Frequently Asked Questions - comp.lang.prolog

Last-modified: 2022-02-24
Last-changes: Update link to tutorial by J.R. Fisher. Geoffrey Churchill.

Markus Triska (Mar. 2 2007 - ... )

Remko Troncon (Jan. 6 2002 - Mar. 2 2007)

Dirk-Jan Faber (Feb. 1 1999 - Jan. 6 2002)

Jamie Andrews (Aug 26 1992 - Oct. 16 1997)
__________________________________________________________________

General Information: This article contains the answers to some
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) often seen in
news://comp.lang.prolog/. It is posted (twice a month, currently on
the 2nd and 16th) to help reduce volume in this newsgroup and to
provide hard-to-find information of general interest.

The World Wide Web URL for this FAQ is:
http://www.logic.at/prolog/faq/

Please send questions about the FAQ and updates to
<triska@logic.at>.

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)

+ Platforms: UNIX
+ Available: Unknown
+ E-mail: Rudolf Opalla
<opalla@julien.informatik.uni-dortmund.de>
+ Info: WAM-based language with narrowing/rewriting

Amzi! Prolog + Logic Server

+ Platforms: Window, Linux and Solaris
+ Available: http://www.amzi.com/download/
+ E-mail: <info@amzi.com>
+ Info: Registration is compulsory, except for the Free
Academic/Personal/Evaluation License.

Aquarius Prolog 1.0

+ Platforms: UNIX
+ Available: http://www.info.ucl.ac.be/people/PVR/aquarius.html
+ Info: High performance, commercial functionality except
debugging and modules.

Argo Prolog v.1.1

+ Platforms: Solaris 1.x and HP-UX 9.x
+ Available: Unknown
+ Contact: Takao Doi <doi@csk.co.jp>

Arity/Prolog32

+ Platforms: Win32
+ Available: https://github.com/Peter-Gabel/ArityProlog32
+ Info: Arity/Prolog32 provides a complete Prolog programming
environment in which you can write, debug, and run Prolog
programs in 32-bit Windows environments (95/98/NT/2000).
Arity/Prolog32 is a powerful, highly optimized, and extended
version of the logic programming language Prolog.
Arity/Prolog32 is a complete compiler and interpreter written
in Prolog, C, and Assembly language and is a superset of
Clocksin and Mellish Prolog.

B-Prolog 8.1

+ Platforms: Win32, Solaris, SunOS, UNIX, FreeBSD and Linux
+ Available: http://www.probp.com/
+ E-mail: Neng-Fa Zhou <support@probp.com>
+ Info: Free of charge for individual users.

BinProlog 7.0

+ Platforms: Windows 95/98/NT, Linux and all major Unix
platforms.
+ Available: https://code.google.com/archive/p/binprolog/
+ Info: Download free evaluation copies and see online demos.
Inexpensive Educational licensing available.Has built-in
networking, multi-threading, mobile code and distributed
blackboards. Supports BinNet Internet Programming Tool kit.

Brain Aid Prolog (BAP) v1.4

+ Platforms: Transputer systems
+ Info: BAP is a parallel prolog system for Transputer systems.
Available under a Berkely style of copyright.

C#Prolog

+ Platforms: Win32, UNIX
+ Available: http://sourceforge.net/projects/cs-prolog/
+ E-mail: John Pool <j.pool@ision.nl>
+ Info: A Prolog interpreter written in C#. Can easily be
integrated in C# programs. Characteristics: reliable and quite
fast beta version, command line interface, builtin DCG,
XML-predicates, persistent predicates (using Firebird RDBMS),
extendible.

Ciao 1.4

+ Platforms: Linux, Win32 (95/98/NT), Solaris, SunOS, UNIX in
general.
+ Available: http://ciao-lang.org
+ E-mail: Developers <ciao@clip.dia.fi.upm.es>, Users
<ciao-users@clip.dia.fi.upm.es>
+ Info: Next generation LP/CLP system. Commercial functionality,
but freely available w/source. ISO-Prolog + modules,
networking, multi-threading, clp(r), clp(q), interfaces (Java,
C, tcltk, WWW, databases/ODBC, ...), functions, higher-order,
records, persistence, objects, assertions (types, modes, ...),
source debugger, auto-documenter, static debugger, and more.

clp(FD)

+ Platforms: UNIX
+ Contact: Daniel Diaz <daniel.diaz@inria.fr>
+ Info: Constraint logic programming over finite domains.
Requires GNU C v.2.4.5 or higher.

clp(FD,S)

+ Platforms: UNIX
+ Contact: Yan Georget <Yan.Georget@inria.fr>
+ Info: Requires GNU C (gcc) version 2.4.5. or higher.

CLP(R)

+ Platforms: UNIX
+ Available: E-mail request from Joxan Jaffar
<joxan@watson.ibm.com>.
+ Info: Constraint logic programming language, for academic and
research purposes only.

CxProlog

+ Platforms: UNIX, MacOS X, Windows
+ Available: http://ctp.di.fct.unl.pt/~amd/cxprolog/
+ Info: Open source (GPL) implementation supporting Unicode,
threads, sockets, processes, contexts, imperative data
structures, and interfaces with C/C++, Java, and wxWidgets
+ Contact: Artur Miguel Dias <amd@fct.unl.pt>

ECLiPSe Constraint Logic Programming System, subsuming Prolog.

+ Platforms: Solaris, Linux, Linux/Alpha, Mac OS X, Windows
+ Available: http://eclipseclp.org or
http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/eclipse-clp
+ Info: ECLiPSe is a Prolog and Constraint Programming platform
with a long history and has been open-source since Sept 2006.
+ License: MPL

IF Prolog V5.3

+ Platforms: Windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP, Linux, Solaris, AIX,
HP-UX and other UNIX platforms
+ Available: http://www.ifcomputer.de/Products/Prolog/
+ E-mail: <info@ifcomputer.de>
+ Info: IF Prolog is a commercial Prolog system with interfaces
to C/C++, Java, sockets, Windows events and a COM servers. A
graphical debugger allows step-forward, step backward
debugging of Prolog code. A static module concept allows many
additional errors to be detected at compile time. Constraint
Programming (for finite domains, intervals and booleans using
global constraints and linear optimisation).
+ License: Free evaluation copies and inexpensive educational
licensing available.

GNU Prolog

+ Platforms: Many Unixes, Windows, MacOS X
+ Available: http://www.gprolog.org/
+ E-mail: Daniel Diaz <daniel.diaz@inria.fr>

Jinni 2.27

+ Platforms: Java-based
+ Available: https://github.com/heathmanb/JinniProlog
+ Info: Multi-threaded, Java based Prolog interpreter with
built-in networking, distributed blackboards and mobile code
(inexpensive shareware licensing available).

JIProlog

+ Platforms: Java-based
+ Available: http://www.jiprolog.com/
+ Info: Java Internet Prolog is a cross-platform pure Java 100%
prolog interpreter that supplies Java world with the power of
prolog language and provides prolog language with a technology
to implement new predicates in Java.