Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uunet!comp.vuw.ac.nz!virtue!canterbury.ac.nz!fore057
From: fore057@canterbury.ac.nz
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: Re: Turbo Prolog by Borland
Message-ID: <1990Aug10.144500.8901@canterbury.ac.nz>
Date: 10 Aug 12 14:44:59 GMT
References: <9705@rice-chex.ai.mit.edu>
Organization: University of Canterbury
Lines: 27

In article <9705@rice-chex.ai.mit.edu>, cracraft@wheaties.ai.mit.edu (Stuart Cracraft) writes:
> Is Turbo Prolog good? What does it do well?
> Any pro or con ideas? Send to me. I'll summarize.
> 
> Stuart

I do most of my programing in Turbo Prolog.  It has a brilliant development
environment, with very effective checking of possible error sources, such as
unmatched variable types, variables used only once in a clause, etc.  In terms
of speed, it approaches Turbo Pascal for similar operations, although they are
so different it is hard to make a precise comparison.  I've heard that Prolog
afficionados criticise Turbo Prolog because it lacks the ability to mix data
types indiscriminately.  From my point of view, predicate declaration is an
advantage, and is what gives rise to the superior error checking and speed of
Turbo.

TP has other refinements which make it useful for real world applications, such
as windowing, internal and external databasing, and a full range of graphics
commands.  If you want interfacing power quickly, then buy the toolbox as well.

I have yet to try any overlay linking, and this may be an area where TP could
be improved.  The next module of my major present project will have to be
overlay linked, and I've heard from Turbo Pascal users that this can be a
problem with large Borland-based applications.

The documentation of TP is the best I have ever come across.  You could teach
yourself Prolog from scratch with it.