masticol@sabbath.rutgers.edu (Steve Masticola) (03/14/88)
Thanks to all who replied to my first posting about Mac Prolog. I've had two favorable comments about AAIS Prolog, but I haven't found it in my usual software sources. Can anyone tell me if there is a discount software house supplying AAIS Prolog? (Or does anyone want to sell me a copy w/license?) Even the address and phone of AAIS would be appreciated. Thanks, Steve Masticola masticol@paul.rutgers.edu
ok@quintus.UUCP (Richard A. O'Keefe) (03/15/88)
In article <Mar.14.09.50.49.1988.675@sabbath.rutgers.edu>, masticol@sabbath.rutgers.edu (Steve Masticola) writes: > the address and phone of AAIS would be appreciated. According to the AAIS Prolog manual, Advanced A.I. Systems, Inc., P.O.Box 39-0360, Mountain View, CA 94039-0360 ph: (415) 961-1121 I haven't verified this, but the manual, the errata, and the cover letter all say the same thing several times. However, the cover letter says: "If you have any problems or questions, please call us at (415)961-1121 between 9am and 4pm Monday-Thursday and 9am and 1pm Friday, Pacific Time, and we will do our best to help you. Please note our new phone number is (415)948-8658." I haven't used AAIS Prolog myself, but I've heard good things about it. My only gripe is that it isn't an Edinburgh-compatible Prolog, and I can't see any point in most of the differences. Beware, for example, that they have member/2 and memberchk/2 built in, but they call memberchk/2 member and they call member/2 foreach. It would be very interesting to hear the experiences of people porting Prolog programs to/from the Macintosh /between different Prologs on the Macintosh. E.g. converting from LPA MacProlog to AAIS Prolog or vice versa. It would also be interesting to hear which Mac Prologs are reliable: I have a beta copy of a Prolog for the Macintosh (*NOT* *OURS*! There is no Quintus Prolog for the Mac!) which is really quite nice except that it crashes rather a lot and takes the Mac with it.
william@CS.UCLA.EDU (03/16/88)
I've used AAIS Prolog for more than a year, and I am reasonably happy with it. Programs that works under C-Prolog or SICS Prolog MAY need a little bit of modification before it can run under AAIS. The major differences are: 1) The I/O predicates, such as get0/1 and read/1, fails when end of file is reached. In SICS, get0/1 will return a -1 and read/1 will return end_of_file when end of file is reached. (This may be nice sometimes.) 2) AAIS has predicates such as append/3 and member/2 built in. However, you can make the system forget about such built-ins by using the new/2 directive as follows: :- new(append, 3). :- new(member, 2). In porting a program that consists of several files, just create a file that consults everything, and put the new/2 directives at the top of this file. 3) File naming convention is different, if you move from a UNIX to the Mac environment, and if you want to use files not in the current directory. 4) AAIS implements the clause/2 predicate a little bit differently. For example, if you have the following clause in the database: a :- b, c. When you do clause(a, X), X will become [b, c], instead of the usual b, c. This may be the biggest problem when you want to port something to AAIS. Other than 4), porting is not a big problem. What basically needs to be done is to create a Mac specific file that handles the differences. Some of the good things: 1) AAIS is very robust, I don't recall that I've ever got any crashes. 2) It handles GARBAGE COLLECTION. You can also disable/enable the garbage collection messages. 3) Although it does not have a compiler, it runs a little bit slower than the C-Prolog on our departmental VAX. 4) It has interface to the Mac toolbox, so graphics is possible, although I've never tried it. 5) It has a familiar Mac application user interface. It's not like a product of a garage operation. 6) Very nice debugger. It even pretty-prints the current goal, so things don't disappear into the right edge of the screen or have unreadable wrap around. 7) It catches user interrupt (<Cmd>.), just like C-Prolog or SICS handles <CNTRL>C. 8) It's inexpensive. When I bought it, I cost about $99 or $95. The price must have gone up. However, to get a full language system for less than $150 is a very good price. Also, their support is pretty good. When I wrote to them, they actually responded. ***Disclaimer: I am in no way associated with Advanced A.I. Systems Inc.***
chiefdan@vax1.acs.udel.EDU (Chief Dan Roth) (03/17/88)
I'd appreciate info on conversion problems from anyone who has used the above two. I'm currently porting a relatively large program from Quintus on a Sun to AAIS on a Mac II. Anyone who has done a similar conversion out there? chiefdan -- "I promise, if elected, I will borrow even-larger amounts of money in order to keep pace with the ever-increasing interest payments on the national debt!" "You've got my vote! So long as you don't cut spending or raise taxes." -Stamaty ARPA: chiefdan@vax1.acs.udel.edu UUCP: BACKBONE!vax1.acs.udel.edu!chiefdan