Prolog: The Standard: Reference Manual

ISBN-13: 9783540593041 / Angielski / Miękka / 1996 / 272 str.

P. Deransart; Laurent Cervoni; Abdelali Ed-Dbali

Opis

This is the first reference manual on the ISO international standard of the programming language Prolog. Prolog was the first logic programming language and is used in many areas in industry, such as computer aided design and manufacturing, software engineering, multimedia and documentation, AI systems and databases (expert systems, knowledge bases, man-machine interfaces, natural language analysis), and application fields like transportation, telecommunications, and banking. The book contains a comprehensible full description of the standardized language together with an executable specification. It enables system developers, application programmers and Prolog users to work with any standard conforming processor.

Spis treści

1. Introduction.- 2. Prolog Data Structures.- 2.1 Terms.- 2.1.1 Definition.- 2.1.2 Order of the terms: the relation term-precedes.- 2.1.3 Operator notation.- 2.2 Some particular terms.- 2.2.1 Predicate indicator.- 2.2.2 List and derived terms.- 2.2.3 Clause, body and goal.- 3. Prolog Unification.- 3.1 Substitutions.- 3.2 Unifiers.- 3.2.1 Definitions.- 3.2.2 Computing a unifier.- 3.3 The definition of the unification in Standard Prolog.- 3.3.1 A first definition.- 3.3.2 The occurs-check problem.- 3.3.3 Subject to occurs-check and not subject to occurs-check.- 3.3.4 Normal unification in Standard Prolog.- 4. Prolog Execution Model.- 4.1 Database and environment.- 4.1.1 The database.- 4.1.2 Sources and sinks.- 4.1.3 Flags.- 4.1.4 Operator and character conversion tables.- 4.2 The execution model for definite Prolog.- 4.2.1 The general resolution algorithm.- 4.2.2 The Prolog computation rule.- 4.2.3 The Prolog search-tree.- 4.2.4 A Prolog search-tree example.- 4.2.5 The execution model of definite Prolog: search-tree visit and construction algorithm.- 4.2.6 Backtracking.- 4.2.7 An analogy with the box trace model.- 4.3 The execution model for Standard Prolog.- 4.3.1 The chosen predication corresponds to an existing user-defined procedure.- 4.3.2 The chosen predication does not correspond to any existing procedure.- 4.3.3 The chosen predication is a built-in predicate.- 4.4 Additional error situations.- 4.4.1 System error.- 4.4.2 Resource error.- 4.5 The side-effects of cut.- 5. The Built-in Predicates.- 5.1 Presentation.- 5.2 Templates.- 5.2.1 Mode of an argument.- 5.2.2 Type information.- 5.3 The built-in predicates.- 6. Prolog Arithmetic.- 6.1 Arithmetic expressions.- 6.1.1 Arithmetic terms.- 6.1.2 Numbers.- 6.2 Expression evaluation.- 6.2.1 Value of an expression.- 6.2.2 Arithmetic comparison operator definitions.- 6.2.3 Arithmetic functors definitions.- 6.2.4 Profile of the basic arithmetic operations.- 6.2.5 Arithmetic functors defined in Standard Prolog.- 7. Prolog Environment: Sources and Sinks.- 7.1 Overview.- 7.2 Streams in Standard Prolog.- 7.2.1 Text streams.- 7.2.2 Binary streams.- 7.3 Properties of the streams.- 7.3.1 I/O modes.- 7.3.2 Options at stream creation.- 7.3.3 Options at stream closure.- 7.3.4 Current stream properties.- 7.4 Inputting and outputting terms.- 7.4.1 Read-options list.- 7.4.2 Write-options list.- 7.4.3 Writing a term.- 8. Prolog Flags and Directives.- 8.1 Unchangeable flags.- 8.2 Changeable flags.- 8.3 Directives for initialising flags and tables.- 8.4 Directives for preparation of Prolog texts and goals.- 9. Prolog Syntax.- 9.1 Character sets and character conversion table.- 9.1.1 The Prolog character set and other character sets.- 9.1.2 The character conversion table.- 9.1.3 Character code.- 9.2 Expression and operator table.- 9.2.1 The operator table.- 9.2.2 The predefined operator table.- 9.2.3 Parsing an expression.- 9.2.4 Valid operator table.- 9.3 Presentation of the syntax.- 9.4 Syntax of Prolog text.- 9.4.1 Syntax of directive.- 9.4.2 Syntax of clause.- 9.5 Syntax of read-term.- 9.5.1 Term definition.- 9.5.2 Procedures used in the DCG.- 9.6 Syntax errors.- 10. Writing Portable Programs.- 10.1 Unification.- 10.1.1 A first solution.- 10.1.2 Introduction of unification with occurs-check.- 10.1.3 What to do with the built-in predicates.- 10.2 The database update view.- 10.2.1 The database update view in the execution model for a subset of Standard Prolog.- 10.2.2 The logical database update view.- 10.2.3 The database update view in Standard Prolog.- 10.2.4 A simple view.- 11. Annexes.- 11.1 Compliance.- 11.1.1 Prolog processor.- 11.1.2 Prolog text.- 11.1.3 Prolog goal.- 11.1.4 Documentation.- 11.1.5 Extensions.- 11.2 The ftp package.- 11.2.1 The package.- 11.2.2 How to run the executable specification.- 11.2.3 Examples of uses.- 11.3 Elements of lexical analysis.- 11.4 ASCII table.- 11.5 Glossary of auxiliary concepts.- Thematic classification of the built-in predicates.

Blurb

This is the first reference manual on the ISO international standard of the programming language Prolog. Prolog was the first logic programming language and is used in many areas in industry, such as computer aided design and manufacturing, software engineering, multimedia and documentation, AI systems and databases (expert systems, knowledge bases, man-machine interfaces, natural language analysis), and application fields like transportation, telecommunications, and banking. Moreover, it is the kernel language of many emerging logic programming languages which support constraints, functions and concurrency.
The book gives a comprehensible full description of the standardized language together with an executable specification. It enables system developers, application programmers and Prolog users to work with any standard conforming processor.