Workaround ensure_loaded/1 GNU Prolog? - prolog

Is there a workaround to make ensure_loaded/1 work
in GNU Prolog as it works in many other Prolog systems?
The goal is to have a preamble so that the rest of
code can use ensure_loaded/1 independent of whether which
Prolog system I use.
I tried the following:
:- multifile(term_expansion/2).
term_expansion((:- ensure_loaded(X)),
(:- atom_concat('<base>\\', X, Y),
include(Y))).
But the following query doesn't work:
:- ensure_loaded('suite.p').
The path calculation itself is not the issue of the question,
but the redefinition of a directive in GNU Prolog. There is
another directive that causes problems: meta_predicate/1. The
byte code crashes as follows:
Bye

A partial solution is:
ensure_loaded(File) :-
absolute_file_name(File, Path),
( predicate_property(_, prolog_file(Path)) ->
true
; consult(Path)
).
It assumes that the file defines at least one predicate but that's a sensible assumption. However, there's seems to be no way to override the native, non-functional, definition of the ensure_loaded/1 directive. A workaround would be to wrap the ensure_loaded/1 directive within an initialization/1 directive. For example:
:- initialization(ensure_loaded('suite.pl')).
Hence this being a partial solution as we're really defining an ensure_loaded/1 predicate, not a directive.

My current speculation is, that it is impossible with
the standard distribution of GNU Prolog 1.4.4. The
docu says:
The GNU Prolog compiler (section 4.4) automatically calls
expand_term/2 on each Term1 read in. However, in the current release,
only DCG transformation are done by the compiler (i.e.
term_expansion/2 cannot be used). To use term_expansion/2, it is
necessary to call expand_term/2 explicitly.
I also tried to inject some Prolog code for term_expansion/2
via the command line, but to no awail. Although the tool chain
has options such as -O, -L, -A that pass options to other tools.
There is not really an option that passes a Prolog text to the
pl2wam, in course of the execution of a consult/1 issued inside
the top-level.
At least this are my results so far.
Bye

Related

Dealing with dynamic predicates that cause compilation failures

I am attempting to run an example GNU Prolog program used as an example during my course work. The code is pulled directly from https://www.cpp.edu/~jrfisher/www/prolog_tutorial/2_17pl.txt and was shown working at one point by my professor.
However, when I run the provided example code, I get the following compilation warning:
| ?- consult('C:/Users/Chase/Desktop/Prolog files/newAnimal.pro').
compiling C:/Users/Chase/Desktop/Prolog files/newAnimal.pro for byte code...
C:/Users/Chase/Desktop/Prolog files/newAnimal.pro:74:12: syntax error: . or operator expected after expression
1 error(s)
compilation failed
The line that is keeping the program from compiling correctly is:
:- dynamic yes/1,no/1.
Which I read up on here: https://www.swi-prolog.org/pldoc/man?predicate=dynamic/1
However, despite attempting to rewrite and reformat the section, I could still not get it to compile.
Any help on why the provided code may not be running?
I am using a Windows GUI GNU Prolog console V1.4.5
The ISO Prolog standard doesn't require dynamic(or multifile or discontiguous) to be declared as an operator. A few systems do it (e.g. SWI-Prolog like you mentioned) but not GNU Prolog. Thus, to ensure code portability, avoid using dynamic as an operator. Write instead:
:- dynamic(yes/1).
:- dynamic(no/1).
Or:
:- dynamic((yes/1, no/1)).
Or:
:- dynamic([yes/1, no/1]).
These are the standard conforming alternatives for declaring multiple predicates as dynamic.
Also, GNU Prolog have a fine manual (part of its installation) which you should refer to when using GNU Prolog.

SWI-prolog semweb library processing of URI

Being new to prolog I am reading existing code (as well as trying to write some code). Having some prior background in semweb I started to play with it and see something that is confusing me. Example assertion:
?- rdf_assert(ex:bob, rdf:type, foaf:'Person').
I also did find the following in the documentation:
Remember: Internally, all resources are atoms. The transformations
above are realised at compile-time using rules for goal_expansion/2
provided by the rdf_db library
Am I correct in assuming that somehow the library is treating the three URIs as atoms? I thought that the compiler would treat this as module_name:predicate, but that does not seem to be the case. If that is true, could you please provide a simple example on how this could be done in prolog?
Thanks
Prolog is not a functional language. This implies 2+3 does not evaluate to 5 and is just a term that gets meaning from the predicate that processes it. Likewise, ex:bob is just a term that has no direct relations to modules or
predicates. Only predicates such call/1 will interpret this as "call bob in the module ex".
Next to that, (SWI-)Prolog (most Prolog's, but not all) have term expansion that allows you to rewrite the term that is read before it is handed to the compiler. That is used to rewrite the argument of rdf/3: each appearance of prefix:local is expanded to a full atom. You can check that by using listing/1 on predicates that call rdf/3 using the prefix notation.
See also rdf_meta

Prolog term_expansion not working

I am trying to perform the following term_expansion with swipl:
a(asda).
a(astronaut).
term_expansion(a(X),b(X)).
But it does not work, i.e. there is no b/1 consulted. I have tried a few variations:
term_expansion(a(X),[b(X)]).
user:term_expansion(a(X),b(X)).
user:term_expansion(a(X),[b(X)]).
user:term_expansion(user:a(X),[user:b(X)]).
None of which works. What is the problem?
As explained by #mat, you need to define the term_expansion/2 predicate before the clauses you want to expand are loaded. Also, the term_expansion/2 predicate is a multifile and dynamic predicate defined for the user pseudo-module. Thus, you should write:
:- multifile user:term_expansion/2.
:- dynamic user:term_expansion/2.
user:term_expansion(a(X), b(X)).
This will ensure that your expansion code will work if you move it into a module.
If portability to other Prolog systems with a term-expansion mechanism (which, btw, is far from standard), than consider moving the term-expansion code to its own file, loaded before the source files you want to expand.

How to turn Prolog into preprocessor (kinda m4, gpp)?

m4 can be used with different programming languages because its default policy on unrecognised text is to output and it has a quoting mechanism required for convenient preprocessor usage. I mean, I can write preprocessed code in such a way that my IDE thinks it's Ada. m4 macro invocations (include, define) are hidden in Ada comments. Ada comments start with --, Prolog comments start with % or inside /* */. I can't mix Ada and Prolog easily.
m4 does preprocessing well enough, but its programming side sucks. I thought: why don't me try a general purpose language instead? Prolog looks like being appropriate for my tasks. Prolog has ISO standard, and logic programming looks being useful for reasoning about source generation.
So here we are: we have an arbitrary output language (Ada, then JavaScript, then maybe something else), and it would be nice to write source code in native IDEs for corresponding languages most of the time. I need preprocessor to have a proper parser (like m4 has). This parser shouldn't have Ada syntax knowledge, instead it should only know Ada lexical, and it should be possible to make its macro invocations look like Ada functions invocations.
Its command line interface should look similar to m4 or gcc -E. It should be possible to do both kinds of includes: pure Prolog source code and preprocessed code.
If you know how can I shortly achieve these goals, please write here. I can probably accept non-Prolog solutions, but among the others I prefer standard languages. m4 is part of POSIX, for example.
Prolog is an unusual choice for this task. Indeed, SWI-Prolog used to have the possibility to invoke C preprocessor - should has been removed now, because of its little usefulness.
Anyway, a DCG could be used. I would advice against it if you are not really proficient in Prolog, because debugging can be difficult:
prep(I, O) :-
phrase(exp, I, O).
exp --> mac, !, exp.
exp, [C] --> [C], exp.
exp --> [].
% macro definitions, use 'pushback' argument to change text
mac, "AAA" --> "a".
mac, "G" --> "goal".
example
?- prep("my goal is mars", X).
X = "my G is mAAArs" .
edit: from SWI-Prolog mailing list, WRT the latest release 6.3.18
MODIFIED: Deleted preprocessor/2 after discussion on the
mailinglist. Code relying on this (we hope none) can use the hook
user:prolog_load_file/2 to achieve the same result.
I think the functionality available is more or less that of #include <...>.
For macro expansion (or better, term rewrite) in Prolog there is goal_expansion or term_expansion
edit: latest release brings quasiquotations. Together with a parser in DCG could help to achieve the transformation.
Have you looked at StringTemplate? It's a part of ANTLR (compiler construction toolket). It's written in Java (though there's a C# port, among others). An ANTLR grammar can be written to target many different languages. StringTemplate is what it uses to generate code for the different target languages.
Check it out.
http://antlr.org
http://stringtemplate.org
http://www.cs.usfca.edu/~parrt/
I use DCGs to generate python scripts for FontForge (to create and maintain candlestick fonts for forex trading); I tried M4 scripts but they are not easily amenable to programming (as you mention) and difficult to merge with my glyph definitions that reside in a Prolog database.
DCGs are perceived to be mainly for parsing; but I find they are like a templating engine on their own.

adding a search Path in SWI prolog

In many Prolog systems it is easy to add a new search path for consulting file.
In Yap for example, the predicate I know it is add_to_path(NewPath).
Is there a way to do the same in SWI Prolog ?. My question is specifically about adding one path to the already existing paths, I am aware of the file_search_path/2 predicate for declaring directories, and the cd/1 predicate for changing the current directory, but I would like to know if there is an alternative method, like the one I found in Yap.
thanks in advance !
There are several mechanisms to this. The first one I met was in C-Prolog, which indeed used clauses for library_directory/1. The current SWI-Prolog mechanism is derived from Quintus and also used in SICStus. It generalises from the library_directory/1 approach
be treating expressions of the form <alias>(Path) as a search over the path-alias <alias>.
Paths for an alias are defined using the predicate file_search_path/2. Now, library is just an alias. Normally, libraries are added using a clause file_search_path(library, Dir).
This mechanism has proven to be pretty flexible. Of course, it would be nice if Prolog systems get more compatible here. I think todays YAP also supports the file_search_path system. (2016 Edit: It does indeed, see YAP Prolog User's Manual: Changing the Compiler’s Behavior)
In your .plrc/.yaprc/.sicstusrc/.swiplrc:
:- multifile(library_directory/1).
library_directory('/home/ulrich/lftp/Prolog-inedit').

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