The full syntax of a query is ?-
followed by a
sequence of goals. The top-level expects queries. This is
signaled by the initial prompt | ?-
. Thus a query at
top-level looks like:
| ?- member(b, [a,b,c]).
Remember that Prolog terms must terminate with a full stop
(.
, possibly followed by layout text), and that therefore Prolog
will not execute anything until you have typed the full stop (and then
<RET>) at the end of the query.
If the goal(s) specified in a query can be satisfied, and if there are no variables as in this example, then the system answers
yes
and execution of the query terminates.
If variables are included in the query, then the final value
of each variable is displayed (except for variables whose
names begin with _
). Thus the query
| ?- member(X, [a,b,c]).
would be answered by
X = a
At this point, the development system accepts one-letter commands corresponding to certain actions. To execute an action simply type the corresponding character (lower or upper case) followed by <RET>. The available commands in development systems are:
yes
.
no
.
This command, without arguments, resets the printdepth to 10.
With an argument of n, the printdepth is set to n,
treating 0 as infinity. This command works by changing the value of the
toplevel_print_options
Prolog flag (see State Info).
[]
, is maintained. The
subterm selector provides a way of zooming in to some subterm of each
binding. For example, the subterm selector [2,3]
causes the
3rd subterm of the 2nd subterm of each binding to be selected.
This command, without arguments, resets the subterm selector to
[]
. With an argument of 0, the last element of the subterm
selector is removed. With an argument of n (> 0), n is
added to the back of the subterm selector. With a list of
arguments, the arguments are applied from left to right.
While the variable bindings are displayed, all
variables occurring in the values are replaced by terms of
the form '$VAR'(
N)
to yield friendlier variable
names. Such names come out as a sequence of letters and digits preceded
by _
. The outcome of some queries is shown below.
| ?- member(X, [tom,dick,harry]). X = tom ; X = dick ; X = harry ; no | ?- member(X, [a,b,f(Y,c)]), member(X, [f(b,Z),d]). X = f(b,c), Y = b, Z = c | ?- member(X, [f(_),g]). X = f(_A)
Directives are like queries except that: