3 ms·

> The investment you have to make to really master the language is huge What's the payoff?

YeGoblynQueenne 8y ago
The payoff is that you master a skill that is hard to master, but I suspect you're asking more about what are the rewards in practical terms. For me, the extra effort I put into learning Prolog has actually paid off in career advacement. First, because several potential employers noticed that I listed Prolog in my CV as one of the programming languages I know (a CV is where one is required to brag about what they know, right?) and definitely considered it a factor in their decision to at least interview me, or hire me (I know because they told me). I could of course just list Prolog in my CV without knowing any, but I could have been found out, and I'm a wuss so I'd never do that. Second, because my interest in Prolog led to an interest in AI, because a majority of Prolog textbooks are also (Good, Old-Fashioned) AI textbooks and reading them to learn Prolog led me to learn about AI, and eventually take a Master's course in, well, actually, machine learning and data science, right around the time when it was exploding in popularity. And third, because my interest in Prolog combined with my Master's in machine learning led me to apply for a PhD at one of the highest-rated technology research universities in the UK (and in the world- Imperial College), to study Inductive Logic Programming, which is basically machine-learning Prolog programs from Prolog programs, under the supervision of the guy who, literally, wrote the book. Prolog has taken me places- places I'd never have been without it. Lucrative places, and prestigious places. Anyway you look at it, for me at least, it was a worthy investment in time and effort.
- AlexCoventry 8y ago
  Thanks. Do you know of anyone using modern ML techniques to propose smarter search strategies?
  - YeGoblynQueenne 8y ago
    Sorry, I haven't heard of anyone doing something like that. What do you have in mind?
    - AlexCoventry 8y ago
      Something like reinforcement learning on neural-net parameters, to quickly find solutions to a set of constraints.
      - YeGoblynQueenne 8y ago
        Hey, sorry, I missed this. No, I don't know about anything like that, but constraint solving are not my cup of tea and I don't know the biblio. There may be something like that around. I'd start by looking for papers on constraint solving in IJCAI or AAAI where you're likely to find some, then follow their references. You might unearth something like that.
        AlexCoventry 8y ago
        No worries. Thanks for the response.
- equalunique 8y ago
  Would you please list some of your most-recommended Prolog books? Old-fashioned Prolog AI books sound like a joy to read.

The payoff is that you master a skill that is hard to master, but I suspect you're asking more about what are the rewards in practical terms. For me, the extra effort I put into learning Prolog has actually paid off in career advacement. First, because several potential employers noticed that I listed Prolog in my CV as one of the programming languages I know (a CV is where one is required to brag about what they know, right?) and definitely considered it a factor in their decision to at least interview me, or hire me (I know because they told me). I could of course just list Prolog in my CV without knowing any, but I could have been found out, and I'm a wuss so I'd never do that. Second, because my interest in Prolog led to an interest in AI, because a majority of Prolog textbooks are also (Good, Old-Fashioned) AI textbooks and reading them to learn Prolog led me to learn about AI, and eventually take a Master's course in, well, actually, machine learning and data science, right around the time when it was exploding in popularity. And third, because my interest in Prolog combined with my Master's in machine learning led me to apply for a PhD at one of the highest-rated technology research universities in the UK (and in the world- Imperial College), to study Inductive Logic Programming, which is basically machine-learning Prolog programs from Prolog programs, under the supervision of the guy who, literally, wrote the book. Prolog has taken me places- places I'd never have been without it. Lucrative places, and prestigious places. Anyway you look at it, for me at least, it was a worthy investment in time and effort.

AlexCoventry 8y ago
Thanks. Do you know of anyone using modern ML techniques to propose smarter search strategies?
- YeGoblynQueenne 8y ago
  Sorry, I haven't heard of anyone doing something like that. What do you have in mind?
  - AlexCoventry 8y ago
    Something like reinforcement learning on neural-net parameters, to quickly find solutions to a set of constraints.
    - YeGoblynQueenne 8y ago
      Hey, sorry, I missed this. No, I don't know about anything like that, but constraint solving are not my cup of tea and I don't know the biblio. There may be something like that around. I'd start by looking for papers on constraint solving in IJCAI or AAAI where you're likely to find some, then follow their references. You might unearth something like that.
      - AlexCoventry 8y ago
        No worries. Thanks for the response.
equalunique 8y ago
Would you please list some of your most-recommended Prolog books? Old-fashioned Prolog AI books sound like a joy to read.