Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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'.

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

I bought this book for the cover (it's good enough to keep on a coffee table), and stayed for the code. My favorite part of the book is Part II, where the Prolog language is described. I learned Prolog from the Clocksin and Mellish book, but never really "got it" until I went through The Art of Prolog.

This book is a must for anyone starting to program in Prolog or interested in logic programming.

A downsize of the book (if any) can be that it could have detailed more in the respect of Prolog's applications. The pleasant style of the authors would have made a wonderful introduction into these fields.

A real pleasure to read.

Admittedly, this one tends to be a bit pricey. But, the content is pure gold for any programmer. Nowhere is the Prolog paradigm better conveyed than here. And, it is of little value to you if you attempt to learn prolog with a mindset of some other language. Prolog is unique and demands a unique way of looking at computer programming in general. It is dated a bit in that it does not cover all the latest developments in Prolog/AI research but no other Prolog books provide the foundational understanding that it does. Get this one for a solid foundation and then build on it with others. See my listmania list of AI Language books for suggestions of followup titles.

"The Art of Prolog" tries to be top notch: Beautifully crafted book, clear partition in four parts (Logic Programs, The Prolog Language, Advanced Prolog Programming Techniques, Applications), and most programs are very beautiful.

Anyhow the authors often try to explain the trivial sometimes even the shallow, then they often do not spent much effort in explaining the difficult. There is an unusual large amount of references to other parts of this book: backward and worse forward. The choice to explain first logic programming and then Edinburgh Prolog as an approximate implementation is especially unfortunate in this respect: A high level of redundancy separated by an entire book part with references to each other.

Most of the small programs are very beautiful and true gems. Though the reader should not foul herself, the development of most programs did last many years of brilliant people. I did not get a feel for the difficulty of developing a reasonable prolog program on my own.

I really liked the Background section at the end of each chapter: A very sound view to the world around the book.

If you are somewhat knowledgeable of the usual AI and CS problems, you will have a lot of pleasure to the elegant approach a prolog program can have to tackle many of them.

After Clocksin and Mellish this is the book to get. It develops the fundamental ideas of the core language, and, continuing in the same style of proper language use and applied computer science avoids being esoteric as it pushes the reader to higher order programming naturally. Recommended! Bought mine second hand in excellent condition. Shame it's not available on Kindle.

Prolog remains academic but still of great educational value. But to get to that value, you need to get past using prolog like a smart procedural language. This book and especially its last few chapters achieve this goal. For this reason I recommend it as a must read for any decent computer scientist.

I am currently working as a computer hardware design engineer. I have always been looking for new software methodology to improve my hardware design flow. Prolog, and especially its presentation in this book, shows me an interesting and powerful view of how computer programming should be.

Overall, I am a true believer in Prolog and logic programming after reading this book.