Path: g2news1.google.com!news2.google.com!newshub.sdsu.edu!newscon04.news.prodigy.net!prodigy.net!newsdst01.news.prodigy.net!prodigy.com!postmaster.news.prodigy.com!newssvr22.news.prodigy.net.POSTED!b00a8fa8!not-for-mail From: citizen User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.8.1.2) Gecko/20070222 SeaMonkey/1.1.1 MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.prolog Subject: Re: Prolog: A Toy For Erudition References: <4634a56d$0$10616$4fafbaef@reader2.news.tin.it> <46385abc$0$17944$4fafbaef@reader1.news.tin.it> In-Reply-To: <46385abc$0$17944$4fafbaef@reader1.news.tin.it> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Lines: 55 Message-ID: <7F5_h.1$mR2.0@newssvr22.news.prodigy.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: 71.146.96.196 X-Complaints-To: abuse@prodigy.net X-Trace: newssvr22.news.prodigy.net 1178134211 ST000 71.146.96.196 (Wed, 02 May 2007 15:30:11 EDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 02 May 2007 15:30:11 EDT Organization: AT&T http://yahoo.sbc.com X-UserInfo1: OP]YRVSG\BSYC_H]]RKB_UDAZZ\DPCPDLXUNNHXIJYWZUYICD^RAQBKZQTZTX\_I[^G_KGFNON[ZOE_AZNVO^\XGGNTCIRPIJH[@RQKBXLRZ@CD^HKANYVW@RLGEZEJN@\_WZJBNZYYKVIOR]T]MNMG_Z[YVWSCH_Q[GPC_A@CARQVXDSDA^M]@DRVUM@RBM Date: Wed, 02 May 2007 12:31:01 -0700 Mauro Di Nuzzo wrote: > There is no doubt that most Prolog elements are BEYOND ME. I knew this. > Other more deludent things surprised me in these years, that I have to > accept now. These are: > > 1) I have to accept that Prolog stands for PROfessors' LOGie. > > 2) I have to accept that Prolog user community simply does not exist. > > 3) I have to accept that comp.lang.prolog is really a place where professors > display their erudition, and students do their homeworks... > > All the best to everyone! > > > Mauro Di Nuzzo > > Spot on, Mauro, and tres droll. I often think it might be better if this newsgroup were called 'comp.lang.declarative.prolog.iso'. But please don't leave! comp.lang.prolog is also a battleground and our side needs all the reinforcements we can get. I began the odyssey that eventually led me to this newsgroup long ago, as a biomedical applications Fortran programmer with some graduate training in biostatistic and epidemiology, at a time when applications programming was entirely ad hoc, and it was out of that concrete experience -- a slow, repetitive, laborious process of faithfully translating substantive biomedical questions and observations into computer programs and "input data" and faithfully translating the output back into substantive terms -- that the perspective which became second nature to me and remains to this day the perspective I try to uphold in this newsgroup was born: Maximize end-user autonomy! -- by abolishing the necessity of translating the description of a problem or a question about that problem from substantive terms into anything else at all! So, for me, ISO Prolog is only a step in that direction; it is not only not the end of the story, it is not even the end of the beginning of the story. The health of the biosphere is paramount. Ciao, billh