• War between Scryer Prolog and Ciao Prolog [9:0 Triska vsHermenegildo] (Was: Who will win the new Prolog race? SWI or Scryer?)

    From Mild Shock@janburse@fastmail.fm to comp.lang.prolog on Wed Nov 19 12:49:29 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.lang.prolog

    Hi,

    This wasn't clear to me. That there is a
    veritable war going on between Scryer Prolog
    and Ciao Prolog. One protagonist

    being Markus Triska, famous by the "Power
    of Prolog", and the other protagonist Manuel
    V. Hermenegildo somehow backed by the

    Prolog education group (PEG) and SWI ? So who
    will win the war, and exercise world domaninance
    in constraint logic programming, based

    on bogus notions such as "pure Prolog", which
    are inherently inconsistent? The war is
    mainly fought over teaching materials distributed,

    less over tangible systems and applications.
    Currently I would say the clear winner is
    Markus Triska with 9 adoptions:

    - As of 2018, Norbert Zeh
    - As of 2018, Andrej Bauer
    - As of 2018, José A. Alonso Jiménez
    - As of 2019, Adam Dingle
    - As of 2019, Dylan Schwesinger
    - As of 2020, Andrea Schwertner Charão
    - As of 2020, Alejandro Guerra Hernández
    - As of 2021, Ilkka Kokkarinen
    - As of 2025, Wang-Zhou Dai
    https://github.com/triska/the-power-of-prolog

    So it currently stands at 9:0 for Triska
    vs Hermenegildo.

    Bye

    Mild Shock schrieb:
    Hi,

    Who will win the new Prolog race?
    SWI or Scryer? Is it enough that SWI-Prolog
    has teamed up with Ciao Prolog?

    What about resources that really can
    code a Prolog systems. SWI-Prolog is
    now doomed to have professional moron

    Julio Di Egidio on board. Not sure whether
    he will ever become a heavy committer to
    SWI-Prolog source. But who knows, we should

    also give Julio Di Egidio a chance. My
    gut feeling at the moment:

    - SWI-Prolog:
      Pull Requests 10 Open / 560 Closed

    - Scryer Prolog:
      Pull Requests 40 Open / 751 Closed

    In the past I would measure active committers.
    But the new "liveness" indicator of a Prolog
    system could be indeed Pull Requests.

    So who will win?

    P.S.: Data sources:

    https://github.com/mthom/scryer-prolog/pulls

    https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/swipl-devel/pulls


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  • From Mild Shock@janburse@fastmail.fm to comp.lang.prolog on Wed Nov 19 13:11:12 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.lang.prolog

    Hi,

    I suspect that this war will be as bloody
    and useless as the Thirty Years war, that
    ravaged Europe. The victimes will be students

    that learn useless stuff, because a narrow view
    of logic is offered. Not to speak of the
    dangerous nonsense of "pure Prolog", adding

    an adjective from "logic", i.e. pure to
    a thing from "computation", i.e. Prolog. Extensions
    such as Liquid Haskell or Tabled Constraints,

    are as useless as well. Except if you think
    your knowledge and reasoning fits into
    generalized facts, as we have already studied

    40 years ago based on my own ProQuel:

    "Following [KKR90], we call an implication of the
    form A <- c_1, & .. & C_n, (n > 0) where A is a
    user-defined atom and the ci are atomic constraints
    a generalized fact (generalized tuple). In order
    to emphasize the special nature of generalized facts,
    we will in the following often use the notation
    < A | C1, ..., Cn>" https://www.research-collection.ethz.ch/entities/publication/43d19c38-122f-43d7-a8df-82e001e55075

    Have Fun everybody!

    Bye

    P.S.: Just make a reality check from modern
    AI. How large is a context. Is a context a
    generalized fact, or a collection of generalizd
    facts? Or maybe something else? What is it?

    How long will the generalized facts idea be at the party?

    Databases and Higher Types
    It maybe of interest that I did not get into this
    line of work from the database side. I began with
    attempts to treat various classic philosophical problems
    as simply as possible in a modal context, work culminating
    in [4]. This, in turn, led to an interest in higher
    type modal logics, connected with a desire to understand
    Godel's ontological argument. My work on this can be found in.
    Databases came in, unnoticed, by a side door. But they
    are at the party, and it may be they will have a good time https://www.researchgate.net/publication/225181835

    But the above is possibly too benevolent, should
    be challenged by AI, and especially by generative AI.

    Mild Shock schrieb:
    Hi,

    This wasn't clear to me. That there is a
    veritable war going on between Scryer Prolog
    and Ciao Prolog. One protagonist

    being Markus Triska, famous by the "Power
    of Prolog", and the other protagonist Manuel
    V. Hermenegildo somehow backed by the

    Prolog education group (PEG) and SWI ? So who
    will win the war, and exercise world domaninance
    in constraint logic programming, based

    on bogus notions such as "pure Prolog", which
    are inherently inconsistent? The war is
    mainly fought over teaching materials distributed,

    less over tangible systems and applications.
    Currently I would say the clear winner is
    Markus Triska with 9 adoptions:

    - As of 2018, Norbert Zeh
    - As of 2018, Andrej Bauer
    - As of 2018, José A. Alonso Jiménez
    - As of 2019, Adam Dingle
    - As of 2019, Dylan Schwesinger
    - As of 2020, Andrea Schwertner Charão
    - As of 2020, Alejandro Guerra Hernández
    - As of 2021, Ilkka Kokkarinen
    - As of 2025, Wang-Zhou Dai
    https://github.com/triska/the-power-of-prolog

    So it currently stands at 9:0 for Triska
    vs Hermenegildo.

    Bye

    Mild Shock schrieb:
    Hi,

    Who will win the new Prolog race?
    SWI or Scryer? Is it enough that SWI-Prolog
    has teamed up with Ciao Prolog?

    What about resources that really can
    code a Prolog systems. SWI-Prolog is
    now doomed to have professional moron

    Julio Di Egidio on board. Not sure whether
    he will ever become a heavy committer to
    SWI-Prolog source. But who knows, we should

    also give Julio Di Egidio a chance. My
    gut feeling at the moment:

    - SWI-Prolog:
       Pull Requests 10 Open / 560 Closed

    - Scryer Prolog:
       Pull Requests 40 Open / 751 Closed

    In the past I would measure active committers.
    But the new "liveness" indicator of a Prolog
    system could be indeed Pull Requests.

    So who will win?

    P.S.: Data sources:

    https://github.com/mthom/scryer-prolog/pulls

    https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/swipl-devel/pulls



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  • From Mild Shock@janburse@fastmail.fm to comp.lang.prolog on Mon Nov 24 15:22:38 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.lang.prolog

    Hi,

    Pitty SWI cannot throw Markus Triska out of
    their discourse forum or out of the awful
    PIP forum also on discourse. He is not present there.

    I am pretty sure they would do it if they
    could, they are so desparate. The newest
    gimmick in their fight is this pearl of warfare:

    Our prototype has been implemented in SWI Prolog,
    and we have already tested this early-stage system
    with potential clients such as Siemens China and
    Shell India. Comparison between Prolog systems as
    input for the upcoming conference https://github.com/mthom/scryer-prolog/discussions/3150

    LoL, nice try Dutchies. But who believes this
    inbreed nonsense. Why not compare with some
    industrial strength C++ constraint solver?

    And what does Shell India even mean? Historically
    it has its roots indeed with the Dutchies:

    formerly known as "the Royal Dutch Company for
    the Exploitation of Petroleum Wells in
    the Dutch East Indies"
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_plc

    But I suspect its an international company
    with head quarters in London. According to
    MarketScreener, about 52.95% of Shell is
    held by “Institutional” investors.

    Geographical Distribution (by Country) of
    Major Shareholders. Based on MarketScreener’s
    breakdown of the top ~1,000 shareholders:

    United States ~23.6%
    United Kingdom ~17.5%
    Norway ~3.28%
    Switzerland ~1.56%
    Canada ~1.46%
    Germany ~1.06%

    According to MarketScreener’s breakdown of
    Shell’s top ~1,000 shareholders, India is
    not listed explicitly in their “geographical
    origin of shareholders” chart.

    MarketScreener reports that ~44–45% of
    Shell’s shares (within their top-1,000-holder
    data set) are “Unknown” — meaning they can’t
    clearly map them to a specific
    institution or geography.

    Because of that, even if some Indian investors
    hold Shell shares, they may be lumped into
    the “unknown” category if they aren’t among
    the largest disclosed institutional holders,
    or if their holdings are registered through
    nominee accounts / omnibus custodians.

    Bye

    P.S.: Just be happy to get called Dutchies:

    "Be happy they call you Dutchies, usually
    we Easter Europeans get called Alocoholics
    or thieves around these regions lol" https://www.reddit.com/r/Netherlands/comments/1ehqy3a/calling_us_dutch_people_dutchies/


    Mild Shock schrieb:
    Hi,

    Who will win the new Prolog race?
    SWI or Scryer? Is it enough that SWI-Prolog
    has teamed up with Ciao Prolog?

    What about resources that really can
    code a Prolog systems. SWI-Prolog is
    now doomed to have professional moron

    Julio Di Egidio on board. Not sure whether
    he will ever become a heavy committer to
    SWI-Prolog source. But who knows, we should

    also give Julio Di Egidio a chance. My
    gut feeling at the moment:

    - SWI-Prolog:
      Pull Requests 10 Open / 560 Closed

    - Scryer Prolog:
      Pull Requests 40 Open / 751 Closed

    In the past I would measure active committers.
    But the new "liveness" indicator of a Prolog
    system could be indeed Pull Requests.

    So who will win?

    P.S.: Data sources:

    https://github.com/mthom/scryer-prolog/pulls

    https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/swipl-devel/pulls


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  • From Mild Shock@janburse@fastmail.fm to comp.lang.prolog on Mon Nov 24 15:41:56 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.lang.prolog

    Hi,

    There was this caboom when SWI7 introduced
    dicts. But at the same time Markus Triska (Side B)
    stopped contributing to SWI (Side A) ?

    Side A now stands at a precarious crossroads,
    its future hinging on innovations whose success
    is far from guaranteed. The irony is striking:
    the very battle consuming its attention is fought

    over familiar, time-tested techniques,
    while the exotic approaches that once promised
    differentiation remain unproven. Compounding
    the dilemma, one of Side A’s original core

    developers—who helped shape its early trajectory—
    is now contributing to Side B’s efforts,
    carrying insight and experience that subtly
    tilt the balance. The technical debt that

    arose from earlier choices to diverge from
    standard practices or established collaborations
    is still manageable, yet it lingers like a
    quiet undercurrent, shaping both strategy

    and execution. This is a story of ambition and
    ingenuity, but also of hubris: of how the
    pursuit of the novel and exotic can, paradoxically,
    leave an organization vulnerable, even as it bets

    on a future that may or may not arrive.
    - ChatGPT, 24.11.2025

    Bye

    Mild Shock schrieb:
    Hi,

    Pitty SWI cannot throw Markus Triska out of
    their discourse forum or out of the awful
    PIP forum also on discourse. He is not present there.

    I am pretty sure they would do it if they
    could, they are so desparate. The newest
    gimmick in their fight is this pearl of warfare:

    Our prototype has been implemented in SWI Prolog,
    and we have already tested this early-stage system
    with potential clients such as Siemens China and
    Shell India. Comparison between Prolog systems as
    input for the upcoming conference https://github.com/mthom/scryer-prolog/discussions/3150

    LoL, nice try Dutchies. But who believes this
    inbreed nonsense. Why not compare with some
    industrial strength C++ constraint solver?

    And what does Shell India even mean? Historically
    it has its roots indeed with the Dutchies:

    formerly known as "the Royal Dutch Company for
    the Exploitation of Petroleum Wells in
    the Dutch East Indies"
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_plc

    But I suspect its an international company
    with head quarters in London. According to
    MarketScreener, about 52.95% of Shell is
    held by “Institutional” investors.

    Geographical Distribution (by Country) of
    Major Shareholders. Based on MarketScreener’s
    breakdown of the top ~1,000 shareholders:

    United States    ~23.6%
    United Kingdom    ~17.5%
    Norway    ~3.28%
    Switzerland    ~1.56%
    Canada    ~1.46%
    Germany    ~1.06%

    According to MarketScreener’s breakdown of
    Shell’s top ~1,000 shareholders, India is
    not listed explicitly in their “geographical
    origin of shareholders” chart.

    MarketScreener reports that ~44–45% of
    Shell’s shares (within their top-1,000-holder
    data set) are “Unknown” — meaning they can’t
    clearly map them to a specific
    institution or geography.

    Because of that, even if some Indian investors
    hold Shell shares, they may be lumped into
    the “unknown” category if they aren’t among
    the largest disclosed institutional holders,
    or if their holdings are registered through
    nominee accounts / omnibus custodians.

    Bye

    P.S.: Just be happy to get called Dutchies:

    "Be happy they call you Dutchies, usually
    we Easter Europeans get called Alocoholics
    or thieves around these regions lol" https://www.reddit.com/r/Netherlands/comments/1ehqy3a/calling_us_dutch_people_dutchies/



    Mild Shock schrieb:
    Hi,

    Who will win the new Prolog race?
    SWI or Scryer? Is it enough that SWI-Prolog
    has teamed up with Ciao Prolog?

    What about resources that really can
    code a Prolog systems. SWI-Prolog is
    now doomed to have professional moron

    Julio Di Egidio on board. Not sure whether
    he will ever become a heavy committer to
    SWI-Prolog source. But who knows, we should

    also give Julio Di Egidio a chance. My
    gut feeling at the moment:

    - SWI-Prolog:
       Pull Requests 10 Open / 560 Closed

    - Scryer Prolog:
       Pull Requests 40 Open / 751 Closed

    In the past I would measure active committers.
    But the new "liveness" indicator of a Prolog
    system could be indeed Pull Requests.

    So who will win?

    P.S.: Data sources:

    https://github.com/mthom/scryer-prolog/pulls

    https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/swipl-devel/pulls



    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Mild Shock@janburse@fastmail.fm to comp.lang.prolog on Mon Nov 24 21:27:19 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.lang.prolog

    Hi,

    Simple test case, indirect permutation:

    /* SWI-Tinker 32 bits, version 9.3.35 */
    % 127,767,777 inferences, 4.456 CPU in 4.456 seconds
    (100% CPU, 28673199 Lips)
    true.

    Ok a bit slower, but no WASM, only JavaScript!

    /* Dogelog Player 2.1.4 for JavaScript */
    % Zeit 4705 ms, GC 0 ms, Lips 10386607

    TinyCLP is written in 100% Prolog, LoL.

    Bye

    P.S.: I can also beat it on 64-bit:

    /* SWI-Prolog threaded, 64 bits, version 9.3.35 */
    ?- time(test).
    % 127,670,227 inferences, 2.031 CPU in 2.042 seconds
    (99% CPU, 62853035 Lips)
    true.

    /* Dogelog Player 2.1.4 for Java */
    ?- time(test).
    % Zeit 1567 ms, GC 0 ms, Lips 31186335
    true.

    P.S.: This was the test case:

    :- use_module(library(clpfd)).

    test :-
    length(L, 9),
    L ins 1..9,
    all_different(L),
    label(L),
    fail.
    test.

    Mild Shock schrieb:
    Hi,

    There was this caboom when SWI7 introduced
    dicts. But at the same time Markus Triska (Side B)
    stopped contributing to SWI (Side A) ?

    Side A now stands at a precarious crossroads,
    its future hinging on innovations whose success
    is far from guaranteed. The irony is striking:
    the very battle consuming its attention is fought

    over familiar, time-tested techniques,
    while the exotic approaches that once promised
    differentiation remain unproven. Compounding
    the dilemma, one of Side A’s original core

    developers—who helped shape its early trajectory—
    is now contributing to Side B’s efforts,
    carrying insight and experience that subtly
    tilt the balance. The technical debt that

    arose from earlier choices to diverge from
    standard practices or established collaborations
    is still manageable, yet it lingers like a
    quiet undercurrent, shaping both strategy

    and execution. This is a story of ambition and
    ingenuity, but also of hubris: of how the
    pursuit of the novel and exotic can, paradoxically,
    leave an organization vulnerable, even as it bets

    on a future that may or may not arrive.
    - ChatGPT, 24.11.2025

    Bye


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  • From Mild Shock@janburse@fastmail.fm to comp.lang.prolog on Fri Jan 30 02:10:50 2026
    From Newsgroup: comp.lang.prolog

    Hi,

    Sometimes my new Railgun CLP for Dogelog
    Player is blazing fast. Like here:

    ?- time((euler(_), fail; true)).
    % Zeit 1ms, GC 0ms, Lips 6675k
    true.

    ?- euler(_L), maplist(deref, _L, R).
    R = [3, 7, 1];
    R = [1, 5, 3];
    fail.

    Compare to Scryer Prolog:

    /* Scryer Prolog 0.10 */
    ?- time((euler(_), fail; true)).
    % CPU time: 0.203s, 326_594 inferences
    true.
    ?- euler(L).
    L = [1,5,3]
    ; L = [3,7,1]
    ; false.

    The test case:

    /**
    * find 3 non-zero digits such
    * that the number equals the cube sum:
    *
    * 371 = 3^3 + 7^3 + 1^3
    * 153 = 1^3 + 5^3 + 3^3
    */

    % euler(-List)
    euler(L) :-
    L = [X,Y,Z],
    L ins 1..9,
    100*X+10*Y+Z #= X*X*X+Y*Y*Y+Z*Z*Z,
    labeling([ff], L).

    Similar problem to:
    https://math.berkeley.edu/~elafandi/euler/p30/

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