From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,FREEMAIL_FROM, INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,24ac4e1c8cbfe3c X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: "Vladimir Olensky" Subject: Re: histrionics Date: 1999/09/10 Message-ID: #1/1 X-Deja-AN: 523104346 References: <37D670CE.855F96BD@interact.net.au> <37D678E4.9867000B@interact.net.au> <37d74de9@eeyore.callnetuk.com> <7r8c60$b2q$1@nnrp1.deja.com> Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.72.3110.3 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Date: 1999-09-10T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: Robert Dewar wrote in message <7r8c60$b2q$1@nnrp1.deja.com>... > Prolog is one of >those languages that has a fascinating idea, but ultimately >is disappointing ... There are opinions and opinions :-) Hope this is not an invitation to start another language flame:-) As for me I would not blame any existing programming language and state that it is disappointing. All of them are evolution outcome and each has it's merits and drawbacks. No one will use Prolog for writing safety critical applications or operating systems or number crunching. But for writing applications that exhibit artificial intelligence it is one of the best choices. Especially when one has to extract solutions from facts and rules not known when original code had been issued. Prolog program can modify itself and be self learning. Of course it can be done in Ada or even in Basic (by the way I have a book somewhere shelf on writing AI application using Basic). Ada is best suited for safety critical control applications and programming in general. Prolog is best suited for writing expert systems. One of the real examples of Prolog in action is the Xircom expert system for installing Xircom adapters on PC (may be it is not Xircom - I do not remember exactly the Company name - I remember the idea). Installation program gathers all the data about PC and user can send it to that expert system which in turn will analyze all hardware dependencies and incompatibilities and it will give recommendations regarding best configuration options. One may ask why they did not do that in Ada :-) There are many other examples. I am sure Nick Roberts can supply a lot of them:-) The other example that I enjoy very much is Axon2000 Idea processor. ( http://web.singnet.com.sg/~axon2000 ). One of the best tools to help one's vague ideas to take real shape. Very cool. Regards.