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I remember asking a similar question to my Prolog lecturer back in 2008 during my masters. He was visibly taken aback from it, I think he didn't expect it. It w

I remember asking a similar question to my Prolog lecturer back in 2008 during my masters. He was visibly taken aback from it, I think he didn't expect it. It went something along the lines of "I've never heard of this language, does anyone even use it, what's the motivation for wasting a term on it" (yes, it was one of my more douchebaggy moments...). He had to go do market research and come up with an answer in the next lecture, hahah. Yet, once it all clicked, I loved it, and it opened up a new way of thinking for me, which was different from both imperative and, dare I say, functional paradigms. I also learned that, while fairly specialised, it has very real industrial applications (e.g. there's a super important critical infrastructure component in Microsoft built entirely on prolog if I remember correctly). Though, admittedly, I think most prolog finds uses as 'pluggable components to larger non-prolog projects' these days. Also, another interesting direction in Prolog is its fuzzy / probabilistic derivatives. Very cool stuff.

yvdriess 6y ago
Logic programming is one of those paradigms where if you haven't learned it you're doomed to repeat its mistakes. As with Lisp, Prolog makes you a better programmer even if you never end up using it.
YeGoblynQueenne 6y ago
>> I also learned that, while fairly specialised, it has very real industrial applications (e.g. there's a super important critical infrastructure component in Microsoft built entirely on prolog if I remember correctly). Was - in Windows NT. It was used for netowkr configuration and it was only partly programmed in Prolog: Microsoft's Windows NT operating system uses an embedded Prolog interpreter to configure its local and wide-area network systems. Interdependent software and hardware components are abstracted into a simplified object-oriented framework using declarative information provided by each component's installation script. This information, along with the Prolog algorithm, is consulted into the embedded interpreter, which is then queried to construct the most usable configuration. The algorithm which solves the plumbing problem is described, including its positive and negative constraints, Prolog database and efficiency considerations. The results of the query, stored into NT's configuration database, inform each component of its load order and binding targets. A description of theC++ wrapper class is given and portation considerations are discussed. The Small Prolog interpreter is briefly described. https://web.archive.org/web/20040603192757/research.microsoft.com/research/dtg/davidhov/pap.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20040603192757/research.microsof... I'm not sure how "super important" that was to be honest. My impression has always been that the programmer in question simply wanted to use Prolog in his day job (a feeling I can very much sympathise with).

yvdriess 6y ago

Logic programming is one of those paradigms where if you haven't learned it you're doomed to repeat its mistakes. As with Lisp, Prolog makes you a better programmer even if you never end up using it.

YeGoblynQueenne 6y ago

>> I also learned that, while fairly specialised, it has very real industrial applications (e.g. there's a super important critical infrastructure component in Microsoft built entirely on prolog if I remember correctly). Was - in Windows NT. It was used for netowkr configuration and it was only partly programmed in Prolog: Microsoft's Windows NT operating system uses an embedded Prolog interpreter to configure its local and wide-area network systems. Interdependent software and hardware components are abstracted into a simplified object-oriented framework using declarative information provided by each component's installation script. This information, along with the Prolog algorithm, is consulted into the embedded interpreter, which is then queried to construct the most usable configuration. The algorithm which solves the plumbing problem is described, including its positive and negative constraints, Prolog database and efficiency considerations. The results of the query, stored into NT's configuration database, inform each component of its load order and binding targets. A description of theC++ wrapper class is given and portation considerations are discussed. The Small Prolog interpreter is briefly described. https://web.archive.org/web/20040603192757/research.microsoft.com/research/dtg/davidhov/pap.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20040603192757/research.microsof... I'm not sure how "super important" that was to be honest. My impression has always been that the programmer in question simply wanted to use Prolog in his day job (a feeling I can very much sympathise with).