Prolog \Pro"log\, n. & v.
   Prologue.
   [1913 Webster]

	

	PROLOG \PRO"LOG\ (pr[=o]"l[o^]g), n. (Computers)
   A declarative higher-level programming language in which
   instructions are written not as explicit procedural
   data-manipulation commands, but as logical statements. The
   language has built-in resolution procedures for logical
   inference.
   [PJC]

	

	higher programming language \higher programming language\ n.
   (Computers)
   A computer programming language with an instruction set
   allowing one instruction to code for several assembly
   language instructions.

   Note: The aggregation of several assembly-language
         instructions into one instruction allows much greater
         efficiency in writing computer programs. Most programs
         are now written in some higher programming language,
         such as BASIC, FORTRAN, COBOL, C, C++,
         PROLOG, or JAVA.
         [PJC]

	

	Prolog
    n 1: a computer language designed in Europe to support natural
         language processing [syn: Prolog, logic programing,
         logic programming]

	

	PROLOG
       PROgramming in LOGic

	

	Prolog

    Programming in Logic or (French) Programmation
   en Logique.  The first of the huge family of logic
   programming languages.

   Prolog was invented by Alain Colmerauer and Phillipe Roussel
   at the University of Aix-Marseille in 1971.  It was first
   implemented 1972 in ALGOL-W.  It was designed originally for
   natural-language processing but has become one of the most
   widely used languages for artificial intelligence.

   It is based on LUSH (or SLD) resolution theorem
   proving and unification.  The first versions had no
   user-defined functions and no control structure other than the
   built-in depth-first search with backtracking.  Early
   collaboration between Marseille and Robert Kowalski at
   University of Edinburgh continued until about 1975.

   Early implementations included C-Prolog, ESLPDPRO,
   Frolic, LM-Prolog, Open Prolog, SB-Prolog, UPMAIL
   Tricia Prolog.  In 1998, the most common Prologs in use are
   Quintus Prolog, SICSTUS Prolog, LPA Prolog, SWI
   Prolog, AMZI Prolog, SNI Prolog.

   ISO draft standard at Darmstadt, Germany
   
(ftp://ftp.th-darmstadt.de/pub/programming/languages/prolog/standard/).
   or UGA, USA (ftp://ai.uga.edu/ai.prolog.standard).

   See also negation by failure, Kamin's interpreters,
   Paradigms of AI Programming, Aditi.

   A Prolog interpreter in Scheme.
   (ftp://cpsc.ucalgary.ca/pub/prolog1.1).

   A Prolog package
   (ftp://cpsc.ucalgary.ca/pub/prolog1.1/prolog11.tar.Z) from
   the University of Calgary features delayed goals and
   interval arithmetic.  It requires Scheme with
   continuations.

   ["Programming in Prolog", W.F. Clocksin & C.S. Mellish,
   Springer, 1985].

   (2001-04-01)