I like Prolog, it can do some really amazing things with very little code like Lisp, but unlike Lisssp, I find it more readable. Most people find it quite a strange language not similar to anything they know since it's not a descendant of Algol, data driven programming, you do not describe how to solve the problem, but the relationship of data, and the desired result, inherent mechanisms then proceed to find the optimum answer or answers. Like Lisp it's easier for a non-programmer to grasp than someone familiar with a Algol like language, it requires a totally different way of thinking.
I used it once for one complicated project, a graphic simulation of hazardous material handling system for use in the Pine Bluff Arsenal, it learned how to be as efficient as possible, and was very smart at detecting and handling problems in the system. They ended being so impressed with it that they wanted me to write the real thing, which would had not have that difficult, since I already had it worked out, but I did not want to get involved with the possible liability. These guys dealt with things like the destruction of barrels of nerve gas chemicals and biological weapons, thanks but no thanks. I used a copy of Prolog for DOS from the people that wrote Turbo Prolog for Borland I believe it's PDC Prolog, now they are called Visual Prolog.
Doing the same thing in C would have been a nightmare, it was much simpler using Prolog.
At 11:54 AM 12/29/2005, Frank Brickle wrote:
Sami Aintila wrote:
> Smalltalk? Now, what we need is an SDR project in Lisp.
>
> Or maybe I should start my own SDR experiment in Haskell? (No, I'm not
> going to do it!)
You'd be amused by Erlang, which was developed at Ericsson specifically
for this kind of programming task. It's basically Prolog with a few
enhancements for concurrency.
I'm not sure why Lisp is any less appropriate for an SDR project than it
is for Emacs, the Gimp, snd, clm, or AutoCAD...I guess people are just
resistant to the idea of a language that can be tailored to the program,
rather than the other way around.
73
Frank
AB2KT
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I fail to see why doing the same thing over and over and getting the same results every time is insanity: I've almost proved it isn't; only a few more tests now and I'm sure results will differ this time ...
