A Data Scientist's blog

StartMenu

SWI-Prolog for MS-Windows

Jan Wielemaker 

VU University Amsterdam 

University of Amsterdam 

The Netherlands 

E-mail: jan@swi-prolog.org

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 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 Web-site 
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 .pl file holding Prolog 
program text from the Windows explorer.¹ The installation folder (by default
C:\Program Files\swipl) contains a subfolder
demo with the file likes.pl. This file can be 
opened in Prolog from the StartMenu, by opening likes.pl 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 (.).

?- [swi('demo/likes')].

If Prolog is started from the start menu it is passed the option
--win_app, which causes it to start in the local equivalent of
MyDocuments\Prolog. This folder is created if it does not 
exist.

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 X = <value> if it can prove the 
goal for a certain
X. The user can type the semi-colon (;) or spacebar. If you 
want another solution. Use the return key if you do 
not want to see the more answers. Prolog completes the output a full 
stop (.) if the user uses the return 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.

?- 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 details. 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 pl.ini that contains commonly 
used settings in comments.
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

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 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 (.pl 
as well as the selected alternative) can be omitted. Here are some 
examples:

?- consult(likes). Load likes.pl 
from the current folder (see pwd/0). 
?- ['C:/Program Files/pl/demo/likes'] Load likes.pl 
using absolute path. 
?- ['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 .pl file in the explorer, 
edit this file. Also available from the menu.
edit(+Spec)

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

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: ?- gtrace, run. and finally you can include it in 
your program to start tracing at a particular point or under a 
particular condition:

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

trace

Same as gtrace, but text-based on the console.
apropos(+Keyword)

Search for all predicates that contain Keyword 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.
help(+Spec)

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

2 Using 
SWI-Prolog with C/C++
Using MinGW 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 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 SWI-cpp.h C++ include file is 
available from the package 
documentation. This section only discusses some Windows-specific 
issues.

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:bugs@swi-prolog.org.

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

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 bin folder to the %PATH% 
environment and calling PL_initialise() as illustrated below. PL_initialise() 
uses the path of the loaded libswipl.dll module to find the 
Prolog installation folder.²

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

    if ( !PL_initialise(1, av) )
    { 
    }
  }

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 final.exe from the executable 
produced by MSVC and the generated saved state.

> 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 PATH environment 
variables to include the SWI-Prolog binary folder as well as the MinGW 
binary folders (typically C:\MinGW\bin) to find
gcc. An extension myext.dll can be created from the 
source myext.c using the command below. Add -v 
to see what commands are executed by swipl-ld.exe.

> 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 .pl 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 .pro 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 .pl extension for libraries and files loaded 
from other files.

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-bits 
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\plrc.exe Manipulate 
Prolog resource files. 

Important directories

bin Executables and DLL files 
library Prolog library 
boot Sources for system 
predicates 
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-bit) 
\bin\zlibwapi.dll Compression 
library (64-bit) 
\bin\zlib4pl.dll Compression 
library interface 

3.4 Installed 
Registry keys and menus
The filetype .pl 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 Prolog64 instead of Prolog as a 
key to accommodate installation of both versions on the same machine. 
Note that opening a
.pl file can be associated with one of the installed Prolog 
versions only.

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 admin execution level (Vista 
and later) to be able to write shortcuts and registry keys.

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 --win_app to the commandline to 
make the application start in MyDocuments\Prolog.

4 The 
SWI-Prolog community and foundation

4.1 Web-site 
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 datastructures, 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
help/1

1.5
ls/0
make/0

1.3 1.4
pwd/0

1.5
qsave_program/2

2.1
trace/0

`?- consult(likes).`	Load `likes.pl` from the current folder (see pwd/0).
`?- ['C:/Program Files/pl/demo/likes']`	Load `likes.pl` using absolute path.
`?- ['C:\\Program Files\\pl\\demo\\likes']`	Same using Windows-style path name

`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

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\plrc.exe`	Manipulate Prolog resource files.
Important directories
`bin`	Executables and DLL files
`library`	Prolog library
`boot`	Sources for system predicates
`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-bit)
`\bin\zlibwapi.dll`	Compression library (64-bit)
`\bin\zlib4pl.dll`	Compression library interface

Search This Blog

Thursday, April 04, 2013

Automated Installer

Manual Installation

=======================

========

Extracting gcc-g++-3.4.5-20060117-3.tar.gz

untgz::extract -d 'C:\MinGW' -z 'C:\Users\root\Desktop\gcc-g++-3.4.5-20060117-...

tgz_extract: bad header checksum

Error: Failure reading from tarball.