Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcvax!hp4nl!swivax!anjo
From: anjo@swivax.UUCP (Anjo Anjewierden)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.prolog
Subject: Re: OOL in Prolog
Message-ID: <1219@swisun.swivax.UUCP>
Date: 2 May 89 12:38:06 GMT
References: <2602@ssc-vax.UUCP> <5947@pdn.paradyne.com> <1022@quintus.UUCP> <461@esosun.UUCP> <2822@usceast.UUCP>
Reply-To: anjo@swisun10.UUCP (Anjo Anjewierden)
Organization: SWI, UvA, Amsterdam
Lines: 50

In article <2822@usceast.UUCP> mgv@usceast.UUCP (Marco Valtorta) writes:
>It is possible for academic institutions to obtain an unsupported copy
>of PCE directly from the University of Amsterdam.  proWINDOWS is
>a commercial spin-off of PCE.  PCE was developed, mainly at
>the University of Amsterdam, in the context of ESPRIT Project 1098
>(KADS).  The University of Amsterdam requires acceptance of an
>academic software release agreement and payment of a fee.

The fee is 250 ECU (European Currency Units).  The software is ready
and the documentation is expected to be available in less than a month.
I will post a message in this newsgroup when we can ship.

>It is possible that the current release of proWINDOWS and the current
>release of PCE have grown to be different to some extent.  Could the people
>in the know enlighten me in this respect?

True.  The documentation and the source code are the ultimate references.
Notable changes (extensions...) on our site are:

	* single process architecture (i.e. *much* faster);
	* improved graphics and event handling at a finer grain;
	* constraints as objects (i.e. you declarative specify that
	  a box precisely fits around a text and PCE will keep
	  it whatever you do to either box or text);
	* automatic type-checking and conversion;
	* garbage collection of objects no longer referenced;
	* "extensible objects";
	* etc.

Quintus has made modifications as well, although not changing the
basic concepts as far as I can tell.

>Also, there were rumors that another Prolog vendor (BIM?) was
>going to offer a commercial product based on PCE.

Check with them I would say.  (Yes, BIM as the software).

It should be noted that we redesigned the interface between PCE and
Prolog such that it can be connected to any symbolic programming
language.  PCE currently runs with Quintus Prolog, BIM Prolog,
SWI-Prolog, X-Lisp and CommonLisp.  At the moment PCE only runs
on Sun workstations.


					Anjo Anjewierden
					University of Amsterdam
					Herengracht 196
					1016 BS  Amsterdam
					The Netherlands
					(anjo@swivax.uucp)