SHardy@SRI-KL.ARPA (06/13/83)
[Reprinted from the Prolog Digest.]
Implementation For VAX/VMS
The Sussex Poplog system is a multi-language programming environment
for AI tasks. It includes:
(a) A native mode Prolog compiler, compatible with the Clocksin and
Mellish book. The system supports floating point arithmetic.
(b) A POP-11 compiler. POP-11 and Prolog programs may share data
structures and may call each other as subroutines; they may also
co-routine with each other. (POP is the British derivative of
LISP; functionally equivalent to Lisp, it has a more conventional
syntax.)
(c) VED, an Emacs like extendible editor, is part of the run time
system. VED is written in POP-11 and so can easily be extended.
It can also be used for input (e.g. simple menus) and for output
(simple cellular graphics). VED and the compilers share memory,
making for a well integrated programming environment.
(d) Subroutines written in other languages, e.g. Fortran, may be
linked in as new built in predicates.
Prolog's complex architecture was designed to help build blackboard
systems working on large amounts of numerical data. The intention is
that Fortran (or a similar language) be used for array processing;
POP-11 will be used for manipulating agendas and other procedurally
oriented tasks and Prolog will be used for logical inference.
However, the components of Prolog can be used individually without
knowledge of the other components. To some users, Poplog is simply a
powerful text editor, to others it just a Prolog system.
Poplog has been adopted, along with Franz LISP and DEC-20 Prolog, as
part of the "common software base" for the IKBS program (Britain's
response to The Fifth Generation).
The system is being transported to the PERQ and Motorola 68000, as
well as being converted for VAX/UNIX.
Although full details haven't yet been announced, the system will be
commercially supported. The license fee will be approx $10,000 with
maintenance approx. $1,000 per annum. For more details, write to:
Dr Aaron Sloman
Cognitive Studies Programme
University of Sussex
Falmer, Brighton, ENGLAND
(273) 606755
-- Steve Hardy,
TeknowledgePEREIRA@SRI-AI.ARPA (06/18/83)
[Reprinted from the PROLOG Digest.]
As a result of the paranoia induced by the Japanese 5th Generation
proposals, there was a lot of discussion about what the UK should do
to keep up with the foreign competition in AI and computing in
general. Eventually several government initiatives where started,
amounting to several 100 million dollars spread over five years or so.
In particular, the Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC),
whose closest US analogue is the NSF, started the Intelligent
Knowledge Based Systems initiative (IKBS), which is applied AI under a
different name (it seems the name "AI" is not very popular in UK
government and academic circles). Discussions sponsored by the IKBS
initiative have decided on a common software base, built around Unix
{a trademark of Bell Labs.}, Prolog (POPLOG and C-Prolog) and Lisp
(Franz). The machines to be used are VAXes and PERQs (the UK computer
company ICL builds PERQs under license, have implemented a derivative
of Unix on it, so this is a case of "support your local computer
manufacturer").
The fact that none of the systems mentioned above is nearly the ideal
for AI research is recognized by many of the UK researchers, but less
so by the administrators. Efforts to build a really efficient
portable compiler-based Prolog that would be for the new machines what
DEC-10/20 Prolog is for the machines it runs on have been hampered by
the sluggish response of The Bureaucrats, and by uncertainty about how
that huge amount of money was going to be allocated.
However, implementation of a portable compiler - based Prolog is now
going on at Edinburgh. Robert Rae is certainly in a better position
than I to describe how the project is progressing.
-- Fernando PereiraRae%EDXA@sri-unix.UUCP (06/22/83)
From: RAE (on ERCC DEC-10) <Rae@EDXA>
[Reprinted from the PROLOG Digest.]
Steve,
You correctly state that POPLOG and Franz have been identified
by the UK IKBS initiative as systems for getting people off the ground
in IKBS. DEC-20 Prolog is not classified with them, unfortunately, as
the other vital ingredient for the software infra-structure is the
operating system, and UNIX has been adopted. So DEC-20 Prolog will
not be relevant.
You should also, to be fair, point out that C-Prolog has also been
identified for providing Prolog capability.
-- Robert