2 Introduction

Question:

What is SICStus Prolog?

Prolog is a simple but powerful programming language developed at the University of Marseille, as a practical tool for programming in logic. From a user's point of view the major attraction of the language is ease of programming. Clear, readable, concise programs can be written quickly with few errors.

SICStus Prolog is owned and maintained by the Swedish Institute of Computer Science. Parts of the system were developed by the project “Industrialization of SICStus Prolog” in collaboration with Ericsson Telecom AB, NobelTech Systems AB, Infologics AB and Televerket.

in synch SICStus Prolog follows the mainstream Prolog tradition in terms of syntax and built-in predicates. As of release 3.8, SICStus Prolog provides two execution modes: the iso mode, which is fully compliant with the International Standard ISO/IEC 13211-1 (PROLOG: Part 1—General Core) (http://webstore.ansi.org/ansidocstore/product.asp?sku=INCITS%2FISO%2FIEC+13211%2D1%2D1995); and the sicstus mode, which is largely compatible with, e.g., C-Prolog and Quintus Prolog, supports code written in earlier versions of SICStus Prolog.

Question:

Where can I get more information about SICStus Prolog?

The main source of information about SICStus Prolog is the WWW-site at

     http://www.sics.se/sicstus/.

and in particular the User's Manual, Release Notes, and this FAQ list, at

     http://www.sics.se/isl/sicstuswww/site/documentation.html

Question:

Does SICStus run on platform XYZ?

SICStus runs under most UNIX dialects and under Windows 98/NT/2000. For a current list of supported platforms, see the release notes.

Question:

What do I need to run SICStus?

• Disk space: 100 MB should be enough for packing up the binary installer and performing the installation. The actual installation will use less than half of that. 100 MB should also be enough to compile SICStus from the sources.
• Memory usage: At least 8-16 Mb RAM, but more memory is recommended.
• In order to use library(tcltk) you need a Tcl/Tk installation on your machine, see the release notes for information about what Tcl/Tk version you need and where you can get it.
• In order to use library(jasper) you need a JNI compatible Java installation. See the release notes for supported versions and where you can get it.
• In order to use library(bdb) you need a Berkeley DB. See the release notes for supported versions and where you gan get it.

Question:

How can I get SICStus?

SICStus is a commercial product and licensing information can be found on the WWW-site (http://www.sics.se/sicstus/). Free evaluation licenses are available.

Upon completed license agreement, you will receive a mail containing download instructions including confidential passwords and encryption keys. Be sure to read the Release Notes before installation.

If you are a university student, your department may have acquired the right to sub-license SICStus to its students. If that is the case, your department should provide to you download instructions and license codes for the relevant distributions. Your professor should know.

Question:

How do I report a bug or some other problem?

If you think you've discovered a bug or if you have another problem, first read this FAQ list, the release notes and the list of known bugs, at the Don't Panic page page at http://www.sics.se/sicstus/. If these do not address your problem, submit a bug report by filling in the form:

     http://www.sics.se/sicstus/bugreport/bugreport.html.

If you are using an academic license, for example if you are a student, then you should primarily consult with the maintenance contact at your site.