holliday@csgrad.cs.vt.edu (03/30/91)
Many people responded to my query of Mar 23 for examples of real, live
Prolog applications that have escaped from labs. Here is a summary:
From: px%fct.unl.pt@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU (Joaquim Baptista [pxQuim])
Message-Id: <9103252044.AA02365@host.fct.unl.pt>
Some friends of mine ... used Prolog to quickly generate 4GL code
from suitable specifications of repetitive parts of programs.
You might say that instead of reusing software, the programmed
generators for the things they wanted to reuse.
From: Rene Bach <bach@isbe.ch>
Message-Id: <135*/S=bach/O=isbe/PRMD=SWITCH/ADMD=ARCOM/C=CH/@MHS>
Cc: peter@tech.ascom.ch
You may ask Norbert Fuchs for his list (fuchs@ifi.unizh.ch).
At Ascom Tech, we have developed a number of applications written in
Prolog (this groups is now lead by Ernst Peter, hence the cc:).
The main application ... is a tutoring and advice system for stock option
strategies.
Return-Path: <dds@doc.imperial.ac.uk> (Diomidis)
Message-Id: <10363.9103261051@dirty.doc.ic.ac.uk>
A program based on CHIP (Constraint Handling in Prolog) developed in ECRC
running on a Sun-4 is controling the trafic and container handling and storage
at the Hong-Kong harbour.
From: FORE057@cantva.canterbury.ac.nz (Euan Mason)
I've built a decision-support system for forest supervisors, in PDC Prolog.
It gets them to describe their sites, and then suggests weed control
treatments which suit their objectives.
I would not like to have had to build it using some of the primitive development
environments I've seen attached to versions of Prolog which conform to the
Edinburgh standard. If there are few Prolog applications outside of Academia,
then primitive development environments may be part of the reason.
Good point!
From: pdev@pdc.dk (System Development (Per Gregers Bilse))
Briefly, 4/5 of the software engineers here at the PDC are involved in
consultancy work for external customers, creating applications using
PDC Prolog.
Examples include
- maintenance scheduling for aircraft, for the Scandinavian
Airlines System,
- staff vacation & duty rota planning, for SAS again (must deal with
a plethora of union rules and legal requirements) as well as
hospitals throughout Denmark (ditto),
- production (assembly & manufacture) line scheduling, for a Japanese
company (don't remember their name off the top of my head),
- airport landing/take-off slot allocation based on desired timetables,
for SwissAir (representing the Swiss Airport Authorities), and
- ammonia production and shipping planning for Norsk Hydro (Norwegian
electro-chemical heavy-weight).
Professional users of PDC Prolog have themselves created ...
- rotary press allocation (a small Danish book-printer),
- staff duty-rota planning (again :-)) (Norwegian Armed Forces),
- data analysis and maintenance scheduling for ships diesels
(Burmeister & Wain, Danish ship-yard, the worlds second-largest
manufacturer of ships diesel engines),
- system configuration (expert-system style) for industrial plant
monitoring equipment (Bruel & Kjaer, probably the worlds #1 quality
supplier of acoustic measuring and analysis equipment; they have
stuff that will (almost literally) listen to a machine and hear if
something's wrong), and
- tactical positioning of mobile
radar stations based on topological maps (Danish Armed Forces).
From: thood@pluton.matrox.com (Thomas Hood)
Message-Id: <9103250420.AA09973@pluton.matrox.com>
We are using a Prolog program to validate the microcode of one of our
products against a set of design-rules.
From: Harri Pasanen <hpasanen@sauna.hut.fi>
Message-Id: <9103280833.AA17659@cs.hut.fi>
I've myself written an educational program for mathematics. It has some
symbolic algebra capabilities (albeit simple). Anyway, it is written
in PDC prolog and it is sold commercially in Finland.
Also the older DOS version of Knowlegde Pro was written in Turbo Prolog.
From: cognos!garym@csgrad.cs.vt.edu (Gary Murphy)
Message-Id: <9103251617.AA04164@cognos>
These are two examples of prolog programs I've sold;
The Toronto Star (among others) runs two sports-pool contests
Data entry, stats scanning and point correlations are all done by
prolog programs.
The Geo(sono)scope controller software written for Kasemets SoundArts
(Toronto) co-ordinates 15 great-circle track-lights on a 2-meter
globe with 15 tape-loops mixed through a custom 16x4 audio mixer.
Sound and track-light software are both written in prolog.
Thanks, one and all. I'm using the info first in a presentation to show
technical folks just coming into Prolog some of the commercial possibilities.
I may ask some of you if you'd like to trade notes as I attempt to recommend
a "realistic first real Prolog project" for us.
--
Glenn | holliday@csgrad.cs.vt.edu OR
Holliday | GHOLLID@access.nswc.navy.mil