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Pierre, you mention the use of Prolog in Japan, but IBM was also quite interested in it during the 1980s (I believe in the U.S.). They had a recruiting table set up at the 1984 ACM Computer Science Conference just to recruit Prolog developers.</div>
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You're probably familiar with a Windows-based "Prolog" that was sold under the name Turbo Prolog (possibly from Borland). I put Prolog in quotes because Turbo Prolog required compile-time variable-type binding, which is good for efficiency, but so inflexible
for AI systems that it was useless.</div>
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There were several other Prolog implementations, such as Arity Prolog, that were real Prolog, but that had their own extensions to support things like character-based windows for the UI (hot stuff in the 1980s).<br>
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I may have docs or info on some of these other Prologs if anyone is interested.</div>
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Personal note: Prolog is still the most powerful programming language ever developed. I found that the number of lines of C or Java code to the number of lines of Prolog code to implement the same functionality (exclusive of the UI) was 10 to 100, depending on
the complexity. But good use of Prolog requires extensive rewiring of the programmer's brain to do anything but simple stuff.<br>
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(OK, OK, APL fans, I'll admit you have the same advantage for numerical apps!)<br>
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Bill</div>
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<div id="divRplyFwdMsg" dir="ltr"><font face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size:11pt" color="#000000"><b>From:</b> Members <members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org> on behalf of Pierre Mounier-Kuhn <mounier@msh-paris.fr><br>
<b>Sent:</b> Wednesday, March 30, 2022 7:58 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> members <members@sigcis.org><br>
<b>Subject:</b> [SIGCIS-Members] History of Prolog</font>
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<font face="sans-serif" color="red"><b style="font-weight:bold">CAUTION:</b> This email originated from outside of Concordia University. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.</font></p>
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<div><span style="font-family:times new roman,new york,times,serif">Hi all,</span><br>
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<div><span style="font-family:times new roman,new york,times,serif">Prolog was a programming language based on formal logic, designed in 1972 at the university of Marseille by Alain Colmerauer and his team. It was adopted ten years later in Japan to develop
AI systems. Nowadays, it is almost as forgotten as Algol or APL. A conference is planned for November 2022 in Paris to pay hommage to Colmerauer and his work. A Colmerauer Prize Committee is formed, chaired by Prof. em. Robert Kowalski, Distinguished Research
Fellow at Imperial College, London.</span><br>
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<div><span style="font-family:times new roman,new york,times,serif">I would like to know whether people, beyond Colmerauer's circle, have included Prolog, its development and use, in their historical research.</span></div>
<div><span style="font-family:times new roman,new york,times,serif">Thanks for your answers!</span></div>
<div><span style="font-family:times new roman,new york,times,serif">Best regards,</span></div>
<div><span style="font-family:times new roman,new york,times,serif">Pierre Mounier-Kuhn</span></div>
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