Newsgroups: comp.lang.prolog
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From: Don_Ferguson@notes.pw.com (Don Ferguson)
Subject: Re: speed of prolog
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Date: Wed, 17 May 1995 18:34:05 GMT
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In article <3pam2e$9jh@chuangtsu.acns.carleton.edu> nelsonb@mathcs.carleton.edu writes:

>I have heard that prolog is fast.  Is this true?  If it is, why?  Thanks.

That's odd.  I'm always hearing that Prolog is slow, although I know better.

Of course, the language is neither slow nor fast - speed is an implementation 
issue.  Good Prolog compilers generate very fast code.  However, to take advantage 
of features like first-argument indexing, tail-recursion-optimization, 
and garbage collection, the Prolog programmer should have some understanding 
of how the language is implemented.

I'd be interested in any studies comparing the speed of Prolog execution to C 
(assuming native code compilers for both), as well as a comparisons of 
development times, and lines of code.
