Books to start with Prolog

General
1

Hi all,

I intend to spend some of my spare time to learn Prolog.

From the website, I read:

For those not familiar with Prolog, we recommend to start with a Prolog textbook such as Bratko, 1986, Sterling & Shapiro, 1986 or Clocksin & Melish, 1987.

So, my questions are:

  • Are those books still valid?
  • Can you recommend one? (I can’t afford all three)
  • Is there any other place I can grab a copy other than Amazon (living in Europe)?

Kind Regards,
Carlo

2

It depends a bit on your level, but The Art of Prolog is still very good option and it has the advantage that MIT Press made it open access. You can find links to it here.

3

This seems to be the correct link: The Art of Prolog (scroll down for Open Access)

Anyway, I like The Craft of Prolog by one of the best programmers I know in any language (and I’ve worked with some very good programmers over the years) – Richard O’Keefe.

4

Yes, indeed. A problem here is that MIT Press have changed the link in the past and because of this we provide a couple of links for our students in the pages for our courses at UPM, so that is what I was pointing to.

I totally agree Peter! (Both on the book and on Richard O’Keefe’s abilities). Regarding the book itself, it is more advanced, a really good read after The Art of Prolog.

5

Thank you both.

My level is “I know just what Wikipedia says about it”, and I got fascinated.

I will prefer to grab a physical copy, so I’ll check the many shops linked.

Cheers!

6

Useful Prolog references