Visual Prolog

Last updated
Visual Prolog
Visual Prolog IDE Screenshot.png
Paradigm multi-paradigm: logical, functional, object-oriented, imperative, declarative, generic, concurrent
Developer PDC A/S
Stable release
11 build 1105 / January 11, 2024;4 months ago (2024-01-11)
Typing discipline static, strong, inferred
OS Windows
License Proprietary
Website www.visual-prolog.com

Visual Prolog, previously known as PDC Prolog and Turbo Prolog, is a strongly typed object-oriented extension of Prolog. It was marketed by Borland as Turbo Prolog (version 1.0 in 1986 and version 2.0 in 1988). It is now developed and marketed by the Danish firm PDC that originally created it. Visual Prolog can build Microsoft Windows GUI-applications, console applications, DLLs (dynamic link libraries), and CGI-programs. It can also link to COM components and to databases by means of ODBC.

Contents

Visual Prolog contains a compiler which generates x86 and x86-64 machine code. Unlike standard Prolog, programs written in Visual Prolog are statically typed. This allows some errors to be caught at compile-time instead of run-time.

History

VersionNew features
Version 11introduces suspending predicates for asynchronous programming [1]
Version 10introduces object expressions, support for master/slave processes, Microsoft Edge webView2 control and some support for Direct2D+DirectWrite+Windows Imaging Component. [2]
Version 9introduces bounded polymorphism, extension predicates, threadsafe lock free fact databases, named parameters. [3]
Version 8introduces presenters, for more user friendly data presentation in debugger and running program. [4]
Version 7.5contains http server and LALR(1) parser generator. [5]
Version 7.4can generate 64 bit windows code. [6]
Version 7.3introduced generic classes and interfaces (see Generic programming), guarded monitors. [7]
Version 7.2introduced anonymous predicates (a logical pendant to anonymous functions) and namespaces. [8]
Version 7.0introduced parametric polymorphism.
Since version 6.0the language has been fully object-oriented.

Hanoi example

In the Towers of Hanoi example, the Prolog inference engine figures out how to move a stack of any number of progressively smaller disks, one at a time, from the left pole to the right pole in the described way, by means of a center as transit, so that there's never a bigger disk on top of a smaller disk. The predicate hanoi takes an integer indicating the number of disks as an initial argument.

classhanoipredicateshanoi:(unsignedN).endclasshanoiimplementhanoidomainspole=left;center;right.clauseshanoi(N):-move(N,left,center,right).classpredicatesmove:(unsignedN,poleA,poleB,poleC).clausesmove(0,_,_,_):-!.move(N,A,B,C):-move(N-1,A,C,B),stdio::writef("move a disc from % pole to the % pole\n",A,C),move(N-1,B,A,C).endimplementhanoigoalconsole::init(),hanoi::hanoi(4).

Reception

Bruce F. Webster of BYTE praised Turbo Prolog in September 1986, stating that it was the first Borland product to excite him as much as Turbo Pascal did. He liked the user interface and low price, and reported that two BYU professors stated that it was superior to the Prolog they used at the university. While questioning the market demand for the language, Webster concluded that "Turbo Prolog may be as significant a leap in software design as Turbo Pascal represented three years ago", and recommended it to those "at all interested in artificial intelligence, databases, expert systems, or new ways of thinking about programming". [9] Another author in the magazine that month wrote that the language's nonstandard, more structured syntax as making "source listings much more readable than those of standard Prolog". While stating that it had "many good features", he stated that Turbo Prolog's "Turbo Pascal flavor in its compiler and strong data typing ... create an identity problem for the language". Describing it as "Turbo Paslog", the author concluded that he does "not recommend it if you are seriously considering becoming a Prolog programmer". [10] The magazine in 1989 listed Turbo Prolog 2.0 as among the "Distinction" winners of the BYTE Awards, approving of how Borland had "developed a system for real-world applications programming". [11]

Books about Visual Prolog

See also

Related Research Articles

Borland Software Corporation was a computing technology company founded in 1983 by Niels Jensen, Ole Henriksen, Mogens Glad, and Philippe Kahn. Its main business was developing and selling software development and software deployment products. Borland was first headquartered in Scotts Valley, California, then in Cupertino, California, and then in Austin, Texas. In 2009, the company became a full subsidiary of the British firm Micro Focus International plc. In 2023, Micro Focus was acquired by Canadian firm OpenText, which later absorbed Borland's portfolio into its application delivery management division.

Prolog is a logic programming language that has its origins in artificial intelligence, automated theorem proving and computational linguistics.

Pascal is an imperative and procedural programming language, designed by Niklaus Wirth as a small, efficient language intended to encourage good programming practices using structured programming and data structuring. It is named after French mathematician, philosopher and physicist Blaise Pascal.

Turbo Pascal is a software development system that includes a compiler and an integrated development environment (IDE) for the programming language Pascal running on the operating systems CP/M, CP/M-86, and DOS. It was originally developed by Anders Hejlsberg at Borland, and was notable for its very fast compiling. Turbo Pascal, and the later but similar Turbo C, made Borland a leader in PC-based development tools.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Turbo C</span> Discontinued C IDE and compiler

Turbo C is a discontinued integrated development environment (IDE) and compiler for the C programming language from Borland. First introduced in 1987, it was noted for its integrated development environment, small size, fast compile speed, comprehensive manuals and low price.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anders Hejlsberg</span> Danish software engineer (born 1960)

Anders Hejlsberg is a Danish software engineer who co-designed several programming languages and development tools. He was the original author of Turbo Pascal and the chief architect of Delphi. He currently works for Microsoft as the lead architect of C# and core developer on TypeScript.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Delphi (software)</span> General-purpose programming language and a software product

Delphi is a general-purpose programming language and a software product that uses the Delphi dialect of the Object Pascal programming language and provides an integrated development environment (IDE) for rapid application development of desktop, mobile, web, and console software, currently developed and maintained by Embarcadero Technologies.

Object Pascal is an extension to the programming language Pascal that provides object-oriented programming (OOP) features such as classes and methods.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Free Pascal</span> Free compiler and IDE for Pascal and ObjectPascal

Free Pascal Compiler (FPC) is a compiler for the closely related programming-language dialects Pascal and Object Pascal. It is free software released under the GNU General Public License, with exception clauses that allow static linking against its runtime libraries and packages for any purpose in combination with any other software license.

JRT Pascal is an implementation of the Pascal programming language. It was available in the early 1980s on the CP/M operating system.

The computer programming languages C and Pascal have similar times of origin, influences, and purposes. Both were used to design their own compilers early in their lifetimes. The original Pascal definition appeared in 1969 and a first compiler in 1970. The first version of C appeared in 1972.

This is an incomplete comparison of assemblers. Some assemblers are components of a compiler system for a high-level programming language and may have limited or no usable functionality outside of the compiler system. Some assemblers are hosted on the target processor and operating system, while other assemblers (cross-assemblers) may run under an unrelated operating system or processor. For example, assemblers for embedded systems are not usually hosted on the target system since it would not have the storage and terminal I/O to permit entry of a program from a keyboard. An assembler may have a single target processor or may have options to support multiple processor types.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Turbo C++</span> Compiler and IDE from Borland

Turbo C++ is a discontinued C++ compiler and integrated development environment originally from Borland. It was designed as a home and hobbyist counterpart for Borland C++. As the developer focused more on professional programming tools, later Turbo C++ products were made as scaled down versions of its professional compilers.

This article describes the calling conventions used when programming x86 architecture microprocessors.

Logtalk is an object-oriented logic programming language that extends and leverages the Prolog language with a feature set suitable for programming in the large. It provides support for encapsulation and data hiding, separation of concerns and enhanced code reuse. Logtalk uses standard Prolog syntax with the addition of a few operators and directives.

Turbo Debugger (TD) is a machine-level debugger for DOS executables, intended mainly for debugging Borland Turbo Pascal, and later Turbo C programs, sold by Borland. It is a full-screen debugger displaying both Turbo Pascal or Turbo C source and corresponding assembly-language instructions, with powerful capabilities for setting breakpoints, watching the execution of instructions, monitoring machine registers, etc. Turbo Debugger can be used for programs not generated by Borland compilers, but without showing source statements; it is by no means the only debugger available for non-Borland executables, and not a significant general-purpose debugger.

Prolog++ is an object-oriented toolkit for the Prolog logic programming language. It allows classes and class hierarchies to be created within Prolog programs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Turbo51</span> Pascal compiler

Turbo51 is a compiler for the programming language Pascal, for the Intel MCS-51 (8051) family of microcontrollers. It features Borland Turbo Pascal 7 syntax, support for inline assembly code, source-level debugging, and optimizations, among others. The compiler is written in Object Pascal and produced with Delphi.

Modula-2 is a structured, procedural programming language developed between 1977 and 1985/8 by Niklaus Wirth at ETH Zurich. It was created as the language for the operating system and application software of the Lilith personal workstation. It was later used for programming outside the context of the Lilith.

Pic Micro Pascala.k.a. PMP is a free Pascal cross compiler for PIC microcontrollers. It is intended to work with the Microchip Technology MPLAB suite installed; it has its own IDE (Scintilla-based) and it is a highly optimized compiler.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.