prolog

Prolog
    n 1: a computer language designed in Europe to support natural
         language processing [syn: {Prolog}, {logic programing},
         {logic programming}]
    

Prolog \Pro"log\, n. & v.
   Prologue.
   [1913 Webster]
    

PROLOG \PRO"LOG\ (pr[=o]"l[o^]g), n. (Computers)
   A declarative higher-level programming language in which
   instructions are written not as explicit procedural
   data-manipulation commands, but as logical statements. The
   language has built-in resolution procedures for logical
   inference.
   [PJC]
    

higher programming language \higher programming language\ n.
   (Computers)
   A computer programming language with an instruction set
   allowing one instruction to code for several assembly
   language instructions.

   Note: The aggregation of several assembly-language
         instructions into one instruction allows much greater
         efficiency in writing computer programs. Most programs
         are now written in some higher programming language,
         such as {BASIC}, {FORTRAN}, {COBOL}, {C}, {C++},
         {PROLOG}, or {JAVA}.
         [PJC]
    

Prolog

   <programming> Programming in Logic or (French) Programmation
   en Logique.  The first of the huge family of {logic
   programming} languages.

   Prolog was invented by Alain Colmerauer and Phillipe Roussel
   at the University of Aix-Marseille in 1971.  It was first
   implemented 1972 in {ALGOL-W}.  It was designed originally for
   {natural-language processing} but has become one of the most
   widely used languages for {artificial intelligence}.

   It is based on {LUSH} (or {SLD}) {resolution} {theorem
   proving} and {unification}.  The first versions had no
   user-defined functions and no control structure other than the
   built-in {depth-first search} with {backtracking}.  Early
   collaboration between Marseille and Robert Kowalski at
   {University of Edinburgh} continued until about 1975.

   Early implementations included {C-Prolog}, {ESLPDPRO},
   {Frolic}, {LM-Prolog}, {Open Prolog}, {SB-Prolog}, {UPMAIL
   Tricia Prolog}.  In 1998, the most common Prologs in use are
   {Quintus Prolog}, {SICSTUS Prolog}, {LPA Prolog}, {SWI
   Prolog}, {AMZI Prolog}, {SNI Prolog}.

   ISO draft standard at Darmstadt, Germany
   
(ftp://ftp.th-darmstadt.de/pub/programming/languages/prolog/standard/).
   or UGA, USA (ftp://ai.uga.edu/ai.prolog.standard).

   See also {negation by failure}, {Kamin's interpreters},
   {Paradigms of AI Programming}, {Aditi}.

   A Prolog {interpreter} in {Scheme}.
   (ftp://cpsc.ucalgary.ca/pub/prolog1.1).

   A Prolog package
   (ftp://cpsc.ucalgary.ca/pub/prolog1.1/prolog11.tar.Z) from
   the {University of Calgary} features {delayed goals} and
   {interval arithmetic}.  It requires {Scheme} with
   {continuations}.

   ["Programming in Prolog", W.F. Clocksin & C.S. Mellish,
   Springer, 1985].

   (2001-04-01)
    

PROLOG
       PROgramming in LOGic