🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1991Sep26.031311.836@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au> jlenarci@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au (mr j.f. lenarcic) writes:
>
>I'm teaching a course im Logic Programming/Prolog with an emphasis on
>applications. However, my students are constantly skeptical about the
>suitability of PROLOG for standard commercial applications.
>
>I would like to obtain a list of all production-based PROLOG sites 
>( or at least as many as possible! ) and an associated summary of
>successful applications to illustrate to my students that PROLOG is
>not just a flash-in-the-pan fad.

I think you students would be better served if, instead of only gathering
information designed to support your preconcieved ideas, you gathered
general information on the implementation languages used for ``standard
commercial applications.''  The studies I have seen show PROLOG use to
be too small to measure.  Here is some some data for you, based on the
commercial applications I have used:

4 Major DBMSes (Informix, Oracle, Ingres, Sybase): 0 in prolog.
4 Major OSes (UNIX, VMS, MSDOS, Mac): 0 in prolog.
2 Major Editors (vi, emacs): 0 in prolog.
4 Major Formatters (troff, LateX, Interleaf, Frame): 0 in prolog.
2 Major Design tools: (Cadre, IDE): 0 in prolog.
6 Major Languages (C, AWK, ksh, csh, ICON, Pascal): 0 in prolog.
2 Major Windowing systems: (X and SunView): 0 in prolog.
 
I agree with your students, the number of standard commercial 
applications written in PROLOG is about 0.  Maybe not exactly 0, but 
close to it.  Note that there are good reasons to to learn PROLOG,
but use in commercial applications is not one of them.  Projects 
which are implemented in PROLOG in academia are typically implemented 
using a DBMS in the commercial world.

>Speaking of fads, "Object-oriented-this-and-that" appears to be in
>vogue at present. ...
>Now, object-oriented programming doesn't have any firm theoretical
>foundation as yet ( am I correct?) Logic programming, on the other
>hand, is highly formal and up to its armpits in theory.

Only some professors buy theory; everyone else buys applications.  Although 
not perfect, OO programmering has one huge advantage over logic 
programming:  there are big, comercial OO applications in use today.  
One example is the X Windowing System.  Although not everyone likes 
it as a windowing system, it is very widely used, and has a strong OO 
flavor to it.

Joshua Levy   (joshua@vertas.com)
If I had more time, I'd write a shorter letter.  -- J.B.Shaw (?)