Newsgroups: comp.lang.prolog
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!howland.reston.ans.net!news.sprintlink.net!EU.net!sun4nl!swi.psy.uva.nl!jan
From: jan@swi.psy.uva.nl (Jan Wielemaker)
Subject: Re: Question: Graphic extensions for Prolog
Message-ID: <D06y4q.Jqt@swi.psy.uva.nl>
Organization: Social Science Informatics
References: <BORIS.94Dec1130223@alba.dia.fi.upm.es>
Date: Fri, 2 Dec 1994 16:07:37 GMT
Lines: 57

boris@alba.dia.fi.upm.es (Manuel Carro Li~nares) writes:


>    Hi, netters. I would like to have opinions/advices about the
>following: what is the current state and trend in graphical extensions
>to Prolog?  There are some out there, but I really don't know which
>one to stick to. And I haven't tried them exhaustively, so some of the
>statements may be wrong. Of course, corrections will be welcome.

>    - The XWIP interface. C + Prolog interface to Xlib functions of X
>Windows. One has to know Xlib.

>    - Kegi, which comes with ECLiPSe. Based on XWIP?. I've heard that
>the ECRC people advises not to use it, because it won't presumably be
>supported in a future release of ECLiPSe.

>    - gmlib, bundled with Sicstus Prolog. Higher level than XWIP.
>Based on Interviews.

>    - EDIPO and Ytoolkit: interface to Xlib (edipo) and toolkit
>sources (Ytoolkit). 

>    - ProTcl: prolog interface to tcl/tk. You have to learn tcl/tk, as
>what you is to send tcl commands directy. On the other hand, tcl/tk
>seems to be easy an powerful enough for most common applications,
>despite R. Stallman public condemnation...

>    I know that BIM prolog and Quintus Prolog have graphic packages
>with them. Sorry not to include them here, but I have no information
>handy at the moment. Surely people more knowledgeable than me will be
>happy of filling this gap in.

Quintus has ProXt, which is basically an interface to libXt.  If I recall
correctly, BIM provides an interface around the same level, but extended
with a GUI builder (correct me if I'm wrong).

UvA provides XPCE, an object-oriented library that interfaces to Prolog,
Lisp and C++.  XPCE provides high-level (both for menus and graphics),
use as a class-library as well as defining new XPCE classes with their
methods.  XPCE is strong in: automatically generated menus as layout may
be specified at an abstract level, `structured' and interactive graphics
(i.e.  good for (interactive) diagrams, not for painting tools), text
handling and interprocess communication (Unix only).  There is an (alpha
status) GUI builder.

XPCE currently runs on Quintus, SICStus and SWI-Prolog (as far as the
Prologs are concerned).  It runs both on X11 and MS-Windows (latter
currently only SWI-Prolog based, see also below).

Lots of info using ftp to swi.psy.uva.nl/pub/xpce/..., where you can
also find a free demo version of XPCE/SWI-Prolog for Linux on a PC.  For
info on the academic version, contact xpce-request@swi.psy.uva.nl.
There is a commercial version called ProWindows-3/XPCE for Quintus
Prolog, currently distributed by AIIL (simon@aiil.co.uk).  Quintus USA
is negotiating to join.  Contact mark.pinone@quintus.com for details.

	Regards --- Jan
