The Art of Prolog, Second Edition: Advanced Programming Techniques (Logic Programming) [Hardcover]

Leon Sterling (Author), Ehud Shapiro (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0262193388 | ISBN-13: 978-0262193382 | Publication Date: March 10, 1994 | Edition: 2

This new edition of The Art of Prolog contains a number of important changes. Most background sections at the end of each chapter have been updated to take account of important recent research results, the references have been greatly expanded, and more advanced exercises have been added which have been used successfully in teaching the course.

Part II, The Prolog Language, has been modified to be compatible with the new Prolog standard, and the chapter on program development has been significantly altered: the predicates defined have been moved to more appropriate chapters, the section on efficiency has been moved to the considerably expanded chapter on cuts and negation, and a new section has been added on stepwise enhancement—a systematic way of constructing Prolog programs developed by Leon Sterling.

All but one of the chapters in Part III, Advanced Prolog Programming Techniques, have been substantially changed, with some major rearrangements. A new chapter on interpreters describes a rule language and interpreter for expert systems, which better illustrates how Prolog should be used to construct expert systems. The chapter on program transformation is completely new and the chapter on logic grammars adds new material for recognizing simple languages, showing how grammars apply to more computer science examples.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Leon S. Sterling is Director of eResearch and Chair of Software Innovation and Engineering at the University of Melbourne. He is the coauthor of The Art of Prolog (second edition, MIT Press, 1994) and the editor of The Practice of Prolog (MIT Press, 1990).

Product Details

• Hardcover: 560 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press; 2 edition (March 10, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262193388
• ISBN-13: 978-0262193382
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #986,858 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb, October 5, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Art of Prolog, Second Edition: Advanced Programming Techniques (Logic Programming) (Hardcover)

I can't think of a single bad thing to say about this book. The writing is clear, the examples numerous and interesting, and topics are covered thoroughly. There are exercises of various levels of difficulty. Very suitable for self study.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gentle and comprehensive, August 12, 2002

By 

Fernando Rodriguez (Madrid, Spain) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Art of Prolog, Second Edition: Advanced Programming Techniques (Logic Programming) (Hardcover)

If you have previous programming experience, Prolog will be quite a challenge. Logic programming is very different from functional or imperative, and will definitely be a major culture shock.

The first part of the book introduces the concepts of logic programming at the right pace, giving you time to assimilate everything. The second part contains several applications of Prolog.

This is a great first book on Prolog and will certainly help you `getting it'.

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the 4 best books on computer programming, February 14, 2005

By 

A. Khosla "houziwang" (Los Altos, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Art of Prolog, Second Edition: Advanced Programming Techniques (Logic Programming) (Hardcover)

This, to me, is one of the 4 best books on computer programming. Unfortunately, it is hard. Not because the book is poorly written - it is like a wonderful story, but because understanding how to think declaratively after being taught something like C or Java is like someone giving you a pair of wings when you're a mudfish.

Thinking declaratively changes how you think about problems and how you write code. It's a career changing experience. This book leads the way.

Top 4:
* Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (Sussman, Abelson)
* The Art of Prolog by Sterling/Shapiro
* Introduction to Algorithms by Cormen, etc.
* Concepts, Techniques, and Models of Computer Programming by Van Roy and Haridi