HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: cduguay@lcraft.ersys.edmonton.ab.ca (Claude Duguay)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.prolog
Subject: Re: Turbo Prolog Info
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 92 15:54:36 MST
Organization: LogiCraft Corp, Edmonton, AB, Canada

pantel@enseeiht.fr (Marc PANTEL) writes:

> I used to work with Borland's Turbo Prolog on PC to developp expert decision
> system. Now that Borland has stopped its support, I'd like to know if
> another company developps and maintains it and in such a case, how I could
> contact it.
> 
> I'd also like to know if Turbo Prolog compiled programs can run under Window
> 3 and in this case if there exists an interface between Turbo Prolog and
> Windows 3 and how it is available.

Turbo Prolog (last one was 2.0) is now PDC Prolog (3.3) and PDC can be reached
(in the US) at:

Prolog Development Center
N.W. Atlanta, GA 30318
(404) 873-1366

PDC Prolog permits compilation of Windows 3.x programs now but porting to
Windows is not a simple matter of recompiling. It requires a paradigm shift
that can be extensive, depending on your Windows-like experience).

Claude Duguay              cduguay@lcraft.ersys.edmonton.ab.ca 
From: jensk@hpbbn.bbn.hp.com (Jens Kilian)
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 1992 00:23:40 GMT
Subject: Re: next_to code question
Organization: HP
Newsgroups: comp.lang.prolog


> append([],L,L) :- !.
                    ^
                    This cut is the culprit.

It makes append/3 determinate, so it won't be able to deliver multiple
solutions.

Just replace the first clause by

append([], L, L).


	Jens.
--
Internet: jensk@hpbeo82.bbn.hp.com    HPDESK : JENS_KILIAN%XU@HP1200
MausNet:  Jens Kilian @ BB                     KILIAN_JENS/HP1200_XU@hpbbi4
Phone: (0|+49)7031-14-4308            TELNET : 778-4308
Fax  : (0|+49)7031-14-2049
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As the air to a bird, or the sea to a fish, so is contempt to the contemptible.
From: mmh@dcs.qmw.ac.uk (Matthew Huntbach)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.prolog
Subject: Re: Occurs check
Date: 17 Dec 92 11:11:42 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Dept, QMW, University of London, UK.

In article <1992Dec13.173016.8849@nntp.hut.fi> Jussi.Rintanen@hut.fi writes:
>Question 1: What implementations of Prolog implement the occurs check?

I have written programs which rely on the occur-check not
happening, since they intentionally build circular structures.
What should be so wrong with this - after all it's a standard
programing feature in lazy functional languages.

Matthew Huntbach
Newsgroups: comp.lang.prolog
From: joachim@ecrc.de (Joachim Schimpf)
Subject: Re: Array implementations?
Reply-To: joachim@ecrc.de
Organization: European Computer-Industry Research Centre GmbH.
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 11:04:10 GMT

In article 92Dec10103127@iron.cs.umass.edu, fawcett@iron.cs.umass.edu (Tom Fawcett) writes:
>
>Michael Covington:
>>    Here's a reasonable substitute for a 15-element array:
>> 
>> 	 f(a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,i,j,k,l,m,n,o)
>> 
>>    Use 'arg' to access elements by numbered position.
>> 
>>    Limitations:
>>      (1) Intriniscally 1-dimensional (but you can make an array of arrays);
>>      (2) Some maximum number of elements (maybe 256).
>
>
>Greg Sidebottom:
>
>> I would add:
>>  (3) element update is O(size of array) in time and space, which is
>>      much worse than O(log size of array) for trees
>
>I think element access and update (via arg/3) is constant time, at least in
>Quintus Prolog.  The QP library file arrays.pl has such an implementation, and
>states that fetch and access are constant.
>
>> Don't think I am Prolog bashing, Prolog is my favorite language.  But
>> I think if you really need constant time access and update arrays, you
>> should probably use some other language.

Let's get that straight: Prolog _has_ constant time access arrays, they happen
to be called structures, as Michael Covington has pointed out correctly.
(In a typed language, the difference between an array and a structure is that
an array is a collection of items of the same type, while a structure groups
together items of different types. In an untyped language like Prolog there is
no need to make this distinction).

Now 'access' in Prolog means unification, which subsumes 'read' and 'assign once'.

What you don't have in Prolog, neither in arrays nor elsewhere, is destructive
assignment. As a consequence, in a situation where you want a slightly modified
version of an array that you already have (_and_ you don't need to keep the old
version) you have to make a copy where you would otherwise destructively modify
the old array.

Modest advertisement: In SEPIA/ECLiPSe we decided to have no arity limit
on structures precisely because of their potential use as arrays. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Joachim Schimpf                                 Email   joachim@ecrc.de 
 European Computer-Industry Research Centre      Phone   +49 89 92699 111
 Arabellastrasse 17, D-8000 Munich 81, Germany   Fax     +49 89 92699 170

Newsgroups: comp.lang.prolog
From: torkel@sics.se (Torkel Franzen)
Subject: Re: Occurs check
Organization: Swedish Institute of Computer Science, Kista
	<24435@alice.att.com>
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 19:19:03 GMT

In article <24435@alice.att.com> pereira@alice.att.com (Fernando Pereira)
 writes:

   >If you think of Prolog programs as *logic* programs where the logic is
   >(a fragment of) first-order logic, what is wrong it that the answers
   >derived without the occurs-check are in general unsound.

  This is putting it too strongly, since such answers are perfectly
sound relative to the interpretation of a (pure) program as the union
of the clauses and the identities true in a suitable universe of
rational trees. The logic involved is still first order logic, it's
just that we have a somewhat stronger interpretation of programs.
Generally speaking, these distinctions are much simpler if we think in
terms of wedding different constraint theories to Horn clauses, as
originally suggested by Colmerauer.
From: ehsteve@milton.u.washington.edu (Dzung Nguyen)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.prolog
Subject: Apologies (Re: Help on writing MERGE SORT!)
Date: 15 Dec 92 22:40:57 GMT
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle

In article <1992Dec10.184257.21635@u.washington.edu> ehsteve@milton.u.washington.edu (Dzung Nguyen) writes:
>Hello, thanks in advance for replying....
>
>I have a prolog assignment to write a merge sort with following
>requirement:     merge_sort([X], [X])
>
>   ""   ""    ""

Sorry about the above message. I was told that my post was an improper    
use if the newsgroup. This was not something that was done deliverately 
to misused the system or knowing that it will vilorate the set standards,
but out of stupidity. It won't happen again.

My sincere apologies,
Scott
From: milan@bcsaic.boeing.com (Milan Richter)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.prolog
Subject: Re: Occurs check
Date: 17 Dec 92 17:21:08 GMT
Organization: Boeing Computer Services

In article <1992Dec15.131151.21406@prl.dec.com> vanroy@prl.dec.com (Peter Van Roy) writes:
>The Wild_LIFE system implements unification of psi-terms, which
>renders the occur check superfluous.  Wild_LIFE is an
>implementation of LIFE, a language that elegantly generalizes
>Prolog.  A psi-term is an open-ended dynamic record that may be
>cyclic  (i.e., it is a general rooted graph).

Could you please provide references for Wild_LIFE? Thanks.

-- Milan Richter, Seattle 
Newsgroups: comp.lang.prolog
From: torkel@sics.se (Torkel Franzen)
Subject: Re: Occurs check
Organization: Swedish Institute of Computer Science, Kista
	<24435@alice.att.com> <TORKEL.92Dec17201903@bast.sics.se>
	<24439@alice.att.com> <TORKEL.92Dec18231028@lludd.sics.se>
	<24454@alice.att.com>
Date: Sun, 20 Dec 1992 09:49:28 GMT

In article <24454@alice.att.com> pereira@alice.att.com (Fernando Pereira)
 writes:

   >I agree. Adding the first-order theory of rational trees to the left of the
   >|- is precisely restricting the class of models under consideration
   >from arbitrary first-order models to rational tree models.

   This is not so, since the class of rational tree models cannot be
characterized by any set of first order axioms, any more than the finite
tree models.

   >In any case, one needs to be *very* clear about what one
   >is assuming to the left of the |-. 

  In a more perspicuous description of Prolog-style Horn clause programming,
I think it's a good idea to separate the constraint system from the
resolution mechanism. Thus Prolog (in the simplified version here considered),
whatever the constraint system used, delivers answers to a question A(x)
of the form C(x,y), where C(x,y) is a conjunction of constraints, and
it always holds that

    (1)                     C(x,y) -> A(x)

is a logical consequence of the program, read as a set of Horn clauses. Of
course (1) does not imply that there is an x such that A(x); for this to
follow, the constraint theory must be used.

Newsgroups: comp.lang.prolog
From: hoppet@opal.cs.tu-berlin.de (Thomas Hoppe)
Subject: Looking for clause or n-ary tree indexing code
Keywords: indexing, clauses, n-ary trees, Quintus 'indexer'
Organization: Techn. University of Berlin, Germany
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 23:26:58 GMT

Dear Prolog net'ers

for the purpose of explicit and fast storage of proof-trees, I'm
looking for some sophisticated indexing mechanism on Prolog clauses.
Clauses asserted in the Prolog DB are implicitly indexed on the
predicate symbol contained in the clause head as primary key and
usually explicitly on the first argument as secondary key. For the
purpose of a fast access to clauses over some predicate symbol
contained in the body of a clause, I need now some indexing mechanism.
I.e.\ if a clause p :- q, r. is given, I like to retrieve this clause
directly from the Prolog DB and from a given goal r without inspecting
every asserted clause and its body. 

Since a clause p :- q, r. can be regarded as tree of depth one with
root p and sons q and r, such an indexing mechanism could also be used
to index trees with an arbitrary number of sons per node.  Such an
indexing mechanism is also useful for implementing forward chaining
inference systems, thus I thought that it is maybe a good idea to ask
the Prolog community out there whether someone has implemented already
such a mechanism. 

Although the Quintus libraries contain some package called 'indexer',
which realizes an advanced indexing mechanism on arbitrary arguments
(and thus extends the secondary explicite indexing mechanism above), I
haven't found yet any library package realizing an extended indexing
mechanism of the implicite, primary type. Clearly, indexing on the
arguments of a predicate is much easier (since their number of
arguments is fixed) than indexing over an arbitrary long list of body
predicates. 

Although a Prolog clause is a term structure of nested binary symbols
(usually :- , and ;) and literals as leaves, the first idea is to
regard a clause as binary tree. On this way 'indexer' can be easily
extended for indexing binary tree's, since the number of subtree's is
fixed. But that's a level to low for my purpose: first, this has the
consequence that a large number of (:- , and ;) entries exists in the
DB, and second, for finding the clause head an algorithm would need to
'crawl up' the tree.  If instead the indexing mechanism indexes n-ary
tree's, a quicker look-up is possible. 

If you have implemented such a thing or if you know a reference for
some code, I would appreciate it. If of interest, I summarize the
responses I receive.

ADVthanxANCE, 

	Thomas Hoppe

--
Thomas Hoppe  Projekt KIT-BACK		email: hoppet@cs.tu-berlin.de
Technische Universitaet Berlin		phone: 030-314-25494
Franklinstr. 28/29			fax  : 030-314-24929
1000 Berlin 10	Germany			priv.: 030-3236564
Newsgroups: comp.lang.prolog
From:  vpa@jvd.simbirsk.su (Pavel A. Winogradov)
Subject: Help: overlays in Turbo-Prolog 2.0
Reply-To: vpa@jvd.simbirsk.su
Organization: Joint Venture Simbirsk-Dialog
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 08:10:29 GMT

Hi, everyone!

Please, help me.
I'm programming Turbo-Prolog 2.0. How i may building overlays in there?
May be exist overlay-linker then can do it for Turbo-Prolog 2.0 ?

Thank's.
--
Pavel A. Winogradov,<vpa@jvd.simbirsk.su>,Ulyanovsk,Russia
From: mst@vexpert.dbai.tuwien.ac.at (Markus Stumptner)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
Subject: Re: How do I center something in a LayoutFrame in Objectworks 4.1?
Date: 12 Dec 92 15:39:49 GMT
Organization: DB and ES Subdivision, TU Vienna

Thanks to all who replied to my question.  I did solve the problem at
hand by subclassing LayoutFrame, similar to the solution proposed by
Huber Baumeister.  I did ask originally because I thought I could have
missed some appropriate protocol in the existing classes, but
obviously that's not the case.  Anyway, it works.  Thanks again.
-- 
Markus Stumptner                                mst@vexpert.dbai.tuwien.ac.at
University of Technology Vienna                 vexpert!mst@relay.eu.net
Paniglg. 16, A-1040 Vienna, Austria             ...mcsun!vexpert!mst
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU
Via:        UK.AC.OPEN; 18 DEC 92 12:39:45 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
Date:         Fri, 18 Dec 1992 12:38:54 GMT
From:         J.G.B.Heal@OPEN.AC.UK
Subject:      Re: Self: where can I find it

>
>A while ago there was an anouncement of the availability of Self.
>Any pointers to where I can find it would be aprieciated.
the archive is

self.stanford.edu
benedict heal
Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
From: bruce@utafll.uta.edu (Bruce Samuelson)
Subject: Re: anything isKindOf: nil ==> true (Objectwork
Organization: UTexas at Arlington, Linguistics
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1992 00:58:45 GMT

In ST80, canUnderstand: or respondsTo: is better to use than
isKindOf:. But they are not really adequate, because some classes will
respond affirmatively when they shouldn't. This happens when they
implement the method with an error notification such as
subclassResponsibility or shouldNotImplement. For example, a
Collection will say it understands #do: but will signal an error if it
receives this message selector.
--
**********************************************************
* Bruce Samuelson	Department of Linguistics	 *
* bruce@ling.uta.edu	University of Texas at Arlington *
**********************************************************


Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
From: glippert@dale.cts.com (George Lippert)
Subject: Re: NeXT st?  (again)
Organization: Titan Linkabit Corporation
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]
Distribution: comp
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 21:50:19 GMT

Jeff McAffer (jeff@is.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp) wrote:
> A while ago I saw some things float by about ST on a NeXT but did not
> pay attention as I did not have a NeXT.  Guess what?  I have a NeXT
> (well, its broken right now but when its fixed...)
> Could someone refresh me on the availability of ST (PPS I assume) for
> the NeXT?
> Thanks,

Yes!  Let's get some interest going on the Net for this.  I too am looking for
a good commercial implementation of Smalltalk on the NeXT.  PPS tells me that
they are in beta test on theirs and will be shipping, hopefully, in a month or
two.  Here's my contact notes:

* Parc Place Systems, Cindy Sage (sales) 408.773.7434
 -NeXT version in beta (due in 2-3 months ie. Jan or Feb 93)
 -made second contact on 4 dec 92, she will call me when SmallTalk for the
  NeXT is shipping.                                  

Also, I tried recently to find out if Digitalk would be porting their product
(since I fear PPS may be out of my price range) but they were on Christmas
break last Friday.

I've had Gnu Smalltalk running on my NeXT but it is soooo far from what I got
used to with Smalltalk/V on my Mac that I tossed it.

--
George A. Lippert           work:          glippert@dale.cts.com
Titan Satellite Systems     home: zucchini!glippert@dale.cts.com (NeXTmail ok)
San Diego, CA                                            
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
From: irvine@ntmtv.UUCP (Chuck Irvine)
Subject: Smalltalk/V for Sun (Sparc)
Organization: Northern Telecom Inc, Mountain View, CA
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 22:53:48 GMT

I vaguely seem to recall hearing something about Digitalk doing a port
of ST/V for the Sun Sparc. Does anyone know if there's any substance to
this? Any information is much appreciated. Thanks

Chuck Irvine
ames!ntmtv!irvine
Northern Telecom
From: sbb@laplace.eng.sun.com (Steve Byrne)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
Subject: Re: GNU Smalltalk Compatibility
Date: 12 Dec 92 00:52:04
Organization: FSF hackers, Smalltalk division
NNTP-Posting-Host: laplace
In-reply-to: irvine@ntmtv.UUCP's message of Wed, 2 Dec 1992 18:22:01 GMT

In article <1992Dec2.182201.11980@ntmtv> irvine@ntmtv.UUCP (Chuck Irvine) writes:

   How compatible is GNU Smalltalk with Smalltalk-80 (or SmalltalkV)?
   Just curious. Thanks

This is probably in the FAQ list, but here goes anyway.  GNU Smalltalk tries to
be syntax compatible with the language described in the blue/purple book
(ST-80: the Language*).  I think the only discrepancy is that GNU Smalltalk
doesn't allow block local temporary variables.

Steve
From: marten@feki.toppoint.de (Marten Feldtmann)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
Subject: Re: Digitalk Email address
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 92 14:57:48 GMT
Organization: Private OS/2 System

In article <1992Dec18.122607.29950@cs.kuleuven.ac.be> 'dockx@cs.kuleuven.ac.be (Jan Dockx)'  writes:
>Can anybody tell me Digitalk's Email address for commercial issues?
>

 If you've read the SCOOP 3/92 you could find the following addresses:

 CompuServe:  76711,366
 Internet:    bug@digitalk.com, sales@digitalk.com, info@digitalk.com

 Well, I've never had any responses, but I also never get my e-mails
back ..

 MF



--
Marten Feldtmann,     Kieler Str. 29,       2300 Kiel 14,    Germany
E-Mail: marten@tpki.toppoint.de, FAX possible
From: claude@cse.ucsc.edu (Claude Noshpitz)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
Subject: Wanted - midi driver for 4.0/4.1 on  mac
Date: 17 Dec 1992 00:58:35 GMT
Organization: University of California, Santa Cruz (CE/CIS Boards)
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: lancelot.ucsc.edu


Hi - i'm looking for a midi driver for the mac on Objectworks smalltalk
that would work either via serial or with midi manager .. any help or
pointers would be greatly appreciated!

				Claude
Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
From: Thomas Wuensche <tw@fgb1.fgb.mw.tu-muenchen.de>
Subject: Sorry, I've missed it (ANNOUNCE: First release of GNU Smalltalk GUI)
Reply-To: tw@fgb1.fgb.mw.tu-muenchen.de
Organization: Leibniz-Rechenzentrum, Muenchen (Germany)
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 17:34:36 GMT

The subject says it:
I'd like to try the GNU Smalltalk GUI. It's just expired
on our news-server (the Topic is still there).

Thanks for any hint.

	Thomas

Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
From: knight@mrco.carleton.ca (Alan Knight)
Subject: Re: anything isKindOf: nil ==> true (Objectwork
Reply-To: knight@mrco.carleton.ca (Alan Knight)
Organization: Carleton University
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 1992 15:54:57 GMT

In <92121618993@zone4.ocunix.on.ca> anthony@zone4.ocunix.on.ca (Anthony Lander) writes:

>Actually, since Object is a subclass of nil (go and look if you don't believe
>me), everything that inherits from Object is-a nil.  

Having nil in your superclass slot is not the same thing as being a
subclass of nil.  Nil is not a class, so one cannot be a subclass of
it. If something were really a subclass of nil, then it should not be
necessary to treat nil as a special case, so we would then ask nil for
its superclass and continue up the tree.  

-- 
 Alan Knight  knight@mrco.carleton.ca  +1 613 788 2600x1027 
 Dept. of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering              
 Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1S 5B6
From: ghazi@michelangelo.rutgers.edu (Kaveh R. Ghazi)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
Subject: missing DialogView class methods in st80 4.1?
Date: 17 Dec 92 19:14:43 GMT
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.


	Has anyone reimplemented the missing st80 4.0 DialogView class
methods "show:withLabel:" and "showChoice:withLabel:" in st80 4.1?
		--Kaveh
-- 
Kaveh R. Ghazi			CAIP Center, Rutgers University.
ghazi@caip.rutgers.edu		rutgers!caip.rutgers.edu!ghazi
From: steinman@hslrswi.hasler.ascom.ch (Jan Steinman - Bytesmiths, 3946)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
Subject: Re: anything isKindOf: nil ==> true (Object
Date: 20 Dec 92 15:39:10 GMT
Reply-To: steinman@hslrswi.hasler.ascom.ch
Organization: Ascom Hasler AG

In article 92121618993@zone4.ocunix.on.ca, anthony@zone4.ocunix.on.ca (Anthony Lander) writes:
>This thread also had some comments about using respondsTo: aMethod versus
>isKindOf: aClass.  These answer two different questions:  respondsTo answers
>whether something behaves in a certain way (all Magnitudes understand < ), 
>while isKindOf: answers whether something is a specialization (Lettuce is
>a specialization of Vegetable).

Specialization is an implementation detail that should not be assumed (or even
visible!) in most cases. One could imagine taxonomies where Lettuce is not
a kind of Vegetable, or where Vegetable may not even exist. One can buy
third-party products, and then receive updates where entire hierarchies have
been re-arranged. As long as object protocol is the same, one should not care.

The best designs will assume only that an object is the sum of its behavior.
(Of course, one can't always have the best design, especially when one must
use someone else's mess!)

---
: : Jan Steinman, Bytesmiths			   steinman@hasler.ascom.ch : :
: : 2002 Parkside Court, West Linn, OR 97068-2767 USA	    +1 503 657 7703 : :
: : Beundenfeldstrasse 35, CH-3013, Bern, Switzerland	    +41 31 999 3946 : :
Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
From: mchan@deacon (Samuel R. McHan)
Subject: Re: command line arguments
Organization: J. Random Misconfigured Site
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 21:39:09 GMT
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]
X-Posted-From: deacon.mthcsc.wfu.edu
NNTP-Posting-Host: sol.ctr.columbia.edu

Jan Gifvars (jgs@funsys.se) wrote:
: Is it possible to retreive command line arguments in my smalltalk image ?
: For example : 
: 
: $ st80 myImage.im textFile.doc
: 
: I just want to parse the commandline.
: 
: Thanks in advance.
: 
: 
: Jan Gifvars 
: ENATOR Functional Systems AB
: Box 1213
: S-16428 Kista
: +46 08 7036200
: jgs@funsys.se
: 

In the past, I've used a program which would take the command line
arguments, stuff them into a file, and then start my image.  The image
would then look for the existance of the file and copy the contents from
it.  A kludge, I know, but I didn't know how to read the command line
any other way.  Ideas?

--

Sam McHan
srmchan@ralvm29.vnet.ibm.com
mchan@mthcsc.wfu.edu