- מו"ל: Digital Equipment Corporation
- פורמט: חוברת
- נמסר ע"י: ענת כרמי
- תגיות:
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Artificial Intelligence...
Experience Makes It Real
Quintus Profog for the VAX” Family
of Computers: Optimum Support
for Your Logic-Based Applications
Highlights
Quintus Prolog lets programmers focus on the application, not on tech-
niques for manipulating data. Because you supply only the rules and
relationships—not complex program instructions—you save time and mini-
mize development costs.
Quintus Prolog’s straightforward logic-based statements and full-function
program environment give you an extended tool base without extending
your learning ume.
Quintus Prolog running on your vax computer gives you higher operating
speed for your applications with lower dedicated memory requirements, for
an optimum cost/performance ratio.
Quintus Prolog helps protect your investment in other software languages
and applications. With a natural language interface or program-to-program
link based on Prolog, you extend and enhance the reach of your installed
software without costly rewrites.
Quintus Prolog for the vax family of computers is supported by Quintus
Computer Systems.
Digital believes the information in this publication is accurate as of its publication date: such
information is subject to change without notice. Digital is not responsible for any inadvertent
errors
The Digital logo, pec 10/20, vax and vAx/vMs are trademarks of Digital Equipment Corpora-
tion. UNIX is. a trademark of AT&T Bell Laboratories
<< —~tS
Quintus Prolog for the VAX™ Family
of Computers: Optimum Support
for Your Logic-Based Applications
If vowre looking for an advanced
program development system that
provides a cost-effective base for
expert systems, natural language
applications, or any application
that requires logic-based program-
ming, Quintus Prolog may be the
answer.
Quintus Prolog is designed to make
building software for intelligent
systems smooth and cost-effective.
It offers a high-performance de-
velopment environment that pro-
vides an exceptional foundation
for artificial intelligence and other
symbolic processing applications.
Quintus Prolog was developed at
Quintus Computer Systems by
several of the founding fathers
who created the original version
of Prolog which runs on the
DEC 10/20"™ systems. Prolog plays
akey role in the development of
artificial intelligence systems
worldwide. Quintus Prolog is
now available from Digital for
use On your VAX computer.
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Focus on the Application, Not the
Techniques
Prolog is a powerful programming
language that consists of logical
relationships expressed in logic-
based statements. Unlike many
conventional programming lan-
Suages, which require that pro-
srammers tell the computer how
to solve problems, Prolog allows
Programmers to supply a series of
facts and a set of rules about how
those facts are related to each other.
When you supply the facts, Prolog
makes inferences from one fact
to another,
The straightforward nature of
logic programming allows program-
mers to concentrate on the appli-
cation—on formatting rules of
expert judgment and developing
natural language interfaces that
make it easy for less experienced
users to work with the system —
rather than on creating techniques
for manipulating data inside the
computer. Logic-based programs
are also easier to write, modify and
maintain than programs requiring
complex procedures.
How Can Quintus Prolog Help?
Quintus Prolog provides an excel-
lent language base for developing
applications that require exten-
sive data analysis in which general
rules can be used to manipulate a
database—and for applications
where users need totally flexible
access to data.
This type of logic-based environ-
ment is ideal when you need to
develop
rule-based or expert systems with
an interface to a database,
natural language systems with an
interface to a database,
programs that automatically gener-
ate other programs—in Prolog or
in other programming languages,
general tools that help build
Prolog applications, and
programs that link processes
occurring in one program to those
occurring in another.
For example, many companies are
now using Quintus Prolog
To help computer engineers and
operators fine-tune the perfor-
mance of large mainframe operat-
ing systems. Using a set of general
rules about performance, this
expert system helps locate bottle-
necks in the operating system
by analyzing performance data.
When bottlenecks are identified,
the expert system can make spe-
cific suggestions for relieving the
problem.
To provide assistance to computer
field sales and support personnel
who need to determine optimum
computer configurations for spe-
cific applications.
To predict the interactions of
drugs that are used to build com-
plex drug compounds.
To generate code in another pro-
gramming language that optimizes
the use of a massive communica-
tions network analysis program.
Use Quintus Prolog in Natural
Language Applications
In natural language applications,
human language is translated
into a language the computer can
understand. Because Quintus Pro-
log is a logic-based language, it
makes it easier to develop natural
language applications. Users of
current applications can benelit
from natural language intertaces or
modules that link one program to
another. That's why Prolog is
already in widespread use to
develop natural language systems.
———
Anexample of a typical Quintus
Prolog rule description text.
To Help Improve Your
Productivity
Quintus Prolog can help enhance
your productivity by extending the
use of your existing software. If
you're concerned about long-term
efficiency, rewriting selected appli-
cations in Quintus Prolog can
improve your efficiency and make
the applications easier to maintain
Features that Broaden Your
Options and Save You Time
Quintus Prolog combines function-
ality usually found in the most com-
plex development environments
with easy-to-use features superior
to those found in the user environ-
ments of many other languages
Within the Quintus Prolog user
environment, programmers have
access to the following features.
An Incremental Compiler.
Using Quintus Prolog’s incremen-
tal compiler, you can compile
selected portions of a program.
Because there’s no need to recom-
pile the entire application or mod-
ule, you save development time
An integrated EMACS-Prolog
text editor interface.
Quintus Prolog’s integrated text
editor interface provides simulta-
neous access to Quintus Prolog, and
to a customized Emacs editor that
allows you to perform many edit-
ing operations in a single keystroke.
% In order to describe what a rule is doing in simple English (whichis
% needed when the user asks ‘why’ toa question) a rule descriptionis
% added to the database
rule_ description (wafer_sorted,
| awafer has been sorted if it has been classified as ’,
“acceptable, ’.nl, ‘recleanable, rejected or ’,
*needs_supervisor_assistance. ’, nl]).
rule_ description (sorted_ rejected,
[’ awafer is classified as rejected if it has a physical defect or’,
nl,’ serious surface dirt. *,nl])
rule_ description(sorted_recleanable,
%
Number the Rules
% It will be useful to be able to refer to the rules by their number.
% Note that rule numbers could also be passed along as just another
% argument of the rule itself
rule_ number(wafer_sorted,1).
rule_ number(sorted_rejected, 2).
rule_ number(sorted_recleanable, 3).
rule_number(physical_defect,4)
rule_number(serious_surface_dirt,5).
The emacs-Prolog interface pro-
vides a split-screen mode, so you
can edit a Prolog program on one
half of the screen and run Prolog
on the other.
In addition to standard editing
functions, the Quintus Prolog ver-
sion of EMACS allows you to Inter-
pret or compile a single procedure,
a region, or a file.
A style checker and comprehensive
debugging tool.
Quintus Prolog’s style checker
helps detect any obvious error ina
Prolog program.
A comprehensive debugging tool
makes it easy to trace the execution
of a program and pinpoint prob-
lem areas. Programmers can select
one of two debugging modes—to
trace every execution step for a
specific procedure, or to set ’spy-
points” —special markers that you
can use to display debugging infor-
mation more selectively. Either
tracing option can be used to run
interpreted code.
An interface to other standard
programming languages.
Lower level languages can be used
to speed up certain critical opera-
tions. A foreign language interlace
could be used to interface with the
operating system and other pro-
grams. Quintus Prolog’s compatt-
bility lets you combine a Prolog-
based system with existing
programs and libraries to forma
composite system.
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Act Now Miura |
For more information on how
Quintus Prolog can support your
logic-based applications develop-
ment, please call 1-800-DIGITAL,
extension 753 in the United States
or call your local Digital office.
Technical Summary
Highly compatible with DEC 10/20 Prolog and C-Prolog, Quintus Prolog
includes the following features:
Incremental high performance compiler
Interface to EMACS editor. Customized commands allow programmers to
Recall, modify, and resubmit previous Prolog commands.
Consult or compile Prolog code directly from the Emacs buffer.
Locate and display specified source code within the editor,
Comprehensive debugging tools ae
Menu-driven and topic-oriented help system
A foreign language interface could support program loading/calling
Interface to C, Basic, COBOL, FORTRAN, PASCAL, and PL/I] supported
under vMS.
Interface to C supported under UNIX™
Direct loading to a running Prolog system.
Automatic conversion of internal language representation to the target
language.
Floating point arithmetic
Improved compiler/interpreter interface
Free interchange of compiled and interpreted code
Style checker
Stream-based input and output
Improved handling of database references
Executable saved states
Enhanced memory management
No limits (except memory space) on number of procedures and classes
No restrictions on size of dynamic or interpreted clauses a
No general limits (except specific virtual memory capacity) on space alloca-
tion for Prolog data areas
Configuration Information
Software Requirements
vMS Version 4.0 or later, or UNIX Version 4.2. ' as
Hardware Requirements =
Quintus Prolog will run on any valid vax/vs configuration or eee
: : : = vite
configuration. Both vos and uNIx require an additional 2 megabytes ©
tual memory for Prolog.