Going to give a shout out to "PiCat" as a gentler introduction to getting your Prolog brain installed.
Why Learn Prolog in 2021?
51–60 of 171 posts
Re: Why Learn Prolog in 2021?
#52How do you guys think about the opportunity cost of learning dead/dying/new/unpopular languages? Even with newer languages that are gaining popularity and are likely to be used in the future, I struggle to justify the time investment. I could be wrong but some of my concerns are: - my time is better spent getting deeper into some more popular language that I already know to some extent - unused skills deteriorate wit…
Note that when you ask a question like this, you will get a biased selection of answers. People who love niche languages for whatever reason will be more than ready to answer these sorts of questions. Passionate people are great, but you often are in need of some fresh opinions on the other side.
Here are some that helped me out immensely (I used to love Haskell but now I love it adequately):
https://prog21.dadgum.com/54.html
http://comonad.com/reader/2014/letter-to-a-young-haskell-ent...
New technologies can be a psychological trap.
Re: Why Learn Prolog in 2021?
#53I used Datalog a good deal in grad school (CS). It was frustrating at first, but once I figured it out, I liked it a lot.
If you've never tried a declarative programming language, you should give Datalog a try.
Re: Why Learn Prolog in 2021?
#54No.
Re: Why Learn Prolog in 2021?
#55How do you guys think about the opportunity cost of learning dead/dying/new/unpopular languages? Even with newer languages that are gaining popularity and are likely to be used in the future, I struggle to justify the time investment. I could be wrong but some of my concerns are: - my time is better spent getting deeper into some more popular language that I already know to some extent - unused skills deteriorate wit…
Personally speaking, if you're interviewing and you discuss your interest here, it tells me you think a lot about programming and your own thought patterns, with a curiosity about what's beyond what's "dreamt of in your philosophy". As long as you don't expect us to let you rewrite a whole service in it just to make you happy, these kinds of interests generally score you big points with me, conveying that you are a programmer who is eager to learn and try hard things.
Re: Why Learn Prolog in 2021?
#56How do you guys think about the opportunity cost of learning dead/dying/new/unpopular languages? Even with newer languages that are gaining popularity and are likely to be used in the future, I struggle to justify the time investment. I could be wrong but some of my concerns are: - my time is better spent getting deeper into some more popular language that I already know to some extent - unused skills deteriorate wit…
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Re: Why Learn Prolog in 2021?
#57How do you guys think about the opportunity cost of learning dead/dying/new/unpopular languages? Even with newer languages that are gaining popularity and are likely to be used in the future, I struggle to justify the time investment. I could be wrong but some of my concerns are: - my time is better spent getting deeper into some more popular language that I already know to some extent - unused skills deteriorate wit…
My rough criteria: - does the language have some name recognition and positive reputation? - is it still in use (even if only in very niche areas)? - do you have a chance to use it to solve a problem (for work or for fun) to which the language is well suited? If the answer to all three is yes then I would have no hesitation.
To this, I personally would add as an "or" clause, "Does the language have something fundamental to teach me about programming that I don't already know, and which could be useful when brought to other domains?" This was the reason I learned FP, and also the reason I learned Prolog. I wanted to extend my understanding of programming beyond the C/procedural context. To that end, I found both exercises immensely beneficial even though I've never used a FP lang or Prolog to build an actual project.
Re: Why Learn Prolog in 2021?
#58I was surprised to learn prolog is used in inductive automation's ignition SCADA product when it barfed out a prolog error after I entered an invalid expression. https://inductiveautomation.com/
With a name like "inductive", it kind of makes sense :)
I wonder if it's used for their alarming logic.
Re: Why Learn Prolog in 2021?
#59I caught Chris Martens' talk at Strange Loop 2013 on linear logic programming. Sadly what I understood I've long since forgotten, but if you're interested in looking at some of the logic programming space outside Prolog itself, worth a gander.
https://www.infoq.com/presentations/linear-logic-programming...
https://thestrangeloop.com/2013/linear-logic-programming.htm...
Re: Why Learn Prolog in 2021?
#60How do you guys think about the opportunity cost of learning dead/dying/new/unpopular languages? Even with newer languages that are gaining popularity and are likely to be used in the future, I struggle to justify the time investment. I could be wrong but some of my concerns are: - my time is better spent getting deeper into some more popular language that I already know to some extent - unused skills deteriorate wit…
I'm curious about this as well, though in a more general sense than just PLs. There are already so many modern/useful things I want to learn that it's hard to justify learning something because it's 'beautiful' or purely intellectually stimulating.
> hard to justify learning something because it's 'beautiful' or purely intellectually stimulating.
You might be surprised to find out that "because it's 'beautiful' or purely intellectually stimulating" is the essence of the 'Hacker' ethos for which this site is named.
The Y Combinator itself is something that fits this description quite perfectly. You will never use the y combinator in practice, and it likely won't help you to get a job ever, but it's a beautiful, wonderful thing to learn about and play with.
I'll be the first person to criticize PG on a range of topics, but to his credit he has been a great proponent of this ethos and it is no coincidence that this site is named after what would be now considered esoteria by many of the commenters in this thread.
It's predictable that the VC ethos of SV would undo that of the Hacker spirit that built it, but it's still sad to see.