31–40 of 134 posts
I'm really interested in Prolog, but my eyes feel the strain after a few sentences. The reason is that the contrast ratio of some parts is very low, of others excessively high. The constant alternations between these extremes intensifies the effect.
The page looks shredded in Safaris reader mode, so that's no help either.
How can I use Prolog to actually get something done, other than academic tasks? Say I want to use it as a database query language, presumably that's not going to happen, right?
No, unless you count cancer research[1], particle physics experiments[2], and government funding allocations[3]. [1]: https://dcnorris.github.io/precautionary/index.html [2]: https://github.com/mthom/scryer-prolog/discussions/2441 [3]: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-97-2300-3_... Regarding how, check out Power of Prolog on YouTube.
I have a long standing love affair with Prolog and frustration for its failure to grow. Prolog has poor features for abstraction and is actually not declarative enough! Prolog's limitations can be great for starting to get the paradigm but then you hit a wall. (Kind of like standard Pascal!) Mercury and Curry fix some of these limitations as does miniKanren. Integrating CLP is important yet so far always clumsy as st…
Respectfully have to disagree. Prolog has the best features for abstraction of any language I've used, I suspect it may be near an optimal fixed point for metaprogramming expression[3]. I will say the other side of that wall is breathtaking. Also not sure what you mean, CLP is a first class consideration in many Prologs, esp Scryer Prolog. Check these crazy demos out: [1] https://youtu.be/h5Xy4YjCZxM [2] https://yout…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Respectfully have to disagree. Prolog has the best features for abstraction of any language I've used, I suspect it may be near an optimal fixed point for metaprogramming expression[3]. I will say the other side of that wall is breathtaking. Also not sure what you mean, CLP is a first class consideration in many Prologs, esp Scryer Prolog. Check these crazy demos out: [1] https://youtu.be/h5Xy4YjCZxM [2] https://yout…
My little pet peeve with prolog is the lack of context parameters (which can be thought as a type of abstraction). For example, imagine I'm writing a maze solver. The maze solver predicate receives obviously, but it has to pass as a parameter the maze again and again to all sub-predicates. There is no concept of "current maze", like in OO you would have with this.maze, or in Haskell you would do with a reader monad.…
However quite frankly the most powerful way to do this is not obvious because it doesn't translate well to other languages: meta-interpreters[3].
[1]: https://www.scryer.pl/assoc
I always enjoy reading positive pieces about Prolog but without touching on the implications of the principles on display, this article may do more harm than good. You would ask reasonable questions like, "for God's sake, why ?". It feels like you wouldn't use Prolog for anything besides an intellectual game. Regarding the why : Some of those reasons include Definite Clause Grammars, Meta-Interpreters, 1st class cons…
one example that changed my view of prolog was http://faculty.cooper.edu/smyth/cs225/ch7/prolog.htm (a toy compiler in prolog)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
one example that changed my view of prolog was http://faculty.cooper.edu/smyth/cs225/ch7/prolog.htm (a toy compiler in prolog)
And this is nothing new. People already knew how to write compilers in Prolog (easily) in the 90s. The problem with Prolog is that it requires a change in the way you think about problems, to a more declarative way. Programmers are in general not willing to do this since the result will be not as performant as what they can do with C. There must be a revolution in programming education and tools before people fully u…
I have a long standing love affair with Prolog and frustration for its failure to grow. Prolog has poor features for abstraction and is actually not declarative enough! Prolog's limitations can be great for starting to get the paradigm but then you hit a wall. (Kind of like standard Pascal!) Mercury and Curry fix some of these limitations as does miniKanren. Integrating CLP is important yet so far always clumsy as st…
Respectfully have to disagree. Prolog has the best features for abstraction of any language I've used, I suspect it may be near an optimal fixed point for metaprogramming expression[3]. I will say the other side of that wall is breathtaking. Also not sure what you mean, CLP is a first class consideration in many Prologs, esp Scryer Prolog. Check these crazy demos out: [1] https://youtu.be/h5Xy4YjCZxM [2] https://yout…
[0] https://github.com/grencez/grencez.dev/blob/trunk/2015/z3-so... [1] https://arxiv.org/pdf/2501.08569
I have a long standing love affair with Prolog and frustration for its failure to grow. Prolog has poor features for abstraction and is actually not declarative enough! Prolog's limitations can be great for starting to get the paradigm but then you hit a wall. (Kind of like standard Pascal!) Mercury and Curry fix some of these limitations as does miniKanren. Integrating CLP is important yet so far always clumsy as st…
Respectfully have to disagree. Prolog has the best features for abstraction of any language I've used, I suspect it may be near an optimal fixed point for metaprogramming expression[3]. I will say the other side of that wall is breathtaking. Also not sure what you mean, CLP is a first class consideration in many Prologs, esp Scryer Prolog. Check these crazy demos out: [1] https://youtu.be/h5Xy4YjCZxM [2] https://yout…
How can I use Prolog to actually get something done, other than academic tasks? Say I want to use it as a database query language, presumably that's not going to happen, right?
I have a long standing love affair with Prolog and frustration for its failure to grow. Prolog has poor features for abstraction and is actually not declarative enough! Prolog's limitations can be great for starting to get the paradigm but then you hit a wall. (Kind of like standard Pascal!) Mercury and Curry fix some of these limitations as does miniKanren. Integrating CLP is important yet so far always clumsy as st…
Respectfully have to disagree. Prolog has the best features for abstraction of any language I've used, I suspect it may be near an optimal fixed point for metaprogramming expression[3]. I will say the other side of that wall is breathtaking. Also not sure what you mean, CLP is a first class consideration in many Prologs, esp Scryer Prolog. Check these crazy demos out: [1] https://youtu.be/h5Xy4YjCZxM [2] https://yout…