6 comments

  • shevy-java0 minutes ago
    I liked the idea behind Prolog, but I absolutely detest the syntax.<p>IMO it would be better to have something like Prolog as part of a &quot;better designed&quot; language per se. I can&#x27;t come up with a good proposal myself - language design is hard, including syntax design - but imagine if Prolog would be a part of python. That feature would then be used by more people. (This is just an example; just randomly creeping in features into a more successful language, also often won&#x27;t work. I am just giving this as an example that MIGHT be better.)
  • infotainment1 hour ago
    I always felt like Prolog&#x27;s ability to execute programs was entirely accidental.<p>To me, it feels like a data description language that someone discovered could be tricked into performing computation.
    • hwayne1 hour ago
      Check out datalog! <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;learn-some.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;learn-some.com&#x2F;</a> The tutorial there uses Clojure syntax but Datalog normally uses a Prolog syntax.
      • akritid16 minutes ago
        This datalog implementation uses prolog syntax, can even run the queries in prolog to contrast the model: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;des.sourceforge.io&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;des.sourceforge.io&#x2F;</a>
    • jjgreen1 hour ago
      ... a bit like life ...
  • shawn_w59 minutes ago
    I frequently find myself thinking &quot;this would be a great fit for prolog etc.&quot; but always fail when it comes to the execution.
  • doorhammer1 hour ago
    I always come back to prolog to tool around with it but haven’t done a ton.<p>Bidirectionality has always been super fascinating.<p>Didn’t know about Picat. 100% going to check it out.
    • hwayne50 minutes ago
      I&#x27;ll warn you that Picat is very much a &quot;research language&quot; and a lot of the affordances you&#x27;d expect with a polished PL just aren&#x27;t there yet. There&#x27;s also this really great &quot;field notes&quot; repo from another person who learned it: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;dsagman&#x2F;picat" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;dsagman&#x2F;picat</a>
      • doorhammer38 minutes ago
        Totally fair. Realistically “check it out” means I’ll probably spin up an env and try modeling a few things to see how it feels.<p>I’m mostly a language tourist they likes kicking the tires on modes of modeling problems that feel different to my brain.<p>Started skimming those notes. Really solid info. Appreciate it!
      • doorhammer30 minutes ago
        Side note: Just realized who you were. Read through Practical TLA+ recently modeling a few things at work. Incredibly helpful book for working through my first concrete model in practice.
  • egl20201 hour ago
    Maybe it&#x27;s just me, but my gripe is that it looks declarative, but you have to read the code in execution order.
  • boxed42 minutes ago
    The line reorder issue is evergreen and it seems all languages need to either go through this phase and fix it, or gaslight its users forever that it&#x27;s &quot;not really a problem&quot;.