Warren's abstract machine
by Hassan Aït-Kaci · first published 1991
63% recommend38% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Tutorial walkthrough of how the Warren Abstract Machine works, valued for making Prolog implementation internals understandable; suits anyone building or studying a Prolog or logic programming system.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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…http://www.mtome.com/Publications/PNLA/pnla-digital.html - The Craft of Prolog by Richard O'Keefe is a must to learn writing correct efficient Prolog code. Many eye-openers. http://www.amazon.com/Craft-Prolog-Logic-Programming/dp/0262... - Warren's Abstract Machine: A Tutorial Reconstruction by Hassan Ait-Kaci is a thorough overview of David Warren's abstract machine for executing of Prolog code. Since modern Prolog implementations are often based on WAM, it helps…
on “A Short Introduction to Prolog” ↗Re: Prolog implementation, in case you haven't already found it, the book Warren's Abstract Machine: A Tutorial Reconstruction, by Hassan Aït-Kaci, is pure gold for understanding the WAM. http://web.archive.org/web/20030213072337/http://www.vanx.or...
on “Who killed Prolog?” ↗For a really nice explanation of the Warren Abstract Machine, see "Warren's Abstract Machine: A Tutorial Reconstruction" by Hassan Aït-Kaci: http://wambook.sourceforge.net
on “The Birth of Prolog (1992) [pdf]” ↗The closest thing that I know of is "Warren's Abstract Machine: A Tutorial Reconstruction" by Hassan Aït-Kaci. It's out of print but available as a PDF at http://wambook.sourceforge.net
on “The birth of Prolog (1992) [pdf]” ↗Classic? SICP and PAIP are the only two I'd really consider classic. The Reasoned Schemer is 2005 and is IMO the most important introductory text on relational programming since Warren's Abstract Machine: A Tutorial Reconstruction. ~200 lines of Scheme and you have something as fast Prologs written in 150K of C. I don't consider Art of the Metaobject Protocol to be introductory or conceptual. Alan Kay…
on “The myth of the Lisp genius” ↗…reasoning engine (and if you're going to implement a reasoning system, its probably worth going through the WAM Book over a weekend, search Google for wambook.pdf, its a publicly released book with the title "Warren's Abstract Machine: A Tutorial Reconstruction". The harder ones are inductive and abductive reasoners, which I'm not aware of any opensource ones only old papers that all do little tiny bits. A lot of deductive reasoners…
on “The IDP Knowledge Base System” ↗…tanked mainly because Prolog just couldn't deliver. Yes, I had fun with SWI Prolog and 2nd order abstractions, but in no way I am going to use it on large problems, though I might implement pieces of Warren's Abstract Machine when I see fit.
on “An Intro to Integer Programming for Engineers: Simplified Bus Scheduling” ↗…there imo). Uses some metaprogramming that is usually not covered in introductory material (and often considered "use with care") i.e. dynamically updating code with assert/retract I have only browsed "Warren's Abstract Machine: A Tutorial Reconstruction" but it's on my to read list. Interesting for anyone that enjoys VM-design and the like.
on “Functional programming books review” ↗Microkanren et al are nice! But it is becoming sort of a mono-culture where other approaches get ignored. Before Microkanren, the rite of passage for logic programming was to build a Prolog using Warren's Abstract Machine (WAM). https://direct.mit.edu/books/monograph/4253/Warren-s-Abstrac...
on “Implementing Logic Programming” ↗