SWI-Prolog 2 .1

Reference Manual

Jan Wielemaker

HTMLization by Luca Passani

I thought it could be a good idea to index the SWI-Prolog manual in a WAIS like fashion:

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If you need some hints on how to resrict the range of you query, you just have to click here Feel free to report about errors and omittions.

Luca Passani

SWI-Prolog is a Prolog implementation based on a subset of the WAM (Warren Abstract Machine [Warren, 1983]). SWI-Prolog has been designed and implemented such that it can easily be modified for experiments with logic programming and the relation between logic programming and other programming paradigms (such as the object oriented XPCE environment [Anjewierden & Wielemaker, 1989]). SWI-Prolog has a rich set of built-in predicates and reasonable performance, which makes it possible to develop substantial applications in it. The current version offers a module system, garbage collection and an interface to the C language.

This document gives an overview of the features, system limits and built-in predicates.

Copyright © 1990--1995 , Jan Wielemaker

• Introduction
  • SWI-Prolog
  • Status
  • Should you be Using SWI-Prolog?
  • Graphics
  • Version 1.5 Release Notes
  • Version 1.6 Release Notes
  • Version 1.7 Release Notes
  • Version 1.8 Release Notes
  • Version 1.9 Release Notes
  • Version 2.0 Release Notes
  • Version 2.1 Release Notes
  • Acknowledgements
• Overview
  • Starting SWI-Prolog from the Unix Shell
    • Command Line Options
  • GNU Emacs Interface
  • Online Help
  • Query Substitutions
    • Limitations of the History System
  • Reuse of toplevel bindings
  • Overview of the Debugger
  • Compilation
  • Environment Control
  • Saved States
    • Types of Saved States and Portability
    • Save Predicates
  • Automatic loading of libraries
    • Notes on Automatic Loading
  • Garbage Collection
  • Syntax Notes
  • System Limits
    • Limits on Memory Areas
    • Other Limits
    • Reserved Names
• Built-In Predicates
  • Notation of Predicate Descriptions
  • Consulting Prolog Source files
    • Quick Load Files
  • Listing Predicates and Editor Interface
  • Verify Type of a Term
  • Comparison and Unification or Terms
    • Standard Order of Terms
  • Control Predicates
  • Meta-Call Predicates
  • Advanced control-structures: blocks
  • Grammar rule interface (phrase)
  • Database
    • Indexing databases
  • Declaring Properties of Predicates
  • Examining the Program
  • Input and Output
    • Input and Output Using Implicit Source and Destination
    • Explicit Input and Output Streams
    • Switching Between Implicit and Explicit I/O
  • Status of Input and Output Streams
  • Primitive Character Input and Output
  • Term Reading and Writing
  • Analysing and Constructing Terms
  • Analysing and Constructing Atoms
  • Representing Text in Strings
  • Operators
  • Arithmetic
  • Arithmetic Functions
  • Adding Arithmetic Functions
  • List Manipulation
  • Set Manipulation
  • Sorting Lists
  • Finding all Solutions to a Goal
  • Invoking Predicates on all Members of a List
  • Forall
  • Formatted Write
    • Writef
    • Format
    • Programming Format
  • Terminal Control
  • Unix Interaction
  • File System Interaction
  • User Toplevel Manipulation
  • Creating a Protocol of the User Interaction
  • Debugging and Tracing Programs
  • Obtaining Runtime Statistics
  • Finding Performance Bottlenecks
  • Memory Management
  • Windows DDE interface
    • DDE client interface
    • DDE server mode
  • Miscellaneous
• Using Modules
  • Why Using Modules?
  • Name-based versus Predicate-based Modules
  • Defining a Module
  • Importing Predicates into a Module
    • Reserved Modules
  • Using the Module System
    • Object Oriented Programming
  • Meta-Predicates in Modules
    • Definition and Context Module
    • Overruling Module Boundaries
  • Dynamic Modules
  • Module Handling Predicates
  • Compatibility of the Module System
• Foreign Language Interface
  • Overview of the Interface
  • Linking Foreign Modules
    • What linking is provided?
    • What kind of loading should I be using?
    • Static Linking
    • Dynamic Linking based on load_foreign/[2,5]
      • Portability Note
  • Dynamic Linking of shared libraries
  • Using the library shlib for .DLL and .so files
  • Interface Data types
  • The Foreign Include File
    • Argument Passing and Control
      • Non-deterministic Foreign Predicates
    • Analysing Terms via the Foreign Interface
    • Instantiating and Constructing Terms
    • Interaction with the garbage collector and stack-shifter
      • When is locking necessary
    • Calling Prolog from C
    • Discarding Data
    • Calls based on predicate references
    • Foreign Code and Modules
    • Catching Signals (Software Interrupts)
    • Errors and warnings
    • Environment Control from Foreign Code
    • Querying Prolog
    • Registering Foreign Predicates
    • Foreign Code Hooks
    • Embedding SWI-Prolog in a C-program
  • Example of Using the Foreign Interface
    • C-Source file (lowercase.c)
    • Compiling and Loading Foreign Code
  • Notes on Using Foreign Code
    • Garbage Collection and Foreign Code
    • Memory Allocation
    • Debugging Foreign Code
    • Name Conflicts in C modules
    • Compatibility of the Foreign Interface
• Generating Runtime Applications
  • Limitations of qsave_program
  • Runtimes and Foreign Code
  • Finding Application files
  • Using chpl for Configuration Information
    • Changing the emulator of a runtime application
    • Passing a path to the application
  • The Runtime Environment
    • The Runtime Emulator
• Hackers corner
  • Examining the Environment Stack
  • Intercepting the Tracer
  • Exception Handling
• Summary
  • Predicates
  • Artihmetic Functions
  • Operators
• References
• About this document ...