This Prolog Life

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John Fletcher's home on the Web

“Prolog is more than a language - it is a way of living :-)” Bart Demoen

Prolog

Ever since I first learned Prolog, more than 30 years ago, it has been my preferred programming language.

Why use Prolog?

Prolog is a tool for solving problems, rather than producing “software products”, and it will appeal to you if:

  • You want your programs to be readable, and to have a close correspondence with their specifications;
  • Statements like x = x + 1 offend your mathematical sensibility;
  • You like to develop programs incrementally – with an interactive top-level, interactive debugging, and the ability to test (execute) program fragments independently;
  • You want fewer lines of code and, therefore, fewer faults;
  • You prefer to work with a handful of big ideas, rather than a lot of small ones;

If you want to find out about Prolog on the Web, start with the Frequently Asked Questions for comp.lang.prolog.

Other useful links include:

Although Prolog is regarded as a niche language, it's a very versatile language. I believe that the programming languages used in 2050 will owe more to Prolog than to any other language.