Poll of Prolog Use

Appeared in Volume 6/4, November 1993

Keywords: usage.

vanroy@prl.dec.com
Peter Van Roy
17th August 1993

In June, I set out to poll Prolog use in the comp.lang.prolog newsgroup.

This summarizes the responses I got from two questions: which Prolog system(s) are you currently using seriously, and which system(s) did you ever use seriously or are you planning on using. Some people using other logic languages (committed-choice, constraints, etc) responded; their replies are kept.

I received a total of 240 language responses (usually more than one per person). Because of the small sample size and the self-selected sample, the results should be taken with a few grains of salt. The results are given in random order.

To avoid any conflict of interest, no-one involved in the implementation responded for Aquarius Prolog or Wild_Life.

1. Currently using seriously

Very popular (>10 responses): SICStus Prolog.

Moderately popular (about 5 responses): Quintus Prolog, IF/Prolog.

Slightly popular (>1 response): ECLiPSe, Goedel, Wild_Life, Open Prolog, SWI Prolog.

Mentioned (sometimes by the system's author!): IBM Prolog 1.2 (for 370), Muse, Aurora, ALS Prolog, Megalog, Coral, KL1 PDSS, Turbo/PDC Prolog, AKL, CLP(R), Delphia Prolog, Prolog III, BIM Prolog, SB-Prolog (Acorn), JAM Parallel Parlog, FGHC (Meiko), Arity Prolog, MacProlog 4.5, LAURE 3.0, Subset Equational Language Version 2, NU Prolog, SEPIA, Lambda Prolog (MALI), CHIP, Bin Prolog.

2. Ever used seriously or planning on using

Very popular: SICStus Prolog, Quintus Prolog, C-Prolog.

Moderately popular: Turbo/PDC Prolog, MU Prolog, NU Prolog, LPA Prolog, IF/Prolog, SEPIA, DEC-10 Prolog, CLP(R), SWI Prolog, Arity Prolog, SB-Prolog, Bin Prolog, Prolog II.

Slightly popular: AAIS Prolog, Open Prolog, BNR Prolog, Edinburgh Prolog (NIP), JAM Parallel Parlog, ALP MacProlog, ECLiPSe, Aquarius Prolog, Parlog, Poplog, Micro-Prolog, LPA+Parlog, IBM Prolog.

Mentioned (sometimes by the system's author!): Prolog-I PC, Muse Aurora, Prolog-KR (In Lisp), Expert Systems Ltd. Prolog, E.S.L. Prolog 2, XPro Prolog, ALS Prolog, ZYX Prolog (Mac), PDSS, LDL, Prolog 2, LM-Prolog, DECProlog (DEC 2060), VN-Prolog, LPA+Parlog++, L&O, Delphia Prolog, Prolog III, Humbroldt Prolog (Acorn), Prolog X (Acorn), BIM Prolog, Planner-like (in Lisp), IC-Prolog, Waterloo Prolog, M-Prolog, Prolog Professional (LPA), SPM Prolog, PC-Parlog, PCN, OPAQUE, (homebrew), Concurrent Prolog, Flat Concurrent Prolog, KCM-SEPIA, ElipSys, Strand-88, ECRC-Prolog, ICM-Prolog (minimal system), Quintec Prolog, Modula-Prolog, AIS Prolog, UNIX Prolog, Goedel, CHIP, Salix Prolog (Atari), VIP, PD-Prolog, VM - MVS Programming in Logic, UNSW Prolog.