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WELCOME TO PDC PROLOG VERSION 3.2 ---------------------------------- This README file contains necessary information about PDC Prolog Version 3.2 that is not included in the documentation at this time. Please read this file in its entirety and refer to it if you have any questions. TABLE OF CONTENTS ----------------- 1. How to contact technical support 2. Installing PDC Prolog 3.2 3. Mistakes/additions to the manual 4. System limits 1. HOW TO CONTACT TECHNICAL SUPPORT ------------------------------------ If you have any problems, please read this file and the PDC Prolog manuals first. If you still have a question and need assistance, help is available from the following sources provided you are a registered user (to register, simply send in the User Registration Card enclosed, or complete the "regcard" file enclosed and send it through E-Mail): 1. Check with your local software dealer or users' group. 2. Type GO PCVENB on the CompuServe bulletin board system and access the messages/libraries as appropriate. You may also send mail to the PDC from there (see the sysop roster for correct ID). 3. Send your message through MCI MAIL to PDC-Atlanta (for North America) PDC-Copenhagen (for outside North America). 4. Write to us at the following address: In North America: Prolog Development Center 568 14th Street N.W. Atlanta, GA 30318. Outside North America Prolog Development Center, H.J. Holstvej 5A, DK - 2605 Brondby, Copenhagen, Denmark. 5. If you have an urgent problem that can't wait and you are a registered user, you may call the PDC at +1 (404) 873-1366 (PDC in Atlanta, for North America) +45 36 72 10 22 (PDC in Copenhagen, for outside North America). Please have the following information ready before calling: a. Serial number on your original distribution disk. Please have your serial number ready or we will be unable to process your call. b. Product version number. The version number is printed on the distribution disks. c. Computer brand and model, and the brands and model numbers of any additional hardware. d. Operating system and version number. (The version number can be determined by typing VER at the OS prompt.) e. Contents of your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. f. Contents of your CONFIG.SYS file. Not all of the above may be required, but it may help us to identify the origin of your problem. However, please note that it will frequently prove impossible to diagnose a problem on the telephone, for which reason written (mail or E-mail) communication is the preferred method. In any case, before contacting us, please try to isolate the problem and if possible try to see if the problem persists if the machine's configuration is changed or if the program is moved to another machine. 2. INSTALLING PDC PROLOG 3.2 ------------------------------ Simply run the "install" program. This runs in both real mode (DOS) and protected mode (OS/2). You will then be prompted for the name of the directory in which to install the PDC Prolog system; if requested, the installation program will create the directory for you. From there on, follow the prompts to install the parts of the system and example programs you want. The installation program tells you how much disk space is needed for each component. If you install everything, you will end up with the following directory setup (assuming you specified installation in a directory named c:\psys): c:\psys\ Main directory, containing compiler(s), libraries(s) and associated files. c:\psys\include\ Header files, defining compile-time constants. c:\psys\foreign\tc\ Turbo C interface. c:\psys\foreign\msc\ Microsoft C interface. c:\psys\foreign\msc2\ Microsoft C interface for OS/2 (OS/2 only). c:\psys\bgi\ BGI drivers and library. c:\psys\programs\ Various demonstration programs. c:\psys\programs\pie\ Prolog Inference Engine (C&M in PDC Prolog) c:\psys\programs\pipes\ Message pipes (OS/2 only). c:\psys\programs\register\ External database system. c:\psys\answers\ Answers to exercises. c:\psys\examples\ Examples from the User's Guide. c:\psys\refexamp\ Examples from the Reference Guide. SPECIAL NOTE FOR THE OS/2 VERSION: As PDC Prolog includes standard predicates directly accessing hardware ports, the OS/2 version requires Input/Output privileges. If you get the message SYS0197: Microsoft Operating System/2 is not presently configured to run this application. when you start the Prolog system, it means your OS/2 is not configured to allow this. In that case, add a line of the form IOPL=YES to the "config.sys" file in the root of drive C and reboot the system. The OS/2 linker is executed as a child process by the PDC Prolog system when you compile to an executable file, and the Prolog system automatically supplies it with the linker definition file called "link2.def" from the Prolog system's home directory. However, if you create a program containing calls to the "port_byte" standard predicate, you need to tell the linker that parts of the program require IOPL. In this case, replace the contents of "link2.def" with the contents of "linkiopl.def", also found in the Prolog system's home directory. 3. CHANGES, CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS TO THE MANUALS ----------------------------------------------------- The default keyboard setup is PROLOG.CFG, which by and large is compatible with Turbo Prolog 2.0. However, we have provided two other setups-- MULTMATE.CFG, which is compatible with MultiMate, and SPRINT.CFG, which is compatible with Sprint. Feel free to use whichever you like, but note that the Sprint setup is by far the most consistent and coherent. Therefore, it's recommended that new users (and also users of previous versions, for that matter) use this one rather than either of the other two. Regrettably, the BRIEF-compatible setup mentioned in the manual could not be realized in this version. ---------- stlnremove as described in the User's Guide is not implemented in the system. Predicates like "edit" will instead remove the status line themselves. Be aware that status lines are now turned on by default in an .EXE, but this can be turned off with the "stlnstatus/1" predicate. ---------- The appendix on changes from previous versions does not mention the C interface. Compilation should now be done with underbars on, and linking is rather different. You should see the separate chapter on foreign language interface as well as the FOREIGN subdirectory distributed with the system. However, please note that an extra parameter (not described in the manual) is required on the DOS versions of the main initialization function. See the files 'tcmain.c' and/or 'mscmain.c' in the foreign\tc and foreign\msc subdirectories, respectively. ---------- If there are duplicates in a B+ tree, key_search(i,i,i,i) (i.e., where both the key and the ref are input arguments) will find an arbitrary match (though note that in this case duplicates means same key AND same ref), while key_search(i,i,i,o) will find the first match. ---------- The first application key in the Integrated Environment is defined as Paste prototype (Ctrl-F1 in PROLOG.CFG). ---------- Edit paste buffer is implemented for the editor. The assigned key can be inspected under the "Miscellaneous" entry in the editor popup menu. ---------- Searching (in the editor) is now case-insensitive. ---------- A new standard predicate, "setfilesize(File)" (not documented in the manual), allows explicit truncation or expansion of an open file, by setting its physical allocation to the current position of the file pointer. It has two posiible run-time errors (in addition to errors originating from the OS): 1103 Attempt to assign output device to a file that is not in writemode. 1104 The file isn't open. ---------- Note that when executing in a text-moded Presentation Manager window in OS/2, Ctrl-Break has no effect; use Ctrl-C instead. This problem stems from PM, not the Prolog system. Also note that, if executing the DOS version in the DOS box in OS/2, Ctrl-Break may hang the entire machine and you may be unable to switch back to OS/2. Workaround: If you're running OS/2, use the OS/2 version. ---------- It may be a bit confusing that the keyboard setup menu has entries for "Save file", "Load file" and "Pick file" in two different submenus. The reason is that these keys appear both in the "Files" pull-down menu and as global hot keys working everywhere in the integrated environment. In generated .EXE files only the "Files" menu is present. ---------- The Files/New menu choice will not ask for a new file name, but instead start with an empty text. ---------- The "GOTO LINE" and "GOTO POSITION" editor functions allow the numbers to be terminated by a normal carriage return. ---------- Error messages for "readdevice" in the Reference Guide should be: 1102 Attempt to assign input device to a file that is not in readmode. 1104 The file isn't open. ---------- Error messages for "writedevice" in the Reference Guide should be: 1103 Attempt to assign output device to a file that is not in writemode. 1104 The file isn't open. ---------- The manual incorrectly states that the predicate "existfile" will give a run-time error if the file name includes a nonexistent path. This is not the case; existfile will fail if either the file itself or the path doesn't exist. ---------- Flushing a printer will always close and reopen it. This is in order to force a true flush when printer output is spooled, either locally or through a network. On the other hand, closing or opening the standard printer ("LPT1" or "PRN", handle 4) currently has no effect in DOS. In this connection, it should be observed that users of previous versions who have used a hack to get at the real file handle for Prolog files are in for a surprise. Although the same code will work, flushing a file on DOS versions less than 3.30 causes the file to be closed and reopened in the same position. There is, therefore, no guarantee that the file handle for a particular Prolog file remains the same after a call to the "flush" standard predicate. ---------- The manual incorrectly states that this file contains information regarding extended screen text modes selectable from the integrated environment. However, all relevant information is found in the Reference Guide. ---------- The procedure described in the manual for generating a Microsoft-compatible Prolog library is not needed any more. Both DOS and OS/2 Prolog libraries are compatible with both TLINK and LINK. ---------- The manual incorrectly states that the standard predicate "osversion" strips leading and trailing zeroes. This is not the case; the operating system version returned by the OS is converted AS IS to a string representation. ---------- For command-line compilation there is a link-only option implemented as: prolog -cl FileName ---------- The biggest database number you can use in the predicate "str_ref" is ~3FFFFFF. Otherwise the predicate will complain about an invalid value. ---------- If you use Microsoft C you have to use the BYTE alignment option (-Zp1). Please see the example under FOREIGN\MSC. ---------- As opposed to the previous versions, the dialog window uses the editor rather than a fancy line-input routine, and you should use PASTE to recall the previous goal. You can also use the cursor keys to go back and re-enter previous goals. You should note that the editor is entered in word-wrapping mode. ---------- New predicates for handling the cursor are: cursorsync: Following "foreign" update of the cursor (e.g., when redirecting output to stdout), the Prolog system has no way of knowing that the cursor has moved, and will hence write new prompts, etc., in the wrong place. Calling cursorsync will synchronize the Prolog system's cursor to wherever the cursor is on screen, but, if the new position is outside the current window, it will be forced inside. cursorstate(on/off): Normally the Prolog System turns the cursor on and off automatically, whenever needed. However, calling cursorstate(off) turns the cursor permanently off, and it remains under manual control until cursorstate(on) is called, putting the cursor control back into "automatic" mode. Note that you assume all responsibility for displaying the cursor at the correct time if you turn it off. cursorstate(on) may be called at any time, also without being preceded by a call to cursorstate(off). In that case, it has the effect of synchronizing the OS cursor with Prolog's cursor. ---------- In addition to the "edit/16" standard predicate, there is a new "edit/20" predicate (not described in the manual) where the extra parameters after those applying to edit/16 are: integer EscOnCr % 1 means carriage return will terminate editor integer FileOperations % 0 means the file menu operations will be inactive string Help % Allows extra information to be popped up string StatLine % Status line ---------- There is a new standard predicate to set the text in the editor application key menu, called "applicationkey(KeyNo,String)", where KeyNo >= 1 and KeyNo <= 8 and the length of the string <= 20. ---------- There are special programming errors that can cause Prolog programs to crash the computer under DOS and cause a protection violation under OS/2. These are: - Mixing up the global declarations in a project. - Using different domains for storing and retrieving terms for the external database or in the OS/2 message system. - Referring to invalid database reference numbers. - Accessing nonexistent memory in memword, membyte and ptr_dword. If you experience a problem, you should make sure you haven't fallen foul of any of these, or the final one: Do not use term_delete on the ref following a ref returned by chain_terms. chain_terms is nondeterministic, and doing so will invalidate the entry chain_terms would return when backtracked into. The result is a run-time error or, at worst, a protection violation in OS/2. ---------- Finally, see the NEWS.PRO example in the programs subdirectory for a quick demonstration of many of the new features. 4. SYSTEM LIMITS ------------------- The limits shown apply to both DOS and OS/2, unless otherwise indicated. Compilation: Domains in a single source module (including database domains) : 228 Alternatives in a domain declaration: 250 Subgoals in a clause: 100 (OS/2: 250) Clauses in a predicate 400 (OS/2: 1,000) Database predicates in a database section: 250 Local variables, including arguments, in a clause: 250 Arguments to a predicate or domain alternative: 50 Length of identifiers: 250 Length of constant strings in source code: 250 Left-hand alternatives in a domain declaration: 20 Total number of include files: 50 Nesting of conditional compilation: 25 Predicates in a single source module, incl. all flow variants: 674 (OS/2: 2,735) At run-time there are many different limits, often dependent upon system resources, which may vary from time to time. The most important are outlined below. Windows: 50 (OS/2: 100) Files: OS limit / domain alternatives(250). unreadchar (internal kbd buffer): 127 readln (length of input line in kbd mode): 250 Memory DOS: available memory. OS/2: available memory / swap space, with the additional limits of GStack: No more than 2,000 segments (the size of each may vary) Heap : No more than 2,000 segments (each with gross size 64K, suballocated as far as possible) Trail : 64K Stack : 64K