Computing with logic : logic programming with Prolog

The material in this book is more important than Prolog programming techniques for a serious computer science student. Most of the computer science in logic programming is not in Prolog applications and programming. However, the material presented here will help a student use Prolog to its best capabilities. Programming in Prolog without knowing its logical foundations means a student probably does not grasp the true nature of the language. Prolog is an impure language—if a student does not recognize the underlying ideal, he or she cannot separate good techniques from bad techniques. A student familiar with the material in this book will be better able to give Prolog programs, or fragments of them, a declarative reading and will be better able to write programs with a declarative meaning. Such programs are not only easier to understand and debug, they almost always are executed more efficiently. This text is appropriate for a senior or first-year graduate course on logic programming. It concentrates on the formal semantics of logic programs, automatic theorem- proving techniques, and efficient implementation of logic languages. It is also an excellent reference for the computer professional wishing to do self-study on the fundamentals of logic programming. We have included numerous examples to illustrate all the major concepts and results. No other text deals with implementation in as much detail. Other discussions of implementation techniques do not explain and develop the relationship between interpreter (or compiler) behavior and resolution theorem proving. We stress that connection throughout. Book by Maier, David, Warren, David S.