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I remember learning Prolog during my degree in AI + Comp Sci about 25 years ago. Our NLP module used it heavily. It was frustrating and annoying at first, but

I remember learning Prolog during my degree in AI + Comp Sci about 25 years ago. Our NLP module used it heavily. It was frustrating and annoying at first, but once you get comfortable, surprisingly fun (and also a great intro to recursion, as that's the only way to iterate).

ggambetta 3y ago
Similar experience. It was frustrating and annoying at first for me too, because I was trying to write imperative code in Prolog syntax. But once the new paradigm clicked in my head, OMG, I started loving it. That moment of enlightenment alone was well worth taking that class :)
noneeeed 3y ago
One of the things Prolog taught me was the importance of teachers who can put themselves in the shoes of the student. At university we were largely taught Prolog by mathematicians who exclusively worked in such languages. Prolog was a very natural way of thinking for them, and many of them had never really used other non-logic/functional languages. For most of the students, who had worked mostly with procedural languages before, it was confusing and frustrating, we would all get tied up trying to use Prolog as if it were some other language. It wasn't until my third or fourth course that used Prolog, and having studied the algorithm behind it, that I really got my head around how to use it well. Later on I was helping an undergrad I knew was having problems with Prolog. It was mostly about how to change the way he thought about solving problems to fit in the Prolog world, rather than trying to make Prolog behave like all the other languages he'd used (he was a great developer in everything except Prolog). After quite a bit of discussion there was a real epiphany and he suddenly got it and he proceeded to nail the coursework.
adhvaryu 3y ago
We had it in my comp sci bachelor's just a few years ago. But it was a small component of the AI course instead of being a big part of it. Fun stuff regardless.
YeGoblynQueenne 3y ago
(and also a great intro to recursion, as that's the only way to recurse) FTFY :P

ggambetta 3y ago

Similar experience. It was frustrating and annoying at first for me too, because I was trying to write imperative code in Prolog syntax. But once the new paradigm clicked in my head, OMG, I started loving it. That moment of enlightenment alone was well worth taking that class :)

noneeeed 3y ago

One of the things Prolog taught me was the importance of teachers who can put themselves in the shoes of the student. At university we were largely taught Prolog by mathematicians who exclusively worked in such languages. Prolog was a very natural way of thinking for them, and many of them had never really used other non-logic/functional languages. For most of the students, who had worked mostly with procedural languages before, it was confusing and frustrating, we would all get tied up trying to use Prolog as if it were some other language. It wasn't until my third or fourth course that used Prolog, and having studied the algorithm behind it, that I really got my head around how to use it well. Later on I was helping an undergrad I knew was having problems with Prolog. It was mostly about how to change the way he thought about solving problems to fit in the Prolog world, rather than trying to make Prolog behave like all the other languages he'd used (he was a great developer in everything except Prolog). After quite a bit of discussion there was a real epiphany and he suddenly got it and he proceeded to nail the coursework.

adhvaryu 3y ago

We had it in my comp sci bachelor's just a few years ago. But it was a small component of the AI course instead of being a big part of it. Fun stuff regardless.

YeGoblynQueenne 3y ago

(and also a great intro to recursion, as that's the only way to recurse) FTFY :P