William F. Clocksin Livres

This book is for people who have done some programming, either in Prolog or in a language other than Prolog, and who can find their way around a reference manual. The emphasis of this book is on a simplified and disciplined methodology for discerning the mathematical structures related to a problem, and then turning these structures into Prolog programs. This book is therefore not concerned about the particular features of the language nor about Prolog programming skills or techniques in general. A relatively pure subset of Prolog is used, which includes the 'cut', but no input/output, no assert/retract, no syntactic extensions such as if then-else and grammar rules, and hardly any built-in predicates apart from arithmetic operations. I trust that practitioners of Prolog program ming who have a particular interest in the finer details of syntactic style and language features will understand my purposes in not discussing these matters. The presentation, which I believe is novel for a Prolog programming text, is in terms of an outline of basic concepts interleaved with worksheets. The idea is that worksheets are rather like musical exercises. Carefully graduated in scope, each worksheet introduces only a limited number of new ideas, and gives some guidance for practising them. The principles introduced in the worksheets are then applied to extended examples in the form of case studies.

Here is the book that helped popularize Prolog by making it accessible to a wide range of readers. This edition is an excellent reference for anyone who wants to study and use Prolog. The book concentrates on teaching the "core" Prolog, and all examples conform to this standard and will run on the most widely-used Prolog implementations.

The book serves as a comprehensive and definitive introduction to programming in Prolog, originally published in 1981. Its enduring relevance stems from a tutorial approach that effectively addresses general programming applications, making it a valuable resource even amidst the proliferation of other Prolog textbooks.

The book explores the concept of significant concerns, which encompass deeply held attitudes, preferences, and values that shape long-term relationships between intelligent entities. These concerns engage emotions and senses, leading to profound experiences of identity and purpose, contrasting with more superficial opinions. The study highlights the emotional depth of significant concerns, including what Emmons refers to as ultimate concerns, emphasizing their transformative potential in human connections and interactions.