Bundy%EDXA@sri-unix.UUCP (10/31/83)
From: Bundy HPS (on ERCC DEC-10) <Bundy@EDXA>
[Reprinted from the Prolog Digest.]
Date: 9 Oct 1983 11:43:51-PDT (Sunday)
From: Adrian Walker <ADRIAN.IBM@Rand-Relay>
Subject: Prolog question
IBM Research Laboratory K51
5600 Cottle Road
San Jose
CA 95193 USA
Telephone: 408-256-6999
ARPANet: Adrian.IBM@Rand-Relay
10th October 83
Alan,
In answer to your question about Prolog implementations, we
do most of our work using the Waterloo Prolog 1.3 interpreter
on an IBM mainframe (3081). Although not a traditional AI
environment, this turns out to be pretty good. For instance,
the speed of the Interpreter turns out to be about the same
as that of compiled DEC-10 Prolog (running on a DEC-10).
As for environment, the system delivered by Waterloo is
pretty much stand alone, but there are several good environments
built in Prolog on top of it.
A valuable feature of Waterloo Prolog 1.3 is a 'system' predicate,
which can call anything on the system, E.g. a full screen editor.
The work on extracting explanations of 'yes' and 'no' answers
from Prolog, which I reported at IJCAI, was done in Waterloo
Prolog. We have also implemented a syllogistic system called
SYLLOG, and several expert system types of applications. An
English language question answerer written by Antonio Porto and
me, produces instantaneous answers, even when the 3081 has 250
users.
As far as I know, Waterloo Prolog only runs under the VM operating
system (not yet under MVS, the other major IBM OS for mainframes).
It is available, for a moderate academic licence fee, from Sandra
Ward, Department of Computing Services, University of Waterloo,
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
We use it with IBM 3279 colour terminals, which adds variety to a
long day at the screen, and can also be useful !
Best wishes,
-- Adrian Walker
Walker, A. (1981). 'SYLLOG: A Knowledge Based Data Management
System,' Report No. 034. Computer Science Department, New York
University, New York.
Walker, A. (1982). 'Automatic Generation of Explanations of
Results from Knowledge Bases,' RJ3481. Computer Science
Department, IBM Research Laboratory, San Jose, California.
Walker, A. (1983a). 'Data Bases, Expert Systems, and PROLOG,'
RJ3870. Computer Science Department, IBM Research Laboratory,
San Jose, California. (To appear as a book chapter)
Walker, A. (1983b). 'Syllog: An Approach to Prolog for
Non-Programmers.' RJ3950, IBM Research Laboratory, San Jose,
Cal1fornia. (To appear as a book chapter)
Walker, A. (1983c). 'Prolog/EX1: An Inference Engine which
Explains both Yes and No Answers.'
RJ3771, IBM Research Laboratory, San Jose, Calofornia.
(Proc. IJCAI 83)
Walker, A. and Porto, A. (1983). 'KBO1, A Knowledge Based
Garden Store Assistant.'
RJ3928, IBM Research Laboratory, San Jose, California.
(In Proc Portugal Workshop, 1983.)