Prolog Comparison

This page talk about several popular Prolog systems that I know, together with a subjective valoration. Please tell me in the Forum if you think that I should include another dialect or if you disagree with some comments:

Content

What Prolog do I Need?

  • "I just want to learn Prolog"
    Checkout SWI-Prolog. SWI complies to the standard and it is free and stable.
  • "I want do do advanced GUI stuff"
    Checkout SWI, Visual Prolog and LPA-Prolog. SWI has a commercial GUI on top of it, and LPA and Visual Prolog allows you to develop cute Windows apps.
  • "I want to do real time robot control"
    Checkout BinProlog. You may even be faster than C because you have more time to concentrate on your algorithms.
  • "I want to integrate a Prolog-Interpeter in my application"
    Checkout DGKS Prolog for a Java version or check the Prolog Resource Guide for other free Prologs.

Prolog Comparison

Name
Free?
Easy?
Fast?
Operating System
Comments
SWI Prolog
yes
yes
no
many
 My personal favorite
Turbo Prolog
yes
yes
yes
DOS
 Good for learning, non-standard, DOS-only

Sicstus Prolog
no
med
yes
Solaris, Linux
 Most professional
BinProlog
yes
no
yes
many
 Fastest
Visual Prolog
no
yes
yes
Win16
 For Windows GUI, US$ 5 for personal licence
DGKS Prolog
yes
yes
no
Java
 Java (Win, Linux, Unix, ..)

Minerva Prolog
no
no
no
Java
 Claims professional focus, XML, ...

Quintus Prolog
no
yes
yes
Solaris, Linux
 Not maintained anymore?
Brain Aid Prolog
yes
no
-
-
 My Prolog ... :-)
Many others
-
-
-
-
  

Prolog List

  • SWI Prolog
    Is my favorite Prolog. It is free and comes in versions for Windows (Win95, WinNT, Win2000), Linux and Solaris. It is production quality, complies with the standards and contains a lot of libraries. The downside is that it does not have a visual level debugger and that it is not vey fast.

  • Turbo Prolog
    I only mention Tubo Prolog here because some of my games are based on it. Turbo Prolog is about 7 years old and only works with MS-DOS. This implies serious memory limitation. Also, it uses a special Prolog dialect with typed variables and some other restrictions. However, it is very fast, and contains a convenient visual debugger. I once learned Prolog by observing this debugger...

  • Visual Prolog
    Is the successor or Turbo Prolog. It is available for Windows, and in text-only versions for Linux and SCO. A personal licence is available for US 5. I haven't checked it out myself, but my Prolog-Chess has successfully ported to it. Please tell me about your experiences.

  • LPA Win-Prolog. Another commercial Prolog compiler system for Windows-based PCs. LPA offers a restricted trial version of the compiler. They've got an interesting site with real-world Prolog applications.

  • Sicstus Prolog
     The most professional Prolog around. It has a generator for native Sparc code and is probably best suited for comercial projects. Check for the price list.

  • Quintus Prolog
    Used to be the "Mercedes" of the Prologs. It features a great graphical source level debugger. However, it has been bought by Sicstus and (I think) it is not maintained anymore.

  • Bin Prolog
    A strange but very fast Prolog-Dialect that requires to rewrite you existing applications. However, I think that it is the fastest Prolog around and it is free for noncommercial purposes. I would use it instead of C++ if I should ever manage to write a robot control...

  • Minerva Prolog
    Java-Prolog from IF Computer. They claim it's good for professional work with XML, ... They have been involved in a Prolog conference. Any experiences?

  • DGKS Prolog
    A free Prolog implementation using Java. I haven't checked it out, but it looks quite promising.

  • Strawberry Prolog
    Any experiences with this system?

  • Brain Aid Prolog
    Is the parallel Prolog compiler written by Guido, Martin and me a few years ago. Just forget it except you are in distributed AI. It only works on specific "Transputer" parallel computers (not on a PC!).

  • Other Prolog Variants
    There are many other Prolog dialects and systems on the market. Please Check the Prolog Resource Guide below for an exhaustive list. However, most of the are results of scientific work and not particularly designed for beginners.

Resources