THE IMPLEMENTATION OF PROLOG

A semantically welldefined programming language widely used in artificial intelligence Prolog has greatly influenced other programming languages since its introduction in the late 1970s A user may find Prolog deceptively easy however and there are a number of different implementations In this book Patrice Boizumault draws from his extensive experience in Prolog implementation to describe for students of all levels the concepts difficulties and design limits of a Prolog systemBoizumault introduces the specific problems posed by the implementation of Prolog studies and compares different solutionsnotably those of the schools of Marseilles and Edinburghand concludes with three examples of implementation Major points of interest include identifying the important differences in implementing unification and resolution presenting three features of Prolog IIinfinite trees dif and freezethat introduce constraints thoroughly describing Warrens Abstract Machine WAM and detailing a Lisp implementation of PrologOriginally published in 1993The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest printondemand technology to again make available previously outofprint books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905