cbspt002@abnjh.UUCP (Marc E. Kenig ) (07/15/84)
<> I couldn't believe I found a book on micro-PROLOG at a small Mall paperbook shop, but stranger things must happen, given an infinite universe and all that... Beginning MICRO-PROLOG, R. Ennals $15.95 Harper&Row, A Hands ON! Computer Book ISBN 0-06-669000-5 Finally, a beginners book on teaching and learning Prolog! Beginning MICRO-PROLOG is an effort to crate a logic prgramming text aimed at the average (junior)high-school student AND teacher. It succeeds admirably. The examples are clear, the progression of the topics is lucid and well thought out. There are paragraphs at the beginning of each chapter to clue in the teacher on the aim of the subject matter that follows. Finally a book which doesn't assume that the average BASIC jock will be able to teach LP, or even be able to glean the significance of the topics! The book proceeds, using micro-PROLOG, from simple assertions through lists and recursion. Being aimed at a beginner-beginner level, the examples never get too difficult. The excercises are well done and thoroughly excercise theect matter learned in the chapter. There are answers to excercises in the Appendix which would help an instructor who is also just learning. It also makes this something of a self-teaching text, although that is clearly not what it is intended for. Also the chapters are well unit-ized and short, suitable for the (junior)high-school environment. Micro-PROLOG, seems to have it's limitations (only variables names begin with x, y, or z, for instance), and does not use standard 'Kowalski' notation (some will see this as a boon). However the operations and concepts remain. I don't have micro-PROLOG yet for my micro, but imagine that performace was probably not an issue in it's creation. It is primarily a teaching tool. The book reflects this since it is obviously meant to be used concurrently with programming 'labs'. This book could easily be adopted into a secondary or junior college CS/programming course. It seems a good text for a college AI overview course, where one could jaunt through PROLOG material in a month or less. The only fault of the book might be it's Briticisms. Granted it was written by a Brititian for a British audience, but come of the examples may lose significance to an non-anglophile American audience. The Reagans, for example could have replaced the Royal Family in one example, or in another, The Congress and President replacing Parliment, the PM, and Queen, just to make the material more familiar to american students who may find PROLOG a shock given a BASIC background. I hope this book will attract some american educators. In cover notes and introductions, it is compared favorably to LOGO, I imagine to attract use in enlightened schools in that market. I only hope it does, now that there is a text for that level of instruction.