such as in discrete optimization in industry, logistics, and finance). You really don't need yet another package manager and pointless premature modularization for modelling yo…
To me this makes Prolog sound like a tool to reach for similar to SQL. Specialized language for asking specific kinds of search or query over your data.
What is it like? 50 years of historic cruft. Questionable whether there are more trip hazards than usefulness for ordinary coding. A fractured community which feels like there are more Prolog systems than Prolog code. Learning Prolog is less "how do I do things in Prolog" and more "how do I contort my things to avoid tripping over Prolog?". A few dedicated clever people and idealists and dreamers talking about ontolo…
Who still has nightmares of infinitely nested parenthesis?