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AI-Prolog-0.63
River stage one • 3 direct dependents • 3 total dependents
3 ++
/ AI::Prolog::Builtins

NAME

AI::Prolog::Builtins - Builtin predicates that AI::Prolog supports

REVISION

 $Id: Builtins.pod,v 1.7 2005/02/28 02:57:17 ovid Exp $

MATH

Math has been available in AI::Prolog since version 0.62. It is hoped that it is fairly robust, but it should be noted that it is implemented via predicates rather than operators. This simplified the the implementation tremendously.

Number may be integers, floats, doubles, etc. A number that starts with a minus sign (-) is considered negative. No number may end in a decimal point as the period is interpreted as the end of a clause. The following is therefore a syntax error:

 is(X, plus(5, 7.)).

Omit the period after the number or put a zero after it:

 is(X, plus(5, 7)).
 is(X, plus(5, 7.0)).

Comments

Comments begin with a % and terminate at the end of the line or begin with /* and terminate with */.

Variables

As in Prolog, all variables begin with an upper-case letter and are not quoted. In the following example, STUFF is a variable.

 steals(badguy, STUFF, "Some rich person").

Constants

Constants begin with lower-case letters. If you need a constant that begins with an upper-case letter or contains spaces or other non-alphanumeric characters, enclose the constant in single or double quotes The quotes will not be included in the constant.

In the following example, badguy and Some rich person are both constants:

 steals(badguy, STUFF, "Some rich person").

Miscellaneous

This will not work:

 p(X) :- X. /* does not work */

Use this instead:

 p(X) :- call(X).

BUILTINS

  • !.

    The "cut" operator. This is used when you wish to tell Prolog that you only need to satisfy a goal once. For example, if you wish to deny someone the right to rent videos if they have overdue videos, you might use the cut operator as soon as you see they have any overdue video. The fact that they have more than one overdue video doesn't matter.

    See the cut.pl program in the examples/ directory that comes with this distribution.

  • assert(X).

    Add new facts to the database. Only facts can be added, not rules. This may change in the future. See retract(X).

     assert(loves(ovid,perl)).

  • call(X).

    Invokes X as a goal.

  • div(X,Y).

    Succeeds if both terms are bound. The value of the term is X / Y. Use with is(X,Y).

     is(X, div(N,3)).

  • eq(X, Y).

    Succeeds if X and Y are equal.

  • fail.

    This goal always fails. Useful when you've reached a condition you know should not succeed.

      kill(Hero, Beast) :-
    not(has_weapon(Hero)), fail.

  • ge(X,Y).

    Succeeds if both terms are bound and X >= Y.

  • gt(X,Y).

    Succeeds if both terms are bound and X > Y.

  • if(X, Y, Z).

    If X succeeds as a goal, try Y as a goal. Otherwise, try Z.

     thief(badguy).
 steals(PERP, X) :-
   if(thief(PERP), eq(X,rubies), eq(X,nothing)).

  • is(X,Y).

    If X is unbound and Y is bound to a number, the goal succeeds and X becomes bound to the value of Y. Otherwise, succeeds if both terms are bound, numbers, and equal.

    All other conditions result in failure.

  • le(X,Y).

    Succeeds if both terms are bound and X <= Y.

  • listing.

    Dumps a listing of all predicates and how they are defined.

  • lt(X,Y).

    Succeeds if both terms are bound and X < Y.

  • minus(X,Y).

    Succeeds if both terms are bound. The value of the term is X - Y. Use with is(X,Y).

     is(X, minus(N,1)).

  • mod(X,Y).

    Succeeds if both terms are bound. The value of the term is X % Y. (modulus) Use with is(X,Y).

     is(X, mod(N,3)).

  • mult(X,Y).

    Succeeds if both terms are bound. The value of the term is X * Y. Use with is(X,Y).

     is(X, mult(N,3)).

  • nl

    Prints a newline.

  • not(X).

    Succeeds if X cannot be proven. This is not negation as we're used to seeing it in procedural languages.

  • notrace.

    Turns off tracing of Prolog's attempt to satisfy goals.

  • once(X)

    Stop solving for X if X succeeds. Defined as:

     once(X) :- X, !;

  • or(X, Y)

    Succeeds as a goal if either X or Y succeeds.

  • plus(X,Y).

    Succeeds if both terms are bound. The value of the term is X + Y. Use with is(X,Y).

     is(X, plus(N,1)).

  • print(Term).

    Prints the current Term. If the term is an unbound variable, it will print the an underscore followed by the internal variable number (e.g., "_284").

     print(ovid).         % prints "ovid"
 print("Something").  % prints "Something"
 print(Something).    % prints whatever variable Something is bound to

  • println(Term).

    Same as print(Term), but automatically prints a newline at the end.

  • pow(X,Y).

    Succeeds if both terms are bound. The value of the term is X ** Y (X raised to the Y power). Use with is(X,Y).

  • retract(X).

    Remove facts from the database. You cannot remove rules. This may change in the future. See assert(X).

     retract(loves(ovid,java)).

  • trace.

    Turns on tracing of Prolog's attempt to satisfy goals.

  • true.

    True goal. Automatically succeeds.

  • var(X).

    Succeeds if X is an unbound variable. Otherwise, this goal fails.

LIMITATIONS

These are known limitations that I am not terribly inclined to fix. See the TODO list for those I am inclined to fix.

 IF -> THEN; ELSE not allowed.

Use if(IF, THEN, ELSE) instead.

 = and \= not available.

Use eq(X,Y) and not(eq(X,Y)) instead.

TODO

There are many things on this list. The core functionality is there, but I do want you to be aware of what's coming.

  • Anonymous variables

     steals(badguy, _).

    Currently, that doesn't work. Make up a variable name and only use it once.

  • Improve printing.

    There are some bugs with printing and escaping characters. Maybe I'll look into them :)

  • Math.

    Math is hard. So we don't have it, but we will and we'll probably have it in the form of system predicates that call out to Perl. We can define most of what we need logically, but it's very slow and complicated, so we won't do that.

BUGS

Currently we cannot directly access bound variables in the tail of a list used in a query when using unformatted results:

 $prolog->query('foo([Head|Tail], bar).');
 while (my $result = $prolog->results) {
    print Dumper $result->Head;
    print Dumper $result->Tail; # doesn't work
 }

You'll have to switch to raw_results and parse the data manually:

 $prolog->raw_results(1);
 $prolog->query('foo([Head|Tail], bar).');
 while (my $result = $prolog->results) {
     print Dumper $result;
 }

SEE ALSO

AI::Prolog::Introduction

AI::Prolog

W-Prolog: http://goanna.cs.rmit.edu.au/~winikoff/wp/

X-Prolog: http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~vaucher/XProlog/

Roman Barták's online guide to programming Prolog: http://kti.ms.mff.cuni.cz/~bartak/prolog/index.html

AUTHOR

Curtis "Ovid" Poe, <moc tod oohay ta eop_divo_sitruc>

Reverse the name to email me.

This work is based on W-Prolog, http://goanna.cs.rmit.edu.au/~winikoff/wp/, by Dr. Michael Winikoff. Many thanks to Dr. Winikoff for granting me permission to port this.

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

Copyright 2005 by Curtis "Ovid" Poe

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.