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The first author of this is John Alan Robinson, inventor of the first unification algorithm and thus the first practical resolution theorem proving algorithm, o
by nmadden 8y ago
The first author of this is John Alan Robinson, inventor of the first unification algorithm and thus the first practical resolution theorem proving algorithm, on which Prolog was developed.
I remember reading a history of Prolog, I think by Kowalski, which mentioned that Robinson always preferred Lisp to Prolog, despite it being built on his ideas. I’ll try and dig out a reference.
Edit: I found the article I was thinking of [1], on Maarten van Emden’s blog. Here is the quote:
> A few years later some excited evangelists brought Robinson the news that resolution had led to a new programming language. Robinson was delighted to see some sample programs and an explanation of how resolution was used to execute them. The evangelists took it for granted that henceforth Robinson would program in Prolog. They were disappointed to learn that no, for Robinson Lisp was the one and only programming language and that it could not even be displaced by an elegant embodiment of his own brain child.
[1]: https://vanemden.wordpress.com/2017/09/08/conceptual-integrity-why-it-matters-and-how-to-get-it/ https://vanemden.wordpress.com/2017/09/08/conceptual-integri...
- agumonkey 8y agoDo you know texts about the stratchey / landin school of thought ? I'd love to read about purely denotational interpreters. I found a few things about both but it never explained their ideas in these terms. ps: oh well, these slides about the british computing history links a few texts http://sml-family.org/history/ML2015-talk.pdf http://sml-family.org/history/ML2015-talk.pdf
- felixyz 8y agoAn if you liked that, you will probably love this: "Computational Logic: Memories of the Past and Challenges for the Future" (John Alan Robinson) http://www.computational-logic.org/iccl/downloads/Robinson-CL2000.pdf http://www.computational-logic.org/iccl/downloads/Robinson-C...
- nmadden 8y agoThanks, I’ve not seen that before. It looks like a great read.