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000017_icon-group-sender _Mon Jul 10 13:31:34 2000.msg
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2001-01-03
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Return-Path: <icon-group-sender>
Received: (from root@localhost)
by baskerville.CS.Arizona.EDU (8.9.1a/8.9.1) id NAA04115
for icon-group-addresses; Mon, 10 Jul 2000 13:31:03 -0700 (MST)
Message-Id: <200007102031.NAA04115@baskerville.CS.Arizona.EDU>
To: gep2@terabites.com, icon-group@optima.CS.Arizona.EDU,
"Richard A. O'Keefe" <ok@atlas.otago.ac.nz>
From: "Alexandre E. Kopilovitch" <aek@vib.usr.pu.ru>
Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2000 20:22:36 +0400 (MSD)
Subject: Re: Error messages
Errors-To: icon-group-errors@optima.CS.Arizona.EDU
Status: RO
Content-Length: 1574
"Richard A. O'Keefe" <ok@atlas.otago.ac.nz> wrote:
>Seriously, the two big differences between Icon and Prolog here are
> - Icon has assignment statements, Prolog doesn't.
> - Icon looks a lot like C, Prolog doesn't.
>
> It's the other areas surrounding the project where the real
> benefits show up.
Icon vs. Prolog:
1. Notation matters.
Suppose that you have to show your Icon program to another person that have
no slightest idea about the Icon and Snobol. Surely you will have serious
difficulties trying to explain Icon syntax to a novice. At the same time,
in a similar situation with a Prolog program you will feel yourself much
better (if you were restricting yourself to the "pure Prolog", i.e. if you
did not use "clever" built-in predicates).
2. Lie backfires.
The Prolog predicates generally aren't the predicates in the mathematical
sense -- in fact, they produce not simply sets, but the ordered sets, and
a Prolog program often depends heavily on that ordering. On the contrary,
Icon use the proper name - the generators. So, Prolog tries to hide the true
nature of its major entity, while Icon exhibits it in its full power.
3. Conclusion.
If your program deals mostly with a "static" structures, i.e. unordered sets,
then Prolog has evident advantages, especially for reviewing and maintenance.
If your program is heavily "dynamic", i.e. deals with the ordered sets, then
Icon may have significant advantages, especially if the complicated ordering
are needed.
Alexander Kopilovitch aek@vib.usr.pu.ru
Saint-Petersburg
Russia