Comparison of Prolog implementations
Encyclopedia
The following Comparison of Prolog implementations provides a reference for the relative feature sets and performance of different implementations of the Prolog
computer programming language
.
the same implementation defined features.
Factors that can adversely affect portability include:
the processor character set such as Unicode
,
implementation specific extensions to syntax,
bounded vs. unbounded integer arithmetic,
non-portable extensions such as string-objects,
advanced numeric types (rationals, complex),
threads, and tabling.
Prolog
Prolog is a general purpose logic programming language associated with artificial intelligence and computational linguistics.Prolog has its roots in first-order logic, a formal logic, and unlike many other programming languages, Prolog is declarative: the program logic is expressed in terms of...
computer programming language
Programming language
A programming language is an artificial language designed to communicate instructions to a machine, particularly a computer. Programming languages can be used to create programs that control the behavior of a machine and/or to express algorithms precisely....
.
Main features
| Platform | Features | Toolkit | Prolog Mechanics | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | OS | Licence | Native Graphics | Compiled Code | Unicode | Object Oriented | Native OS Control | Stand Alone Executable | C Interface | Java Interface | Interactive Interpreter | Debugger | Code Profiler | Syntax |
| BProlog BProlog B-Prolog is a high-performance implementation of the standard Prolog language with several extended features including matching clauses, action rules for event handling, finite-domain constraint solving, arrays and hash tables, declarative loops, and tabling. First released in 1994, B-Prolog is now... |
Unix Unix Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna... , Windows Microsoft Windows Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal... , Mac OS X Mac OS X Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems... |
Free for academic uses | ISO-Prolog, plus event-handling, CLP(FD), and tabling | |||||||||||
| Ciao Ciao (programming language) Ciao is a general-purpose programming language which supports logic, constraint, functional, higher-order, and object-oriented programming styles. Its main design objectives are high expressive power, extensibility, safety, reliability, and efficient execution.... |
Unix Unix Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna... , Windows Microsoft Windows Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal... , Mac OS X Mac OS X Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems... |
GPL, LGPL GNU Lesser General Public License The GNU Lesser General Public License or LGPL is a free software license published by the Free Software Foundation . It was designed as a compromise between the strong-copyleft GNU General Public License or GPL and permissive licenses such as the BSD licenses and the MIT License... |
ISO-Prolog, plus extensions | |||||||||||
| DOS-PROLOG | MS-DOS MS-DOS MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating... |
Shareware Shareware The term shareware is a proprietary software that is provided to users without payment on a trial basis and is often limited by any combination of functionality, availability, or convenience. Shareware is often offered as a download from an Internet website or as a compact disc included with a... |
Edinburgh Prolog | |||||||||||
| GNU Prolog GNU Prolog GNU Prolog is a compiler developed by with an interactive debugging environment for Prolog available for Unix, Windows and Mac OS X... |
Unix Unix Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna... , Windows Microsoft Windows Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal... , Mac OS X Mac OS X Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems... |
GPL GNU General Public License The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project.... , LGPL |
ISO-Prolog | |||||||||||
| Jekejeke Prolog Jekejeke Prolog Jekejeke Prolog is an interpreter only implementation of Prolog written in 100% Java. The interpreter exists in two flavors. The runtime library provides an embeddable Prolog interpreter without any user interface... |
JVM | w/o Toolkit Distributable otherwise Evaluation | ISO-Prolog, Java API | |||||||||||
| JLog | JVM | GPL GNU General Public License The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project.... |
ISO-Prolog | |||||||||||
| JScriptLog | Web Browser | GPL GNU General Public License The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project.... |
ISO-Prolog | |||||||||||
| jTrolog | JVM | LGPL GNU Lesser General Public License The GNU Lesser General Public License or LGPL is a free software license published by the Free Software Foundation . It was designed as a compromise between the strong-copyleft GNU General Public License or GPL and permissive licenses such as the BSD licenses and the MIT License... |
ISO-Prolog tests | |||||||||||
| LPA-Prolog | Windows Microsoft Windows Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal... |
Commercial | Edinburgh Prolog with extensions | |||||||||||
| Open Prolog | Mac OS Mac OS Mac OS is a series of graphical user interface-based operating systems developed by Apple Inc. for their Macintosh line of computer systems. The Macintosh user experience is credited with popularizing the graphical user interface... |
Freeware Freeware Freeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee, but usually with one or more restricted usage rights. Freeware is in contrast to commercial software, which is typically sold for profit, but might be distributed for a business or commercial purpose in the... |
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| Poplog Poplog Poplog is a powerful multi-language, multiparadigm, reflective, incrementally compiled software development environment, originally created in the UK for teaching and research in Artificial Intelligence at the University of Sussex.-History:... Prolog |
Linux Linux Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds... (32- and 64-bit), Unix Unix Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna... , Windows Microsoft Windows Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal... |
Free Open Source | Only through POP-11 POP-11 POP-11 is a reflective, incrementally compiled programming language with many of the features of an interpreted language. It is the core language of the Poplog programming environment developed originally by the University of Sussex, and recently in the at the... , on Linux |
Edinburgh Prolog, with interfaces to Poplog Common Lisp and Pop-11 | ||||||||||
| SICStus Prolog | Unix Unix Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna... , Linux Linux Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds... , Windows Microsoft Windows Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal... , Mac OS X Mac OS X Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems... |
Commercial | ISO-Prolog | |||||||||||
| Strawberry Prolog Strawberry Prolog Strawberry Prolog is a dialect of the Prolog programming language. Its syntax is very close to that of ISO-Prolog but it has many extensions which are not part of the standard. The main idea of Strawberry Prolog is to be very easy to use and that is why some universities use it for their Prolog... |
Windows Microsoft Windows Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal... , Unix Unix Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna... |
Freeware Freeware Freeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee, but usually with one or more restricted usage rights. Freeware is in contrast to commercial software, which is typically sold for profit, but might be distributed for a business or commercial purpose in the... , Commercial |
Not ISO-Prolog + extensions | |||||||||||
| SWI-Prolog SWI-Prolog SWI-Prolog is an open source implementation of the programming language Prolog, commonly used for teaching and semantic web applications.It has a rich set of features, libraries forconstraint logic programming,multithreading,unit testing,GUI,... |
Unix Unix Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna... , Windows Microsoft Windows Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal... , Mac OS X Mac OS X Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems... |
LGPL GNU Lesser General Public License The GNU Lesser General Public License or LGPL is a free software license published by the Free Software Foundation . It was designed as a compromise between the strong-copyleft GNU General Public License or GPL and permissive licenses such as the BSD licenses and the MIT License... |
ISO-Prolog, Edinburgh Prolog | |||||||||||
| tuProlog TuProlog tuProlog is a Java-based light-weight Prolog engine developed at the University of Bologna, and maintained by the based in Cesena, at the , with some members working at the located in Bologna.... |
JVM | LGPL GNU Lesser General Public License The GNU Lesser General Public License or LGPL is a free software license published by the Free Software Foundation . It was designed as a compromise between the strong-copyleft GNU General Public License or GPL and permissive licenses such as the BSD licenses and the MIT License... |
ISO-Prolog | |||||||||||
| Visual Prolog Visual Prolog Visual Prolog, also formerly known as PDC Prolog and Turbo Prolog, is a strongly typed object-oriented extension of Prolog. As Turbo Prolog it was marketed by Borland, but it is now developed and marketed by the Danish firm Prolog Development Center that originally developed it... |
Windows Microsoft Windows Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal... |
Freeware Freeware Freeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee, but usually with one or more restricted usage rights. Freeware is in contrast to commercial software, which is typically sold for profit, but might be distributed for a business or commercial purpose in the... , Commercial |
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| XSB Prolog | Linux Linux Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds... , Windows Microsoft Windows Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal... , Solaris, Mac OS X Mac OS X Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems... |
LGPL GNU Lesser General Public License The GNU Lesser General Public License or LGPL is a free software license published by the Free Software Foundation . It was designed as a compromise between the strong-copyleft GNU General Public License or GPL and permissive licenses such as the BSD licenses and the MIT License... |
ISO-Prolog, tabled WFS | |||||||||||
| YAP-Prolog | Linux Linux Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds... , Windows Microsoft Windows Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal... , Solaris, Mac OS X Mac OS X Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems... , HP-UX HP-UX HP-UX is Hewlett-Packard's proprietary implementation of the Unix operating system, based on UNIX System V and first released in 1984... |
GPL GNU General Public License The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project.... or Artistic (user choice) |
Edinburgh, ISO-Prolog, Quintus and SICStus Prolog compatible | |||||||||||
Operating system and Web-related features
| Web-related | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Conditional compilation | Sockets | Multi-threading | Tabling | HTTP client | HTTP server | HTML Parser | RDF Triple store |
| BProlog BProlog B-Prolog is a high-performance implementation of the standard Prolog language with several extended features including matching clauses, action rules for event handling, finite-domain constraint solving, arrays and hash tables, declarative loops, and tabling. First released in 1994, B-Prolog is now... |
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| Ciao Ciao (programming language) Ciao is a general-purpose programming language which supports logic, constraint, functional, higher-order, and object-oriented programming styles. Its main design objectives are high expressive power, extensibility, safety, reliability, and efficient execution.... |
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| GNU Prolog GNU Prolog GNU Prolog is a compiler developed by with an interactive debugging environment for Prolog available for Unix, Windows and Mac OS X... |
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| Jekejeke Prolog Jekejeke Prolog Jekejeke Prolog is an interpreter only implementation of Prolog written in 100% Java. The interpreter exists in two flavors. The runtime library provides an embeddable Prolog interpreter without any user interface... |
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| LPA-Prolog | ||||||||
| SICStus Prolog | ||||||||
| SWI-Prolog SWI-Prolog SWI-Prolog is an open source implementation of the programming language Prolog, commonly used for teaching and semantic web applications.It has a rich set of features, libraries forconstraint logic programming,multithreading,unit testing,GUI,... |
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| Visual Prolog Visual Prolog Visual Prolog, also formerly known as PDC Prolog and Turbo Prolog, is a strongly typed object-oriented extension of Prolog. As Turbo Prolog it was marketed by Borland, but it is now developed and marketed by the Danish firm Prolog Development Center that originally developed it... |
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| XSB XSB XSB is the name of a dialect of the Prolog programming language and its implementation developed at Stony Brook University in collaboration with the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, the New University of Lisbon, Uppsala University and software vendor XSB, Inc.... |
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| YAP-Prolog | ||||||||
Static analysis
| Name | Type checker | Determinacy checker | Call-pattern checker |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ciao Ciao (programming language) Ciao is a general-purpose programming language which supports logic, constraint, functional, higher-order, and object-oriented programming styles. Its main design objectives are high expressive power, extensibility, safety, reliability, and efficient execution.... |
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| GNU Prolog GNU Prolog GNU Prolog is a compiler developed by with an interactive debugging environment for Prolog available for Unix, Windows and Mac OS X... |
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| Jekejeke Prolog Jekejeke Prolog Jekejeke Prolog is an interpreter only implementation of Prolog written in 100% Java. The interpreter exists in two flavors. The runtime library provides an embeddable Prolog interpreter without any user interface... |
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| SICStus Prolog | |||
| SWI-Prolog SWI-Prolog SWI-Prolog is an open source implementation of the programming language Prolog, commonly used for teaching and semantic web applications.It has a rich set of features, libraries forconstraint logic programming,multithreading,unit testing,GUI,... |
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| Visual Prolog Visual Prolog Visual Prolog, also formerly known as PDC Prolog and Turbo Prolog, is a strongly typed object-oriented extension of Prolog. As Turbo Prolog it was marketed by Borland, but it is now developed and marketed by the Danish firm Prolog Development Center that originally developed it... |
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| XSB XSB XSB is the name of a dialect of the Prolog programming language and its implementation developed at Stony Brook University in collaboration with the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, the New University of Lisbon, Uppsala University and software vendor XSB, Inc.... |
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| YAP-Prolog |
Optimizations
| Name | Tail-Call Optimization | Choice Point Elimination | Environment Trimming | Just-in-Time Indexing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ciao Ciao (programming language) Ciao is a general-purpose programming language which supports logic, constraint, functional, higher-order, and object-oriented programming styles. Its main design objectives are high expressive power, extensibility, safety, reliability, and efficient execution.... |
? | |||
| GNU Prolog GNU Prolog GNU Prolog is a compiler developed by with an interactive debugging environment for Prolog available for Unix, Windows and Mac OS X... |
? | |||
| Jekejeke Prolog Jekejeke Prolog Jekejeke Prolog is an interpreter only implementation of Prolog written in 100% Java. The interpreter exists in two flavors. The runtime library provides an embeddable Prolog interpreter without any user interface... |
||||
| SICStus Prolog | ? | |||
| SWI-Prolog SWI-Prolog SWI-Prolog is an open source implementation of the programming language Prolog, commonly used for teaching and semantic web applications.It has a rich set of features, libraries forconstraint logic programming,multithreading,unit testing,GUI,... |
||||
| Visual Prolog Visual Prolog Visual Prolog, also formerly known as PDC Prolog and Turbo Prolog, is a strongly typed object-oriented extension of Prolog. As Turbo Prolog it was marketed by Borland, but it is now developed and marketed by the Danish firm Prolog Development Center that originally developed it... |
? | |||
| XSB XSB XSB is the name of a dialect of the Prolog programming language and its implementation developed at Stony Brook University in collaboration with the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, the New University of Lisbon, Uppsala University and software vendor XSB, Inc.... |
? | |||
| YAP-Prolog |
Portability
Code that strictly conforms to ISO-Prolog is portable across compliant implementations that sharethe same implementation defined features.
Factors that can adversely affect portability include:
the processor character set such as Unicode
Unicode
Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...
,
implementation specific extensions to syntax,
bounded vs. unbounded integer arithmetic,
non-portable extensions such as string-objects,
advanced numeric types (rationals, complex),
threads, and tabling.
Benchmarks
- Benchmarking issues: Odd Prolog benchmarking, Performance differences.
- Benchmarking software: older, Dobry, Aquarius benchmark suite, (Bothe, 1990), (Demoen et al. 2001), benchmark descriptions
- Benchmarking results: B-Prolog, SICStus, XSB, SICStus vs Yap vs hProlog
- Benchmarking results: Survey of java prolog engines by Michael Zeising
- Benchmarking results: OpenRuleBench yearly open-source benchmark of rule engines
External Links
- Overview of Prolog Systems by Ulrich Neumerkel