22/04/2021 SWI-Prolog for MS-Windows

SWI-Prolog for MS-Windows

Jan Wielemaker
VU University Amsterdam
University of Amsterdam
The Netherlands
E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract
This document gets you started using SWI-Prolog on MS-Windows. It also describes
the components and issues that are specific to MS-Windows. It is by no means a
manual or Prolog tutorial. The reference manual is available online or can be
downloaded in HTML and PDF format from the http://www.swi-prolog.org/SWI-
Prolog website , which also provides links to books, online tutorials and other
Prolog-related material.

Table of Contents
1 Using SWI-Prolog
1.1 Starting Prolog and loading a program
1.2 Executing a query
1.3 Menu commands
1.4 Editing Prolog programs
1.5 Some useful commands
2 Using SWI-Prolog with C/C++
2.1 Using MSVC
2.2 Using swipl-ld.exe
3 The installation
3.1 Supported Windows versions
3.2 Choosing the file extension
3.3 Installed programs
3.4 Installed Registry keys and menus
3.5 Execution level
3.6 Creating a desktop menu item
4 The SWI-Prolog community and foundation
4.1 Website and mailing lists
4.2 About license conditions
4.3 Supporting SWI-Prolog

1 Using SWI-Prolog
1.1 Starting Prolog and loading a program
The SWI-Prolog executable swipl-win.exe can be started from the StartMenu or by opening a file holding
Prolog program text from the Windows explorer..pl1 The installation folder (by default ) contains a
subfolder with the file . This file can be opened in Prolog from the StartMenu, by opening in the Windows
explorer or by using the following command in the Prolog application. Be sure to get the quotes right and
terminate the command with a full stop (). C:\Program Files\swipldemolikes.pllikes.pl.

?- [swi('demo/likes')].
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If Prolog is started from the start menu it is passed the option , which causes it to start in the local equivalent
of . This folder is created if it does not exist. --win_appMyDocuments\Prolog

1.2 Executing a query

After loading a program, one can ask Prolog queries about the program. The query below asks Prolog what
food `sam' likes. The system responds with if it can prove the goal for a certain . The user can type the semi-
colon (;) or spacebar. If you want another solution. Use the key if you do not want to see the more
answers. Prolog completes the output a full stop (.) if the user uses the key or Prolog knowns there
are no more answers. If Prolog cannot find (more) answers, it writes false. Finally, Prolog can answer using
an error message to indicate the query or program contains an error. X = <value>X

?- likes(sam, X).
X = dahl ;
X = tandoori ;
...
X = chips.

?-

Note that the answer written by Prolog is a valid Prolog program that, when executed, produces the same set
of answers as the original program.

1.3 Menu commands

The SWI-Prolog console provided by swipl-win.exe has a menu for accessing the most commonly used
commands. We assume not all menu entries need to be explained in detail. We make some exceptions:

File/Reload modified files

This menu reloads all loaded source files that have been modified using the make/0 command
described in section 1.5.

File/Navigator ...
Opens an explorer-like view on Prolog files and the predicates they contain.

Settings/Font ...
Allows for changing the font of the console. On some installations the default font gives redraw and
cursor dislocation problems. In this case you may wish to select an alternative. Some built-in
commands assume non-proportional fonts.

Settings/User init file ...

Edits the user personalisation file. If no such file exists, it first installs a default file as that contains
commonly used settings in comments.swipl.ini

Settings/Stack sizes ...

Allows for defining the maximum size to which the various Prolog stacks are allowed to grow. The
system defaults are chosen to make erroneous programs fail quickly on modest hardware. Programs
with large data structures or many choice points often need larger stacks. Note that an active Prolog
process growing over the size of the physical memory of your computer can make the system
extremely slow.

Run/Interrupt
Try to interrupt the running Prolog process. This is the same as using Control-C. Sometimes interrupts
are not honoured or take very long to process. Closing the window twice provides a way to force
Prolog to stop.

Run/New thread

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Creates a new interactor window running in a separate thread of execution. This may be used to
inspect the database or program while the main task continues.

Debug/Edit spy points ...

Edit break points on predicates. From the PceEmacs editor (see section 1.4) break points can also be
set on specific calls from specific clauses.

Debug/Graphical debugger ...

Use the source-level debugger on the next spy or break point or other call that enables the debugger.

Help
The help menu provides various starting points to related documents. Items flagged with (on www)
open your default internet browser on a page of the SWI-Prolog website.

1.4 Editing Prolog programs

There are three options for editing. One is to run an editor of choice in a separate window and use the make/0
command described below to reload modified files. In addition to this option Prolog can be used to locate
predicates, modules and loaded files by specifying the editor of choice for use with the edit/1 command,
described below. This is achieved by editing the personalisation file (see section 1.3) and following the
instructions in the comments.

The default editor is the built-in editor called PceEmacs. This editor provides colourisation support based on
real-time parsing and cross-reference analysis of the program.

Other options for editing include GNU-Emacs, SWI-Prolog-Editor and the Eclipse-based PDT environment.
See http://www.swi-prolog.org/IDE.html for an up-to-date overview.

1.5 Some useful commands

This section provides a very brief overview of important or commonly used SWI-Prolog predicates to control
the environment.

consult(:File)
Load a source file. On Windows, folders may be specified with the DOS/Windows , which must be
escaped, or by using the POSIX standard . Especially when used in source code, is to be preferred as it
is portable. A Prolog list ([ ... ]) can be used to abbreviate the consult command. The file extension ( as
well as the selected alternative) can be omitted. Here are some examples: \//.pl

?- consult(likes). Load from the current folder (see pwd/0). likes.pl

?- ['C:/Program Files/pl/demo/likes'] Load using absolute path. likes.pl
?- ['C:\\Program Files\\pl\\demo\\likes'] Same using Windows-style path name

pwd
Print working directory (folder).

ls
List files in current directory.

edit
If Prolog is started by opening a file in the explorer, edit this file. Also available from the menu..pl

edit(+Spec)
Edit file, predicate, module, etc., with the given name. If multiple items are named it prompts for the
desired alternative.Spec

make

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Reload all files that have been changed since they were last loaded. Normally used after editing one or
more files.

gtrace
Start the graphical debugger. There are three ways to use this. Entered as a single goal at the top level,
the next query will be traced. Alternatively it can be used in conjunction with the goal to be debugged:
and finally you can include it in your program to start tracing at a particular point or under a particular
condition: ?- gtrace, run.

...,
(var(X) -> gtrace ; true),
...,

trace
Same as gtrace, but text-based on the console.

apropos(+Keyword)
Search for all predicates that contain in their name or short description. If a GUI environment is
available the results are hyperlinks. Otherwise use help/1 to get details on selected hits.Keyword

help(+Spec)
Give help on , which is normally the name of a predicate or C interface function. Spec

2 Using SWI-Prolog with C/C++

Using http://www.mingw.orgMinGW or a compiler with a compatible calling format you can write C or C++
code that can be loaded into SWI-Prolog and called as a predicate. You can also embed SWI-Prolog in
C/C++ applications.

Details on how to interact with Prolog are in the http://www.swi-prolog.org/pldoc/refman/SWI-Prolog

reference manual . The mailing list archives and TWiki web provide problems and solutions to the many
problems that may occur. Documentation of the C++ include file is available from the http://www.swi-
prolog.org/pldoc/package/pl2cpp.htmlpackage documentation . This section only discusses some Windows-
specific issues. SWI-cpp.h

2.1 Using MSVC

Because the current versions of SWI-Prolog are compiled and linked with MinGW, we are
unsure about the status with regard to compiling extensions using MSVC and embedding SWI-
Prolog into MSVC projects.

Please send your comments to the SWI-Prolog mailinglist, and/or mailto:[email protected].

First of all, add the folder of the installation to the search path for headers and the folder to the search path
for libraries. Both DLLs (extensions) or embedded executables should link to and, if appropriate, to the
multithreaded DLL version of the MSVC runtime library. includeliblibswipl.dll.a

To create extensions, create a Win32 DLL. To embed Prolog, care should be taken that Prolog can find the
Prolog installation. For development, the simplest way to ensure this is by adding the installation folder to the
environment and calling PL_initialise() as illustrated below. PL_initialise() uses the path of the loaded
module to find the Prolog installation folder.bin%PATH%libswipl.dll2

{ static char *av[] = { "libswipl.dll", NULL };

if ( !PL_initialise(1, av) )
{ <error>
}
}

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To create an executable that does not rely on Prolog one must create a saved state of the required Prolog code
and attach this to the executable. Creating saved states is described with qsave_program/2 in the reference
manual. This can be attached to a state using the DOS command below to create from the executable
produced by MSVC and the generated saved state. final.exe

> copy /b file.exe+file.state final.exe

2.2 Using swipl-ld.exe

The swipl-ld.exe automates most of the above complications and provides compatibility for common tasks
on many platforms supported by SWI-Prolog. To use it with MinGW, set the environment variables to
include the SWI-Prolog binary folder as well as the MinGW binary folders (typically ) to find gcc. An
extension can be created from the source using the command below. Add to see what commands are
executed by swipl-ld.exe. PATHC:\MinGW\binmyext.dllmyext.c-v

> swipl-ld.exe -shared -o myext myext.c

An embedded executable is created from C, C++ and Prolog files using

> swipl-ld.exe -o myexe file.c ... file.pl ...

3 The installation
3.1 Supported Windows versions

SWI-Prolog requiring Windows XP or later (XP, Vista, Windows-7). The download site of SWI-Prolog
contains older binaries that run on older versions of Windows. We provide both 32-bit and 64-bit installers.

3.2 Choosing the file extension

By default, Prolog uses the extension to indicate Prolog source files. Unfortunately this extension conflicts
with the Perl language. If you want to use both on the same Windows machine SWI-Prolog allows you to
choose a different extension during the installation. The extension is a commonly used alternative. If
portability is an issue, it is advised to use the alternative extension only for the load file, the source file that
loads the entire program, and use the normal extension for libraries and files loaded from other files.
.pl.pro.pl

3.3 Installed programs

The table below lists the installed components. Some components are marked (32-bits) or (64-bits). Most of
this is because the 64-bit version is built using more recent tools and from more recent versions of required
libraries using different naming conventions. This will probably be synchronised in the future.

Programs
bin\swipl-win.exe Default Windows application for interactive use.
bin\swipl.exe Console-based version for scripting purposes.
Utilities
bin\swipl-ld.exe Linker front-end to make single-file mixed Prolog/C/C++ executables.
bin\swipl-rc.exe Manipulate Prolog resource files.
Important directories
bin Executables and DLL files
library Prolog library
boot Sources for system predicates

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include C/C++ header files for embedding or to create extensions

xpce XPCE graphics system
xpce\prolog\lib XPCE/Prolog library
DLLs and other supporting files
boot32.prc Initial Prolog state (32-bits)
boot64.prc Initial Prolog state (64-bits)
\bin\libswipl.dll The Prolog kernel
\bin\plterm.dll The window for swipl-win.exe
\bin\pthreadVC2.dll POSIX thread runtime library (64-bits)
Extension DLLs (plugins)
\bin\cgi.dll Gather CGI GET and POST arguments
\bin\double_metaphone.dll Soundex (sounds similar)
\bin\memfile.dll In-memory temporary `files'
\bin\odbc4pl.dll ODBC interface
\bin\plregtry.dll Windows registry interface
\bin\porter_stem.dll Porter stemming implementation
\bin\random.dll Portable random number generator
\bin\rdf_db.dll RDF database
\bin\readutil.dll Fast reading utility
\bin\sgml2pl.dll SGML/XML parser
\bin\socket.dll Prolog socket interface
\bin\table.dll Access structured files as tables
\bin\time.dll Timing and alarm library
\bin\xpce2pl.dll The XPCE graphics system
\bin\zlib1.dll Compression library (32-bits)
\bin\zlibwapi.dll Compression library (64-bits)
\bin\zlib4pl.dll Compression library interface

3.4 Installed Registry keys and menus

The filetype or chosen alternative (see section 3.2) is associated to swipl-win.exe. A chosen folder (default
SWI-Prolog) is added to the start menu holding shortcuts to Prolog and some related utilities. The following
registry keys are in use. The 64-bit version uses instead of as a key to accommodate installation of both
versions on the same machine. Note that opening a file can be associated with one of the installed Prolog
versions only. .plProlog64Prolog.pl

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\SWI\Prolog
fileExtension Extension used for Prolog files
group Start menu group
home Installation directory
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SWI\Plwin\Console
Note: thread-windows store the same info in sub-keys
Height Height of window in character units
Width Width of window in character units
X Left edge of window in pixel units
Y Top edge of window in pixel units
SaveLines Number of lines available for scrollback

3.5 Execution level

The installer asks for the execution level (Vista and later) to be able to write shortcuts and registry keys.
admin

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3.6 Creating a desktop menu item

If you want a desktop entry for SWI-Prolog, right-drag swipl-win.exe to the desktop and select `Create
shortcut'. Then edit the properties and add to the command line to make the application start in . --
win_appMyDocuments\Prolog

4 The SWI-Prolog community and foundation

4.1 Website and mailing lists
The SWI-Prolog website is located at http://www.swi-prolog.org/.

4.2 About license conditions

The SWI-Prolog license allows it to be used in a wide variety of environments, including closed-source
commercial applications. In practice, redistribution and embedding is allowed, as long as modifications to the
SWI-Prolog source are published following the Free Software rules.

The SWI-Prolog kernel and foreign libraries are licensed under the Lesser General Public License (LGPL).
The Prolog files are licensed under the normal General Public License GPL with an additional statement that
allows for embedding in proprietary software:

As a special exception, if you link this library with other files compiled with a Free Software
compiler to produce an executable, this library does not by itself cause the resulting executable
to be covered by the GNU General Public License. This exception does not, however, invalidate
any other reasons why the executable file might be covered by the GNU General Public License.

This exception is a proven construct used for libgcc, the GNU C-compiler runtime library.

4.3 Supporting SWI-Prolog

There are several ways to support SWI-Prolog:

Extend the system with contributions.

Improve the system by submitting bug reports and patches.
Link to http://www.swi-prolog.org and refer to SWI-Prolog in publications.
For commercial users, it may be profitable to sponsor development projects that make SWI-Prolog
more useful for you and others. Example projects from the part include adding the initial garbage
collector, unbounded integer support, SSL interface, (re-)introduction of the stack-shifter, avoid C-
recursion on Prolog data structures, the PlUnit test environment and the PlDoc documentation
environment.

Sponsoring development has several benefits: (1) it solves your bottlenecks, (2) others help debugging
it, and (3) it strengthens SWI-Prolog's position, which gives you better guarantees that the system
remains actively developed and makes it easier to find resources and programmers.

Index
?
apropos/1
consult/1
edit/0
edit/1
1.4
gtrace/0
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help/1
1.5
ls/0
make/0
1.3 1.4
pwd/0
1.5
qsave_program/2
2.1
trace/0

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