SICStus Prolog Release Notes

Release notes for SICStus Prolog release 3.8.5, September 2000. Copyright 1988-2000 SICS, Sweden.

Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of these notes provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies.

Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of these notes under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission notice identical to this one.

Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of these notes into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions, except that this permission notice may be stated in a translation approved by SICS.

• Overview:
• Release notes and installation guide for UNIX:
• Release notes and installation guide for Windows:
• Tcl/Tk notes:
• Jasper notes:
• Visual Basic notes:
• Berkeley DB notes:
• The Emacs Interface:
• Revision history:
• Generic limitations:
• Questions and answers:

Overview

These notes summarize the changes in release 3 wrt. previous SICStus Prolog releases as well as changes introduced by patch releases. Platform specific information pertaining to certain parts of the system are also documented herein.

Release notes and installation guide for UNIX

This chapter assumes that the environment variable PATH includes <prefix>/bin, where <prefix> points to the SICStus installation directory. The installation directory is specified during installation, see UNIX installation. For example:

csh,tcsh> setenv PATH "/usr/local/bin:$PATH"
sh,bash,ksh> export PATH="/usr/local/bin:$PATH"

• The Crypt Utility:
• UNIX installation:
• UNIX foreign language interface:
• Platform specific UNIX notes:
• Redistributable files UNIX:

The Crypt Utility

The SICStus binary distributions are encrypted with the crypt program. If you do not have crypt on your machine, you can download a public domain crypt utility available via anonymous FTP from

ftp://ftp.sics.se/archive/sicstus3/aux/crypt.tar.gz

The enclosed README files describes how to compile it.

Installation

Most users will install SICStus from a binary distribution. These are available for all supported platforms. Information on how to download and unpack the binary distribution is sent by email when ordering SICStus.

Binary distributions are installed by executing a interactive installation script called InstallSICStus. Type

% InstallSICStus

and follow the instructions on the screen.

During the installation, you will be required to enter your site-name and license code. These are included in the download instructions.

The installation program does not only copy files to their destination, it also performs final link steps for some of the executables and for the library modules requiring third-party software support (currently library(bdb), library(tcltk), and library(jasper)). This is done in order to adapt to local variations in installation paths and versions.

Compiling SICStus from the sources requires a source code distribution, available on request for customers with maintenance contract. Contact sicstus-support@sics.se for more info.

Instructions for compiling and installing SICStus from the source code is available in the files README and INSTALL in the source code distribution.

Foreign language interface

• How to customize splfr:
• How to create dynamic linked foreign resources manually:
• Interfacing to Cplusplus:
• UNIX Runtime Systems on Target Machines:

How to customize splfr and spld

The utilities splfr and spld are implemented as Perl scripts and can be customized in order to adapt to local variations. Do not attempt this unless you know what you are doing. Customization is done by editing their common configuration file spld.config. Follow these instructions:

1. Locate the configuration file spld.config. It should be located in the same directory as splfr and spld.
2. Make a copy for spld.config, lets call it hacked_spld.config. Do not edit the original file.
3. The configuration file contains lines on the form CFLAGS=-g -O2. Edit these according to your needs. Do not add or remove any flags.
4. You may now use the modified spld.config together with spld or splfr like this

   % spld [...] --config=/path/to/hacked_spld.config
   

   Replace /path/to with the actual path to the hacked configuration file.

How to create dynamic linked foreign resources manually

To compile the glue code file and user code, use the compiler options assigned to INCR_CFLAGS by ./configure. In addition also include -DSPDLL. To ensure an up-to-date compilation procedure run splfr with --verbose argument to see what it does.

The object files are then linked into a dynamic linked foreign resource. For this you will normally use the linker whose name was assigned to SHLD by ./configure and linker options assigned to SHLDFLAGS. The resource will consist of the file ResourceName.Suffix where Suffix is the value assigned to SHSFX by ./configure. The defaults are

SHLD= ld
SHLDFLAGS= -shared
SHSFX= so

E.g. on Sparc/SunOS 5.X:

% cc -c -DSPDLL glue_code.c
% cc -c -DSPDLL mycode.c
% ld -shared glue_code.o mycode.o -o myresource.so

Libraries needed by the resource should normally also be included in the link command line.

Interfacing to C++

Functions in C++ files which should be called from Prolog must use C linkage, e.g:

extern "C" {
void myfun(long i)
{...};
};

To build a dynamic linked foreign resource with C++ code, you may (depending on platform) have to explicitly include certain libraries. E.g. on Sparc/SunOS 5.X using gcc:

% splfr .... -LD -L/usr/gnu/lib/gcc-lib/sparc-sun-solaris2.4/2.7.0 -lgcc

The library path is installation dependent, of course.

Runtime Systems on Target Machines

This section describes how to distribute runtime systems on Target Machines, i.e., machines which does not have SICStus installed.

In order to build a runtime system for distribution on a target machine, the option --moveable must be passed to spld. This option prevents spld from hardcoding any paths into the executable.

Next, in order for SICStus to be able to locate all relevant files, the following directory structure is recommended.

myapp.exe
lib/
+--- libsprt38.so
+--- sicstus-3.8.5/
     +--- bin/
     |    +--- sprt.sav
     +--- library/
          +--- <files from $SP_PATH/library>

myapp.exe is typically created by a call to spld:

% spld --main=user --moveable [...] -o ./myapp.exe

In order for the executable to be able to locate sprt.sav, the variable SP_PATH needs to be set. If the example above is rooted in /home/joe, then SP_PATH should be set to /home/joe/lib/sicstus-3.8.5.

Unless the --static option is passed to spld, it might also be necessary to set LD_LIBRARY_PATH (or equivalent) to /home/joe/lib (in the example above) in order for the dynamic linker to find libsprt38.so. If the --static option is used, this is not necessary.

Platform specific notes

This section contains some installation notes which are platform specific under UNIX.

• Alpha/OSF1 Runtime loading of library(bdb) or library(tcltk) might not work unless Berkeley DB and Tcl/Tk is installed in the standard directories (e.g., /usr/shlib/). In the case of library(bdb) this is further complicated by the fact that Berkeley DB uses the name libdb.* which conflicts with a builtin library of the same name.

  There are two solutions

  • Override the runtime linkers default search path by setting LD_LIBRARY_PATH

    Example:

    bash> export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/BerkeleyDB/lib:/home/joe/mytcltk/lib
    csh> setenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH /usr/local/BerkelyDB/lib:/home/joe/mytcltk/lib
    

  • Prelink tcltk or bdb (or both) into the executable. Example:

    % spld -D --resources=tcltk,bdb -o ./mysicstus
    

• HPUX Loading foreign resources (e.g., use_module(library(system))) may not work unless SHLIB_PATH is setup to include the directory that contains libsprt38.sl, e.g.:

  hpux>setenv MYSP /src/sicstus/bin/release-3.8.3/hppa-hpux-B.10.20
  hpux>unsetenv SHLIB_PATH
  hpux>$MYSP/bin/sicstus -f
  SICStus 3.8.3 (hppa-hpux-B.10.20): Fri May  5 20:50:33 EDT 2000
  Licensed to SICS
  | ?- use_module(library(system)). % This will not work
  {loading ....system.po...}
  {module system imported into user}
  /usr/lib/dld.sl: Can't find path for shared library: libsprt38.sl
  /usr/lib/dld.sl: No such file or directory
  {SYSTEM ERROR: 'shl_load(....) failed in load_foreign_resource/1'}
  
  << halt >>
  
  hpux>setenv SHLIB_PATH ${MYSP}/lib
  hpux>$MYSP/bin/sicstus -f
  SICStus 3.8.3 (hppa-hpux-B.10.20): Fri May  5 20:50:33 EDT 2000
  Licensed to SICS
  | ?- use_module(library(system)).  % This will work
  {loading .... system.po...}
  {module system imported into user}
  {loaded ....system.po ....}
  

• FreeBSD Loading foreign resources (e.g., use_module(library(system))) may not work unless LD_LIBRARY_PATH is setup to include the directory that contains libsprt38.sl, e.g. setenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH /usr/local/lib. See the similar problem with HPUX above.
• AIX When using the spld and splfr utilities you may see warnings like the following:

  ld: 0711-415 WARNING: Symbol expand_file_name is already exported.
  ld: 0711-319 WARNING: Exported symbol not defined: normal_path
  

  These warnings can be ignored.
• MacOS X Server The following libraries are not supported: library(bdb), library(db), library(tcltk), library(jasper).
• MacOS X Server When creating executables using spld, the directory which contains the executable must be in the user's PATH variable.
• MacOS X Server Sometimes, the default limit on the process' data-segment is unreasonably small, which may lead to unexpected memory allocation failures. To check this limit, do

  tcsh> limit data
  datasize 	6144 kbytes
  

  This indicates that the maximum size of the data-segment is only 6 Mb. To remove the limit, do

  tcsh> limit data unlimited
  datasize 	unlimited
  

  NOTE: limit is a shell built-in in tcsh. It may have a different name in other shells.

Files that may be redistributed with runtime systems

When a runtime system is redistributed to third parties, only the following files may be included in the distribution. All filenames are relative to <prefix>/lib/sicstus-3.8:

../*.{a,so,sl,dylib}

bin/sprt.sav

bin/jasper.jar

library/*.{tcl,po}

library/*/*.{s.o,so,sl,dylib}

library/*/*.po

sp_platform

(Located with InstallSICStus)

Release notes and installation guide for Windows

• Windows Requirements:
• Windows Installation:
• Windows notes:
• Command line editing:
• The console:
• Windows Emacs Interface:
• Windows limitations:
• Redistributable files Windows:

This chapter assumes that the environment variable PATH includes %SP_PATH%\bin, where SP_PATH points to the SICStus installation directory. For example:

C:\> set PATH=c:\Program Files\SICStus Prolog\bin;%PATH%

You may also want to include the paths to Tcl/Tk (see Tcl/Tk notes), Java (see Getting Started), and Berkeley DB (see Berkeley DB notes).

Requirements

• Operating environment: Microsoft Windows 95, 98, NT 4.0, 2000
• Processor: 386, 486, or Pentium-class
• Available user memory: 16 Mbytes
• Available hard drive space: 20 Mbytes
• For interfacing with C or C++: Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 or later.

Installation

The development system comes in two flavors:

1. A console-based executable which is suitable to run from a DOS-prompt, from batch files, or under Emacs. See Command line editing.
2. A windowed executable providing command line editing and menus.

The distribution consists of a single, self-installing executable (InstallSICStus.exe) containing development system, runtime support files, library sources, and manuals.

Installed files on a shared drive can be reused for installation on other machines.

SICStus Prolog requires a license code to run. You should have received from SICS your site name, the expiration date and the code. This information is normally entered during installation:

Expiration date: ExpirationDate
Site: Site
License Code: Code

but it can also be entered later on by executing the following commands at a command prompt:

% splm -i Site
% splm -a sicstus3.8 ExpirationDate Code

Windows Notes

• Pre-linked foreign resources are not supported under Windows; they have to be implemented as DLLs. They are created using the utility splfr as described in the user's manual.
• The file name arguments to splfr and spld should not have embedded spaces. For file names with spaces you can use the corresponing short file name.
• If SICStus cannot find the license information (see below) or if it was entered incorrectly then SICStus will just exit. There will be no dialog or other feedback informing you of the problem.

  Note that the license consists of three parts, the Site name (or user name for personal licenses), the License code, and the Expiration date. All parts are case sensitive, and spaces are significant. A common mistake is to enter the License code correctly but the Site/User name incorrectly.

  If you have trouble with the license code use splm.exe, as explained in the letter with your license code.

• On Windows 95/98 the shortcut installed in the Start menu (e.g., Start\Programs\SICStus Prolog 3.8.5) may not work immediately after installation. Restarting after installing SICStus appears to cure this. If this does not help you can add your own shortcut to, e.g., C:\Program Files\SICStus Prolog\bin\spwin.exe.
• Selecting the Manual or Release Notes item in the Help menu may give an error message similar to ... \!Help\100#!Manual.lnk could not be found. This happens when Adobe Acrobat Reader is not installed or if it has not been installed for the current user. Open C:\Program Files\SICStus Prolog\doc\pdf\ in the explorer and try opening relnotes.pdf. This might bring up an configuration dialog for Adobe Acrobat, configure Acrobat and try the Help menu again. Alternatively, you may have to obtain Adobe Acrobat. It is available for free from http://www.adobe.com/.
• Windows NT, 2000

  We recommend that SICStus is installed by a user with administrative privileges and that the installation is made For All Users.

  The first time the installer is run it will install necessary system files for supporting the new Windows Installer technology from Microsoft. This will fail unless the user has administrative rights. A typical symptom is an error message asking for msiexec.

  If SICStus is installed for a single user then SICStus will not find the license information when started by another user. In this case you can use the command line utility splm.exe as described in the letter containing your license code.

• Runtime Systems on Target Machines:
• Generic Runtime Systems:
• Setting SP_PATH under Windows:

Runtime Systems on Target Machines

This section describes how to launch a runtime system on a so called target machine, i.e., a machine which does not have SICStus installed.

In order to locate all relevant files, the following directory structure is recommended.

myapp.exe
sprt38.dll
sp38\
+--- bin\
|    +--- sprt.sav
+--- library\
     +--- <files from %SP_PATH%\library>

myapp.exe is typically created by a call to spld:

% spld --main=user [...] -o ./myapp.exe

If the directory containing sprt38.dll contains a directory called sp38, SICStus assumes that it is part of a Runtime System as described in the picture. The runtime library (sprt.sav) is then looked up in the directory (sp38/bin), as in the picture. Furthermore, the initial library_directory/1 fact will initially be set to the same directory with sp38/library appended.

The directory structure under library/ should look like in a regular installed SICStus, including the platform-specific subdirectory (x86-win32-nt-4 in this case). If your application needs to use library(system) and library(random), your directory structure may look like:

myapp.exe
sprt38.dll
sp38\
+--- bin\
|    +--- sprt.sav
+--- library\
     +--- random.po
     +--- system.po
     +--- x86-win32-nt-4 \
          +--- random.dll
          +--- system.dll

The sp* files can also be put somewhere else in order to be shared by several applications provided the sprt38.dll can be located by the DLL search.

The 38 in the file names above is derived from SICStus's major and minor version numbers, i.e., currently 3 and 8. Naming the files with version number enables applications using different sicstus versions to install the sp* files in the same directory.

Generic Runtime Systems

There are three ready-made runtime systems provided with the distributions, %SP_PATH%\bin\sprt.exe, %SP_PATH%\library\sprtw.exe, and %SP_PATH%\bin\sprti.exe. These are created using spld:

% spld --main=restore main.sav -o sprt.exe
% spld --main=restore main.sav -i -o sprti.exe
% spld --main=restore main.sav --window -o sprtw.exe

These are provided for users who do not have a C-compiler available. The programs launches a runtime system by restoring the saved state main.sav (created by save_program/[1,2]). If it was created by save_program/2, the given startup goal is run. Then, user:runtime_entry(start) is run. The program exits with 0 upon normal temination and with 1 on failure or exception.

The program sprti.exe assumes that the standard streams are connected to a terminal, even if they to not seem to be (useful under Emacs, for example). sprtw.exe is a windowed executable, corresponding to spwin.exe.

NOTE: the current working directory must be set to contain main.sav for these runtime systems to work.

For more info on how spld works, see The spld utility.

Setting SP_PATH under Windows

The use of the SP_PATH variable under Windows is discouraged, since Windows applications can find out for themselves where they were started from.

SP_PATH is only used if the directory where sprt<ver>.dll is loaded from does not contain sp<ver> (a directory) or sprt.sav (where <ver> is "38" for SICStus version 3.8(.x)). If SP_PATH is used, SICStus expects it to be set such that %SP_PATH%/bin contains sprt.sav. See Runtime Systems on Target Machines.

Command line editing

Command line editing supporting Emacs-like commands and IBMPC arrow keys is provided in the console-based executable. The following commands are available:

^h

erase previous char

^d

erase next char

^u

kill line

^f

forward char

^b

backward char

^a

begin of line

^e

end of line

^p

previous line

^n

next line

^i

insert space

^s

forward search

^r

reverse search

^v

view history

^q

input next char blindly

^k

kill to end of line

Options may be specified in the file %HOME%\spcmd.ini as:

Option Value

on separate lines. Recognized options are:

lines

Value is the number of lines in the history buffer. 1-100 is accepted; the default is 30.

save

Value is either 0 (don't save or restore history buffer) or 1 (save history buffer in %HOME%\spcmd.hst on exit, restore history from the same file on start up.

The command line editing is switched off by giving the option -nocmd when starting SICStus. Command line editing will be automatically turned off if SICStus is run with piped input (e.g. from Emacs).

The console window

The console window used for the windowed executable is based on code written by Jan Wielemaker <jan@swi.psy.uva.nl>.

In SICStus 3.8 the console was enhanced with menu access to common prolog flags and file operations. Most of these should be self explanatory. The Reconsult item in the File menu reconsults the last file consulted with use of the File menu. It will probably be replaced in the future with something more powerful.

Note that the menus work by simulating user input to the prolog top level or debugger. For this reason it is recommended that the menus are only used when SICStus is waiting for a goal at the top-level (or in a break level) or when the debugger is waiting for a command.

Console Preferences

The stream-based console window is a completely separate library, using its own configuration info. It will look at the environment variable CONSOLE which should contain a string of the form name:value{,name:value} where name is one of:

sl

The number of lines you can scroll back. There is no limit, but the more you specify the more memory will be used. Memory is allocated when data becomes available. The default is 200.

rows

The initial number of lines. The default is 24.

cols

The initial number of columns. The default is 80.

x

The X coordinate of the top-left corner. The default is determined by the system.

y

The Y coordinate of the top-left corner. The default is determined by the system.

You will normally specify this in your autoexec.bat file. Here is an example:

% set CONSOLE=sl:600,x:400,y:400

Many of these settings are also accessible from the menu Settings of the console.

Emacs Interface

Choosing <EOF> from the menu seems to generate an eternal <EOF> which is not useful for e.g. escaping a break level. Instead a C-d can be generated by typing C-q C-d.

Sometimes <EOF> from the menu leaves a detached sicstus process running (not idle). You will have to terminate it with the task manager. The cause is an error in the SICStus interrupt handling code, present at least up to 3.8.5 (inclusive).

Limitations

• File paths with both / and \ as separator are accepted. SICStus returns paths using /. Note that \, since it is escape character, must be given as \\ unless the prolog flag character_escapes is set to off.
• All file names and paths are converted to lowercase when expanded by absolute_file_name/2 etc.
• File paths of the form ~/ are expanded using the values of the environment variable HOME or HOMEDRIVE and HOMEPATH. The form ~username/ is not expanded. The form $VAR is expanded using the value of the environment variable VAR. The form %VAR% is not recognized.
• interruptible:

  Blocking system calls, such as those used by library(sockets), are not interruptible by ^C in any kind of SICStus executable.

• Pre-linked foreign resources are not supported. The --resources option to spld is a no-op.
• In the windowed executable, the user_error stream is line buffered.
• Running under Emacs has been tried with recent versions of GNU Emacs and XEmacs. See The Emacs Interface.
• Tcl/Tk: The top_level_events option to tk_new/2 is not supported.
• stream_select/3 is not supported.
• stream_interrupt/3 is not supported.
• library(timeout) is not supported.
• library(sockets): The AF_UNIX address family is (unsurprisingly) not supported; socket_select/[5,6] support only socket streams for arg 4(5).
• library(system): popen/3 is not supported. kill/2 attempts to terminate the requested process irrespectively of the 2nd arg. You should not use it as it bypasses the killed process cleanup routines.

Files that may be redistributed with runtime systems

When a runtime system is redistributed to third parties, only the following files may be included in the distribution. All filenames are relative to %SP_PATH%:

bin\sprt.sav

bin\jasper.jar

bin\*.dll

bin\*.po

library\*.{tcl,po,bas}

library\*\*.dll

library\*\*.po

Tcl/Tk notes

Tcl/Tk itself is not included in the SICStus distribution. It must be installed in order to use the interface. It can be downloaded from the Tcl/Tk primary website:

http://www.ajubasolutions.com (formerly Scriptics)

The Tcl/Tk interface module included in SICStus Prolog 3.8 (library(tcltk)) is verified to work with Tcl/Tk 8.2 (with a few exceptions noted below). Previous versions of the interface have been verified to work with Tcl/Tk versions 7.3/3.6, 7.4/4.0, 7.5/4.1, 7.6/4.2, 8.0, and 8.1. The current version of the interface may or may not work with these versions.

Under UNIX, the installation program automatically detects the Tcl/Tk version (if the user does not specify it explicitly).

Under Windows, the binary distribution is compiled against Tcl/Tk 8.2. If you need to use another version of Tcl/Tk you have to recompile library(tcltk), see Configuring the Tcl/Tk library module under Windows. Note: You need to have the Tcl/Tk binaries accessible from your PATH environment variable, e.g., C:\Program Files\Tcl\bin".

Note: The Tcl/Tk interface module is not supported under: Mac OS X Server

As of SICStus Prolog 3.8.1 Tcl_FindExecutable("") is called when the tcltk library is loaded, before any Tcl/Tk interpreter is created. This should fix errors related to not finding init.tcl and also improve support for international character sets.

• The TclTk Terminal:

The Tcl/Tk Terminal Window

The Tcl/Tk interface includes a experimental terminal window based on Tcl/Tk. It is opened by using the (undocumented) predicate:

tk_terminal(Interp, TextWidget, InStream, OutStream, ErrStream)

Given a TextWidget, e.g. .top.myterm, this predicate opens three prolog streams for which the text widget acts as a terminal.

There is also a library(tkconsol), making use of tk_terminal/5, which switches the Prolog top level to a Tk window. This is done by simply loading the library module.

Jasper notes

Jasper requires at least Java 2 (a.k.a. JDK 1.2) to run. Except on Windows the full development kit, not just the JRE, is needed. Jasper does not work with Visual J++ or Visual Café. Jasper is only supported under the following configurations:

Solaris 2.x (SPARC and x86)

Verified using Sun's JDK 1.2.2_06, downloadable from http://javasoft.sun.com. Earlier versions of 1.2 are also expected to work.

JDK 1.3 from Sun does not work. In particular, when using JDK 1.3, it is not possible to load library(jasper) into a development system. It may be possible to use JDK 1.3 with a run-time system, e.g., when Java is the top-level application. Set the environment variable JDK_USE_EXTRALIBS=no to make InstallSICStus/configure accept a JDK 1.3 installation.

Full support for JDK 1.3 is a priority, it will be added in a future release.

Linux (x86)

Verified using Blackdown's JDK (Version 1.2.2 FCS for Linux) Downloadable from http://www.blackdown.org/java-linux.html.

Sun's JDK 1.2.2 does not support native threads and therefore does not work.

JDK 1.3 (RC1) from Sun does not work. In particular, when using JDK 1.3, it is not possible to load library(jasper) into a development system. It may be possible to use JDK 1.3 with a run-time system, e.g., when Java is the top-level application. Set the environment variable JDK_USE_EXTRALIBS=no to make InstallSICStus/configure accept a JDK 1.3 installation.

Full support for JDK 1.3 is a priority, it will be added in a future release.

Windows 95/98/NT/2000

Verified using Sun's JDK 1.3 and JDK 1.2.2, downloadable from http://javasoft.sun.com/.

• Getting Started:
• Jasper Package Options:
• Known Bugs and Limitations in Jasper:
• Java Examples Directory:
• Java Resources Online:

Getting Started

This section describes some tips and hints on how to get the interface started. This is actually where most problems occur.

Under Windows, it is recommended that you add SICStus's and Java's DLL directories to your %PATH%. This will enable Windows library search method to locate all relevant DLLs. For SICStus, this is the same as where sicstus.exe is located, usually C:/Program Files/SICStus Prolog/bin). For Java it is usually C:\jdk1.3\jre\bin\hotspot and C:\jdk1.3\bin (for JDK 1.2.2 it would be C:\jdk1.2.2\jre\bin\classic and C:\jdk1.2.2\bin).

For example:

set PATH=C:\jdk1.3\jre\bin\hotspot;C:\jdk1.3\bin;%PATH%
set PATH=C:\Program Files\SICStus Prolog\bin;%PATH%

Running Java from SICStus

If SICStus is used as parent application, things are usually really simple. Just execute the query | ?- use_module(library(jasper)).. After that, it is possible to perform meta-calls (as described in the User's Manual), or load a foreign resource containing foreign(...,java,...) predicates.

On some platforms, you may encounter the following error message:

% sicstus
SICStus 3.8 (sparc-solaris-5.5.1): Wed Sep 22 08:42:14 MET DST 1999
Licensed to SICS
| ?- use_module(library(jasper)).
[...]
{SYSTEM ERROR: 'Attempted to load Java engine into sbrk\'d
SICStus system (try starting SICStus with -m option)'}
[...]

Since most platforms don't allow sbrk() and malloc() to coexist peacefully, SICStus refuses to load the JVM if not the -m flag was given to SICStus. The message can, as the error message suggests, be avoided if SICStus is started with the -m flag:

% sicstus -m

Running SICStus from Java

If Java is used as parent application, things are a little more complicated. There are a couple of things which need to be taken care of. The first is to specify the correct class path so that Java can find the Jasper classes (SICStus, SPTerm, and so on). This is done by specifying the pathname of the file jasper.jar:

% java -classpath $SP_PATH/bin/jasper.jar ...

SP_PATH does not need to be set; it is only used here as a placeholder. See the documentation of the Java implementation for more info on how to set classpaths.

The second is specify where Java should find the Jasper native library (libjasper.so or jasper.dll), which the SICStus class loads into the JVM by invoking the method System.loadLibrary("jasper"). This method uses a platform dependent search method to locate the Jasper native library, and quite often this method fails. A typical example of such a failure looks like:

% java -classpath [...]/jasper.jar se.sics.jasper.SICStus
Trying to load SICStus.
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: no jasper
in java.library.path
	at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadLibrary(ClassLoader.java:1133)
	at java.lang.Runtime.loadLibrary0(Runtime.java:470)
	at java.lang.System.loadLibrary(System.java:745)
	at se.sics.jasper.SICStus.loadNativeCode(SICStus.java:37)
	at se.sics.jasper.SICStus.initSICStus(SICStus.java:80)
	at se.sics.jasper.SICStus.<init>(SICStus.java:111)
	at se.sics.jasper.SICStus.main(SICStus.java:25)

This can be fixed by explicitly setting the Java property java.library.path to the location of libjasper.so (or jasper.dll), like this:

% java -Djava.library.path=/usr/local/lib [...]

When Jasper is used in run-time systems, additional constraints apply as described in Runtime Systems on Target Machines.

If this works properly, SICStus should have been loaded into the JVM address space. The only thing left is to tell SICStus where the runtime library (i.e., sprt.sav) is located. You may choose to specify this explicitly by either giving a second argument when initializing the SICStus object or by specifying the property sicstus.path:

Example (UNIX):

% java -Dsicstus.path=/usr/local/lib/sicstus-3.8

Example (Win32):

% java -Dsicstus.path="c:\Program Files\SICStus Prolog"

If you do not specify any explicit path, SICStus will search for the runtime library itself.

If everything is setup correctly, you should be able to call main (which contains a short piece of test-code) in the SICStus root class, something like this:

% java -Djava.library.path="/usr/local/lib" \
       -Dsicstus.path="/usr/local/lib/sicstus-3.8" \
       -classpath "/usr/local/lib/sicstus-3.8/bin/jasper.jar" \
        se.sics.jasper.SICStus
Trying to load SICStus.
If you see this message, you have successfully
initialized the SICStus Prolog engine.

It is similar under Win32, with the exception that the paths look slightly different.

Jasper Package Options

The following Java system properties can be set to control some recently added features of the jasper package:

se.sics.jasper.SICStus.checkSPTermAge

This flag is unsupported. You probably should not use it in production code. It may be ignored (or be made the default) in future releases. However, we strongly recommend that you use this flag during development and report any good or bad experiences to sicstus-support@sics.se.

A boolean, off by default. If true then run-time checks are performed that attempt to detect potentially dangerous use of the SPTerm.putXXX family of functions. The value of this flag can be set and read with SICStus.setShouldCheckAge() and SICStus.shouldCheckAge().

The run-time checks throws an IllegalTermException when there is risk that a SPTerm is set to point to a Prolog term strictly newer than the SPTerm. In this context strictly newer means that there exists an open query that was opened after the SPTerm object was created but before the Prolog term. See SPTerm and Memory, for more information.

java -Dse.sics.jasper.SICStus.checkSPTermAge=true ...

or, from Prolog:

jasper_initialize(
   ['-Dse.sics.jasper.SICStus.checkSPTermAge=true'],
   JVM)

se.sics.jasper.SICStus.reuseTermRefs

This flag is unsupported.

A boolean, on by default. If false then SPTerm.delete() will only invalidate the SPTerm object, it will not make the Prolog side term-ref available for re-use. The value of this flag can be set and read with SICStus.setReuseTermRefs() and SICStus.reuseTermRefs(). There should be no reason to turn it off.

To set this flag do:

java -Dse.sics.jasper.SICStus.reuseTermRefs=true ...

or, from Prolog:

jasper_initialize(
   ['-Dse.sics.jasper.SICStus.reuseTermRefs=true'],
   JVM)

se.sics.jasper.SICStus.debugLevel

This flag is unsupported. You probably should not use it in production code. It may be removed or change meaning in future releases.

An integer, zero by default. If larger than zero then some debug info is output to System.out. Larger values produce more info. The value of this flag can be set and read with SICStus.setDebugLevel() and SICStus.debugLevel().

java -Dse.sics.jasper.SICStus.debugLevel=1 ...

or, from Prolog:

jasper_initialize(
   ['-Dse.sics.jasper.SICStus.debugLevel=1'],
   JVM)

Known Bugs and Limitations in Jasper

• Jasper cannot be used from within applets, since Jasper relies on calling methods declared as native. This is due to a security-restriction enforced on applets; they are not allowed to call native code.
• As of SICStus 3.8.1 only native threads are supported (as opposed to green threads). This is the default under Windows. Under UNIX, most JDKs use native threads per default in version 1.2.

  On some platforms you need to explicitly specify the -native option when calling java. The following error is an example of what may happen if you do not specify -native:

  % java -classpath .:[...]/lib/sicstus-3.8/bin/jasper.jar \
       -Djava.library.path=[...]/lib \
       -Dsicstus.path=[...]./lib/sicstus-3.8 Simple
  
  *** panic: libthread loaded into green threads
  Abort (core dumped)
  

  Instead, do

  % java -native [...]
  

  See your JDK documentation for more info on command-line parameters to the JVM.

• Some uses of SPTerm can corrupt the Prolog data areas. This is a well understood, easily avoidable, problem that cannot easily be fixed in Jasper (or SICStus), SPTerm and Memory. See Jasper Package Options, for a flag that tells Jasper to give exceptions in potentiallly troublesome cases.
• Some uses of SPTerm will leak memory on the Prolog side. This is not really a bug but may come as a surprise to the unwary, SPTerm and Memory.
• There is currently no way to pass null object references between Java and Prolog. A null reference will currently give an exception, this will probably change.
• On some combinations of C-compilers and JDKs (specifically GCC with Sun's JDK), the following warning may occur:

  % splfr simple.pl
  SICStus 3.8.5 (sparc-solaris-5.7): Mon Feb 21 10:43:17 MET 2000
  Licensed to SICS
  {spk.ai82.c generated, 20 msec}
  
  yes
  In file included from /usr/local/jdk1.2/include/jni.h:35,
                   from spk.ai82.c:94:
  /usr/local/jdk1.2/include/solaris/jni_md.h:20: warning: \
     ignoring pragma: "@(#)jni_md.h      1.11    99/02/01 SMI
  

  The warning can be safely ignored. You can suppress the warnings when using gcc by passing the options --cflag=-Wno-unknown-pragmas to splfr.

Java Examples Directory

There is an examples directory available in $SP_PATH/library/jasper/examples. See the file README for more info.

Resources

There are almost infinitely many Java resources on the Internet. Here is a list of a few which are related to Jasper and JNI.

• JavaSoft Homepage (http://java.sun.com/).
• JavaSoft's Java FAQ (http://java.sun.com/products/jdk/faq.html).
• JavaSoft Documentation Homepage (http://java.sun.com/docs/index.html).
• JNI Documentation (http://java.sun.com/products/jdk/1.3/docs/guide/jni/index.html).
• Yahoo's Java page (http://www.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Programming_Languages/Java/).
• The ACM student magazine Crossroads has published an article on the JNI (http://www.acm.org/crossroads/xrds4-2/jni.html). This article may be out of date.

Visual Basic notes

The Visual Basic - SICStus Prolog interface consists of the following files:

• vbsp.dll (installed as SICStus\bin\vbsp.dll)
• vbsp.po (installed as SICStus\bin\vbsp.po)
• vbsp.bas (installed as SICStus\library\vbsp.bas)

In order to use the interface, perform the following steps:

• Include the file vbsp.bas in your Visual Basic project.
• Make the SICStus runtime DLL etc. available. See Runtime Systems on Target Machines. The easiest way is to put, e.g., C:\Program Files\SICStus Prolog\bin in the PATH environment variable.

  If VB cannot find the SICStus run-time files it will report something similar to

  File not found: VBSP
  

• Put the files vbsp.dll and vbsp.po in a place where DLLs are searched for (For example the same directory as your applications EXE file, on the PATH or the Windows-System directory). This is true by default if C:\Program Files\SICStus Prolog\bin is in the PATH environment variable, as suggested in the previous item.

Berkeley DB notes

As of SICStus 3.8, the library module library(db) has been replaced by library(bdb). The functionality is similar, but library(bdb) is built on top of Berkeley DB. Berkeley DB can be downloaded from:

http://www.sleepycat.com

library(bdb) has been verified to work using Berkeley DB version 2.7.7. It does not work with Berkeley DB 3.x versions.

When using Berkeley DB on Windows, you may want to set the PATH environment variable to contain the path to libdb.dll. Consult the Berkeley DB documentation for further info.

The Emacs Interface

• Installing the Emacs Interface:

The Emacs Interface was originally developed for GNU Emacs 19.34 and is presently being maintained using XEmacs 21.1 and tested with GNU Emacs 19.34.1. For best performance and compatibility and to enable all features we recommend that the latest versions of GNU Emacs or XEmacs are used. For information on obtaining Emacs, see www.emacs.org. For information specific to GNU Emacs or XEmacs, see www.gnu.org and www.xemacs.org.

Installation

Starting with SICStus 3.8 the Emacs interface is distributed with SICStus and installed by default. The default installation location for the emacs files is <prefix>/lib/sicstus-3.8/emacs/ on UNIX platforms and C:\Program Files\SICStus Prolog\emacs\ on Windows.

For maximum performance the Emacs lisp files (extension .el) shoule be compiled. This can be done from within Emacs with the command M-x byte-compile-file. See Installation, for further details.

• Installing On-Line Documentation:

Installing On-Line Documentation

It is possible to look up the documentation for any built in or library predicate from within Emacs (using C-c ? or the menu). For this to work Emacs must be told about the location of the info-files that make up the documentation. This can be done for the entire emacs installation or on a per user basis, see Installation, for further details.

The default location for the info-files are <prefix>/lib/sicstus-3.8/doc/info/ on UNIX platforms and C:\Program Files\SICStus Prolog\doc\info\ on Windows.

More recent versions of GNU Emacs and XEmacs should be able to automatically incorporate info files from a subdirectory into the main Info documentation tree. It is therefore recommended that the SICStus Info files are kept together in their own directory.

Revision history

This chapter summarizes the changes in release 3 wrt. previous SICStus Prolog releases as well as changes introduced by patch releases.

• Changes in release 3:
• Changes introduced in 3#4:
• Changes introduced in 3#5:
• Changes introduced in 3#6:
• Changes introduced in version 3.7:
• Changes introduced in version 3.7.1:
• Changes introduced in version 3.8:
• Changes introduced in version 3.8.1:
• Changes introduced in version 3.8.2:
• Changes introduced in version 3.8.3:
• Changes introduced in version 3.8.4:
• Changes introduced in version 3.8.5:

Changes in release 3

• Backslashes (\) in strings, quoted atoms, and integers written in 0' notation denote escape sequences. Character escaping can be switched off.
• Multifile declarations are required in all files where clauses to a multifile predicate are defined. This complies with the ISO Prolog Standard.
• The built-in predicate call_residue/2 has been modified so that goals that are disjunctively blocked on several variables are returned correctly in the second argument.
• The built-in predicate setarg/3 has been removed. Its functionality is provided by the new built-ins create_mutable/2, get_mutable/2, update_mutable/2, and is_mutable/2, which implement a timestamp technique for value-trailing with low-level support.
• The built-in predicates unix/1 and plsys/1 have been removed. Their functionality is provided by prolog_flag(argv,X), by the new halt/1 built-in, and by the new library(system) module which also contains several new predicates.
• The socket I/O built-ins have been moved to the new library(sockets) module.
• The built-in time_out/3 has been moved to the new library(timeout) module.
• The built-ins term_hash/[2,4], subsumes_chk/2, and term_subsumer/3 have been moved to the new library(terms) module, which also contains operations for unification with occurs-check, testing acyclicity, and getting the variables of a term.
• The foreign language interface (Prolog-to-C) has been extended with the types +chars, -chars and [-chars] for fast conversion between C strings and Prolog lists of character codes. Several new interface functions are available.
• The memory handling of the C-to-Prolog interface has been simplified by passing each Prolog term as a "handle" object, called an SP_term_ref, making the functions SP_show_term() and SP_hide_term() obsolete.
• The InterViews 2.6 based GUI module library(gmlib) has been replaced by the Tcl/Tk based library(tcltk). A version of library(gmlib) converted to SICStus Prolog release 3 is available from ftp://ftp.sics.se/archive/sicstus3/gmlib.tar.gz.
• The library(objects) module has been enhanced.
  • Inheritance is static, i.e. determined at object creation time, and is implemented as module importation.
  • A new, very light-weight, type of object: instance.
  • Attributes, efficient storage of terms in objects.
  • Unprefixed goals in methods denote message passing to self. Prolog goals in methods must be prefixed by :.
• In library(charsio), the open_chars_stream/[3,4] predicates have been replaced by open_chars_stream/2 and with_output_to_chars/[2,3].
• The library(assoc) module now implements AVL trees instead of unbalanced binary trees.
• The new library(atts) implements attributed variables, a general mechanism for associating logical variables with arbitrary attributes. Comes with a number of hooks that make it convenient to define and interface to constraint solvers.
• The Boolean constraint solver has been moved to the new library(clpb) and is implemented on top of library(atts).
• New constraint solvers for rationals (library(clpq)) and reals (library(clpr)), implemented on top of library(atts).
• user:goal_expansion/3 is a new hook predicate for macro-expansion.
• bb_put/2, bb_get/2, bb_delete/2, and bb_update/3 are new built-ins implementing blackboard primitives.
• prolog_load_context/2 is a new built-in predicate for accessing aspects of the context of files being loaded.
• user:file_search_path/2 is a new hook predicate providing an alias expansion mechanism for filenames.
• gcd/2 is a new built-in function.
• The statistics keyword walltime measures elapsed absolute time.
• In runtime systems, ensure_loaded/1 and use_module/[1,2,3] have the same semantics as in development systems.
• Native code compilation available for MIPS platforms.
• Problems in native code compilation for certain SPARC models have been eliminated.
• Performance improvements include emulated code speed, native code speed, and the foreign language interface.
• The system has been ported to the DEC OSF/1 Alpha (a 64-bit platform).

Changes introduced in 3#4

• New built-in predicates and shell commands for creating and loading foreign language modules and creating customized development and runtime systems. Previous built-ins remain for backwards compatibility.
• Slight changes in the C interface: hook variables are set by function calls, SP_foreign_reinit_hook is not supported.
• The system has been ported to the Microsoft Win32 platform (Intel x86).
• The system has been ported to the Macintosh.
• The system has been ported to the OS/2 (32bit) platform (Intel x86).
• If the init file ~/.sicstusrc is not found, SICStus looks for ~/sicstus.ini.
• library(sockets): socket_select/5 arg 1 may be a, possibly empty, list of passive sockets, arg 3 returns a, possibly empty, list of new streams.
• library(system): The following new predicates are provided: tmpnam/1, directory_files/2, file_property/2, delete_file/2, make_directory/1.
• A new constraint solver for finite domains (library(clpfd)), implemented on top of library(atts).

Changes introduced in 3#5

• New built-in open/4, enables opening files in binary mode.
• library(charsio): New predicate with_output_to_chars/4.
• library(heaps): New predicates delete_from_heap/4, empty_heap/1, is_heap/1.
• library(queues): New predicate is_queue/1.
• library(sockets): New predicates: socket_accept/3, and socket_select/6 provide address of connecting client. hostname_address/2 resolves name/ip-number.
• SP_atom_length returns the print name length of a Prolog atom.
• Modification time instead of current time stored for loaded files.

Changes introduced in 3#6

• toplevel_print_options and debugger_print_options are new Prolog flags controlling the toplevel's and debugger's printing behavior.
• is_mutable/1 is a new built-in which is true for mutables.
• ~@ is a new spec in format/[2,3] for arbitrary goals.
• Mutables are initialized correctly when read in.
• The finite domain constraint solver (library(clpfd)) has been enhanced by a programming interface for global constraints, improved compilation to library constraints and other performance enhancements, and by a number of new exported constraints.
• library(objects): New hook predicate user:method_expansion/3.
• library(sockets): socket_select/5 has extended functionality.
• Efficiency bugs in format/[2,3] fixed.
• Bug in save_program/[1,2] with native code fixed.
• Bugs in library(chr) fixed, and a couple of new constraint handlers fixed.
• A problem with source linked debugging of DCG rules fixed.
• Prevent looping on duplicates in module/2 decl.
• Prevent memory overrun in library(tcltk).

Changes introduced in version 3.7

• The concept of patchlevels removed and replaced by versions.
• library(chr): A new library module providing Constraint Handling Rules; see

  http://www.pst.informatik.uni-muenchen.de/~fruehwir/chr-solver.html
  

• Jasper, a bi-directional Java-interface, consisting of extensions to the existing FLI and a new library module library(jasper).
• Atom garbage collection, invoked by garbage_collect_atoms/0, and controlled by the agc_margin Prolog flag. New statistics options: atoms, atom_garbage_collection. New interface functions: SP_register_atom, SP_unregister_atom.
• Calls with clean-up guaranteed, provided by call_cleanup/2, which replaces undo/1.
• Source-linked debugging, controlled by the source_info Prolog flag.
• Debugger enhancements: tracing of compiled code; a new debugger mode zip and built-ins zip/0, nozip/0; new debugger commands out n, skip i, quasi-skip i, zip, backtrace n, raise exception. Modules can be declared as hidden which disables tracing of their predicates.
• Saved states are available in runtime systems, and are portable across platforms and between development and runtime systems. save/[1,2] are gone. In most cases, save_program/2 can be used in their place, with a little rearrangement of your code. Predicates can be declared as volatile.
• A interface function SP_restore is the C equivalent of restore/1, which now only restores the program state, leaving the Prolog execution stacks unchanged.
• The GNU Emacs interface was enhanced: source-linked debugging, new menus, speed, help functions, electric functions, indentation, portability, bug fixes.
• The reader can return layout information about terms read in. New read_term/3 option: layout(-Layout). New hook predicate: user:term_expansion/4.
• Module name expansion of goals is done prior to execution of meta-calls.
• Imported predicates can be spied and abolished.
• random:randset/3 returns a set in standard order.
• db:db_canonical/[2,3] are new; can be used to check whether two TermRefs refer to the same term.
• clpfd:serialized_precedence/3 and clpfd:serialized_precedence_resource/4 are new; model non-overlapping tasks with precedence constraints or sequence-dependent setup times.
• In object method bodies, goals of the form :Goal are translated according to the manual. Earlier versions treated arguments occurring in the : position of meta-predicates specially.
• A new interface function SP_raise_fault and interface macro SP_on_fault are available for handling runtime faults that cannot be caught as exceptions.
• A new interface function SP_set_memalloc_hooks is available for redefining the memory manager's bottom layer. Related to that, there is a new command-line option -m.
• Development and runtime systems have been reorganized internally. All use a runtime kernel shared object or DLL, and are initialized by restoring saved states. Development systems additionally use a development kernel shared object or DLL.
• The -B command-line option is gone in the start-up script, and some new options have appeared.
• Under UNIX: new option -base to override the executable used by the start-script.
• Under UNIX: improvements in the configure-script; better options to specify Tcl/Tk versions and paths.
• Hookable standard-streams.
• Floating-point operations on Digital Alpha are now IEEE-conformant.
• reinitialise/0 does not load any initialization files given in -i or -l command line flags.
• Under UNIX: New option -S to spmkrs and spmkds to link the SICStus Runtime Kernel (and development extensions for spmkds) statically into the executable.
• ?- [File1,File2,...] was broken.
• require/1 did not find all directories.
• Runtime systems could crash after GC.
• Bugs in clp[qr]:dump/3, clp[qr]:expand/0, clp[qr]:noexpand/0.
• The garbage collector reported too many bytes collected.
• Memory overflows were not handled gracefully.
• Imported predicates couldn't be abolished.
• arrays:arefa/3, arrays:arefl/3, heaps:min_of_heap/5 are now steadfast.
• Most library(clpfd) predicates now check the type of their arguments. Bugs fixed in relation/3, serialized/2, all_distinct/1.
• frozen/2 could crash on an argument of the wrong type.
• SP_get_list_n_chars does not require a proper list.
• Problems with exceptions in embedded commands in source files.
• Problems with load_files(Files, [compilation_mode(assert_all)]).
• For load_files(Files, [if(changed)]), a non-module file is not considered to have been previously loaded if it was loaded into a different module.
• Incorrect translation of if/3 goals in DCG rules.
• On Win32, system:mktemp/2 sometimes returned filenames with backslashes in them.

Changes introduced in version 3.7.1

• The type-specifier object in Jasper has changed to object(Class).
• Under UNIX: Error-handling in splfr, spmkrs, spmkds.
• Jasper did not convert return values correctly when calling Java from Prolog.
• Jasper did not handle instance methods correctly.
• Some of the legal type-specifiers in Jasper were rejected by the glue-code generator.
• Efficiency bugs in format/[2,3] fixed.
• Bug in save_program/[1,2] with native code fixed.
• Bugs in library(chr) fixed, and a couple of new constraint handlers fixed.
• A problem with source linked debugging of DCG rules fixed.
• Prevent looping on duplicates in module/2 decl.
• Prevent memory overrun in library(tcltk).

Changes introduced in version 3.8

• 3.8 WCX:
• 3.8 Debugger:
• 3.8 ISO:
• 3.8 Generic:
• 3.8 Jasper:
• 3.8 CLPFD:
• 3.8 Bugs:

Wide character support

Wide character handling is introduced, with the following highlights:

• character code sets up to 31 bit wide;
• three built-in wide character modes (ISO_8859_1, UTF8, EUC), selectable via environment flags;
• complete control over the external encoding via hook functions.

For programs using the default ISO_8859_1 character set, the introduction of wide characters is transparent, except for the string format change in the foreign interface, see below.

In programs using the EUC character set, the multibyte EUC characters are now input as a single, up to 23 bit wide, character code. This character code can be easily decomposed into its constituent bytes, if needed. The encoding function is described in detail in the SICStus manual.

To support wide characters, the foreign interfaces now use UTF-8 encoding for strings containing non-ASCII characters (codes >= 128). This affects programs with strings that contain e.g. accented characters and which transfer such strings between Prolog and C. If such a string is created on the C side, it should be converted to UTF-8, before passing it to Prolog. Similarly for a string passed from Prolog to C, if it is to be decomposed into characters on the C side, the inverse transformation has to be applied.

Utility functions SP_code_wci and SP_wci_code are provided to support the conversion of strings between the WCI (Wide Character Internal encoding, i.e., UTF-8) format and wide character codes.

Breakpointing debugger

A new general debugger is introduced, with advanced debugging features and an advice facility. It generalizes the notion of spypoint to that of the breakpoint. Breakpoints make it possible to e.g. stop the program at a specified line, or in a specified line range, or to call arbitrary Prolog goals at specified ports, etc. Highlights:

• Advice facility -- useful for non-interactive debugging, such as checking of program invariants, collecting information, profiling, etc.
• Debugger hook predicate -- new interactive tracer commands can be defined.
• Tracer information access -- data on current and past execution states, such as those contained in the ancestor list, or the backtrace, is now accessible to the program.
• The following built-in predicates have been added: add_breakpoint/2, spy/2, current_breakpoint/4, remove_breakpoints/1, disable_breakpoints/1, enable_breakpoints/1, execution_state/1, and execution_state/2. user:debugger_command_hook/2 is a new hook predicate.

  The predicates nospy/1 and nospyall/0 have slighty changed meaning.

  The predicate spypoint_condition/3 has been removed.

ISO compliance

SICStus 3.8 supports standard Prolog, adhering to the International Standard ISO/IEC 13211-1 (PROLOG: Part 1--General Core). At the same time it also supports programs written in earlier versions of SICStus. This is achieved by introducing two execution modes iso and sicstus. Users can change between the modes using the Prolog flag language. Main issues:

• The sicstus execution mode is practically identical to 3.7.1, except for minor changes in error term format.
• The iso mode is fully compliant with ISO standard, but no strict conformance mode is provided.
• The dual mode system supports the gradual transition from legacy SICStus code to ISO Prolog compliant programs.
• Note that the built-in predicates, functions and Prolog flags, required by the ISO standard, are also available in sicstus execution mode, unless they conflict with existing SICStus predicates or functions. This expansion of the language carries a remote risk of name clashes with user code.

Generic new features

• The spmkds and spmkrs utilities for creating stand-alone executables have been replaced by a common spld utility which takes several new options. Runtime systems do not always need a main program in C. On Windows, the resulting executable can optionally be windowed. The splfr utility takes several new options. The development and runtime kernels have been merged into a single one.
• Partial saved states corresponding to a set of source files, modules, and predicates can be created by the new built-in predicates save_files/2, save_modules/2, and save_predicates/2 respectively. These predicates create files in a binary format, by default with the prefix .po (for Prolog object file), which can be loaded by load_files/[1,2]. The load_type(Type) option of load_files/2 has been extended. Partial saved states render .ql files obsolescent.
• The new built-in predicate trimcore/0 reclaims any dead clauses and predicates, defragmentizes Prolog's memory, and attempts to return unused memory to the operating system. It is called automatically at every top level query.
• The value of the new read-only Prolog flag host_type is an atom identifying the platform, such as 'x86-linux-glibc2.1'.
• The functionality of the source_info Prolog flag, introduced in release 3.7, has been extended beyond the Emacs interface. Line number information is now included in error exceptions whenever possible. This information is displayed in debugging and error messages (outside Emacs) or causes Emacs to highlight the culprit line of code. Valid values are off, on, and emacs.
• Predicate indicators can take the form Name/[Arity,...,Arity] in spy/[1,2], nospy/1, listing/1, abolish/1, profile_data/4, profile_reset/1, save_predicates/2, and gauge:view/1.
• The new interface functions SP_chdir() and SP_getcwd() provide access to the current working directory.
• The interface function SP_load() has been generalized to correspond to load_files/1.
• The interface function SP_deinitialize() is now documented.
• Windows: the registry is no longer used by SICStus itself. The SICStus Runtime Library is located based on the location of sprt<xx>.dll. SP_PATH is only used as a last resort. See Windows notes.
• Source code compilation and installation procedure has been improved and simplified. See README and INSTALL in the source distribution for documentation.
• The layout of the Gauge graphical user interface has been improved.
• The new library(bdb) provides an interface to the Berkeley DB toolset for persistent storage, and replaces library(db). The programming interface of the new module is similar to that of the old one, with some new concepts added such as iterators. The sources of the old library module are available from:

  ftp://ftp.sics.se/archive/sicstus3/libdb.tgz
  

• library(db) is obsolete and will be removed in the next major release.
• Generic runtime systems on Windows are built using spld and exist in three flavors: generic character based (sprt.exe), generic character based interactive (sprti.exe), and generic windowed (sprtw.exe). See Generic Runtime Systems.
• The manual chapter for library(tcltk) has been rewritten and greatly expanded.
• library(clpq) and library(clpr): new predicates inf/4 and sup/4.
• Code fragments loaded via the Emacs interface are imported into the type-in module, unless the source file has an explicit mode line.
• library(gcla) has been removed.
• initialization/[0,1] have been replaced by ISO compliant initializations.

New features in library(jasper)

• Java 2 (a.k.a. JDK 1.2) is now required. library(jasper) will not work using JDK 1.1.x.
• Support for native threads JDKs.
• Changed package name from jasper to se.sics.jasper, according to JavaSoft guidelines. See Getting Started.
• Classfiles are now placed in jasper.jar, which is located in $SP_PATH/bin. See Getting Started.
• The shared library for Jasper (jasper.dll or libjasper.so) is now located in the same directory as the runtime kernel (default <installdir>/lib under UNIX, <installdir>/bin under Windows). See Getting Started.
• Meta-call functionality added (jasper_call_instance/6, jasper_call_static/6, etc.). This makes it possible to call Java without having to generate any glue-code (i.e., without a C-compiler).
• Support for handling local global references from Prolog (jasper_create_global_ref/3, jasper_delete_global_ref/2, jasper_delete_local_ref/2).
• SPException.term declared protected instead of private.
• New class SPCanonicalAtom to handle canonical representations of atoms and to make sure that they are safe with atom-gc. New methods getCanonicalAtom and putCanonicalAtom. New constructor for SPPredicate. getAtom and putAtom deprecated.
• New exception: IllegalCallerException is thrown if the current thread is not allowed to call SICStus.

New features in library(clpfd)

• fd_degree/2 is new; returns the number of constraints attached to a variable.
• labeling/2 requires the list of domain variables to have bounded domains. User-defined variable and value choice heuristics can be provided.
• element/3 is interval-consistent in its second and third arguments. Use relation/3 if domain-consistency is required.
• serialized/3 is new and replaces serialized_precedence/3 and serialized_precedence_resource/4. A number of new options control the algorithm. The space complexity no longer depends on the domain size.
• cumulative/5 is new and takes the same options as serialized/3.
• all_different/2, all_distinct/2 and assignment/3 are new and take options controlling the algorithms.
• Generally, performance and error checking have been improved.

Bugs fixed in version 3.8

• absolute_file_name/2: could crash under IRIX; nested compound terms allowed
• call_cleanup/2: efficiency
• close/1: efficiency; handling the standard streams
• format/[2,3]: ~N didn't work as expected; are now meta-predicates--needed by the ~@ format spec
• load_files/[1,2]: avoid changing directory; don't loop on duplicate exports
• load_foreign_resource/1: filenames containing periods on Windows NT
• print_message/2: in runtime systems
• prolog_load_context/2: value of term_position
• reinitialise/0: sequencing of events
• save_program/[1,2]: fastcode handling; file mode creation masks; in runtime systems
• write_term/[1,2]: the indented(true) option and non-ground terms
• library(db): efficiency of term deletion
• library(heaps): delete_from_heap/4
• library(objects): the new/2 method; cyclic dependencies
• library(random): determinacy and efficiency
• library(sockets): noisy startup on Windows; block buffering is now the default; socket_buffering/4 added
• library(system): sleep/1 admits floats as well as integers
• library(terms): subsumes_chk/2 and variant/2 now don't unblock goals
• glue code generator: incorrect translation of +chars; syntax error messages were suppressed
• all system messages go via the print_message/2 interface
• input argument checking is generally stricter
• resources are unloaded in LIFO order but loaded in FIFO order at save/restore
• CLP(Q,R): answer constraint projection
• problems with bignums and big terms in .ql files
• detecting invalid goals in meta-calls, asserts, load_files/[1,2]
• spurious redefinition warnings
• bignum quotient/remainder on 64-bit architectures
• compiler: complexity of compiling multiple clauses with same key, code generation quality for inline goals
• memory manager: avoiding dangling pointers on Windows, better reclamation of dead clauses and predicates, using dynamic hashing and hashpjw for atoms, keeping predicate tables as small as possible, avoiding stack overflow if multiple goals get simultaneously unblocked, better reuse of free memory blocks
• garbage collector: removing redundant trail entries for mutables, improved scope and speed of generational garbage collection
• callbacks to Prolog while reading from the terminal
• printing atoms with character codes in 27...31
• reading atoms with \c
• Floating point NaN (Not a Number). Now behaves consistently across platforms. In particular fixed Windows related bugs with arithmetic on and printing of NaN.
  • Arithmetic comparisons involving NaN now fails (except =\=). Note that X is nan, X =:= X fails.
  • Term order for NaN is now defined and the same for all platforms. There is a single NaN and it lies between (the float) +inf and the integers.

Changes introduced in version 3.8.1

Version 3.8.1 is a bugfix release only, no new features has been added.

• configure.in: Removed multiple occurences of the -n32 flag under IRIX if cc is used instead of gcc.
• configure.in: FreeBSD 3.x is now handled correctly.
• configure.in: On Linux and Solaris, SICStus is now always linked with the POSIX thread library.
• InstallSICStus: spld did not log verbose output to logfile.
• spld, splfr: Eliminated use of .. to specify relative paths. Caused problems on Windows 95/98.
• library(jasper): Green threads JDKs not supported any longer.
• library(tcltk): Tcl_FindExecutable("") is called when the tcltk library is loaded, before any Tcl/Tk interpreter is created. This should fix errors related to not finding init.tcl and also improve support for international character sets.
• multifile + discontiguous combination fix
• redefinition warning for multifile predicates fix
• listing/[0,1], tell/1, see/1 fixes
• avoid bogus line number info for native code
• trail compression fix
• stack_shifts (statistics/2 option) manual fix
• load_foreign_resource/1 search algorithm fix
• atom/number handling fixes
• raise error for a =.. [b|c]
• avoid SP_term_ref leaks in some functions
• prevent dangling pointer problem in displaying line number info
• check representability of compiled clauses
• prevent looping at halt and elsewhere if advice has been given
• CHR: initialization fix
• CLPFD: fixes and corrections to all_distinct/[1,2], assignment/[2,3], circuit/[1,2], serialized/[2,3], cumulative/[4,5], fdset_member/2, arithmetic
• LINDA: buffering fix

Changes introduced in version 3.8.2

Version 3.8.2 is a bugfix release only, no new features has been added.

• call_residue/2: fix bug when the goal called copy_term/2.
• listing/[1,2], portray_clause/[1,2], top-level: cope with constrained/attributed variables.
• portray_clause/[1,2], write_term/[2,3] with indented(true): do not juggle module prefixes.
• Foreign resources: problems with prelinked resources and with clpfd
• Foreign resources: The returned arguments from a foreign function are now properly ignored if an exception was raised with SP_raise_exception.
• Foreign resources: Added some, for now, undocumented callbacks to sicstus.h. Documented SP_to_os, SP_from_os.
• Atom garbage collector: don't reclaim undefined predicates that have pointers to them; some atom locations were not traced.
• Local stack shifter bug.
• Source info management: ensure expansion of the compiled file table.
• Backtracking from fastcode to compactcode special case.
• Bytecode relocation bug after restore.
• Compiler bug on very large clauses.
• SP_WcxOpenHook: incorrect prototype.
• Emulator kernel: performance bugs.
• 64-bit portability bugs.
• library(bdb): a relative filename given in db_open/5 was treated by SICStus as relative to the current working directory, but should be relative to the given BDB environment.
• library(clpfd): somewhat faster arithmetic, lingering bugs in serialized/[2,3] and cumulative/[4,5], labeling/2 options value/1, variable/1
• The configure script did not specify the correct Irix/MIPS ABI/ISA level building with GCC.
• Added --with=<package> options to spld and splfr to override default installation path for third-party software packages.
• spld: Fixed bugs in argument handling. .pl file arguments are no longer compiled at spld time, but passed directly to SP_load().
• library(jasper): Multiple threads are allowed to call SICStus without IllegalCallerException being thrown. See Java Threads.
• library(jasper): Argument-checking bug in jasper_call_static/6 and jasper_call_instance/6.
• Recover properly from memory allocation failures.

Changes introduced in version 3.8.3

Version 3.8.3 is mainly a bugfix release. New features:

• New interface functions SP_calloc() and SP_strdup().
• The Windows version is now up to twice as fast (measured on the benchmarks in http://www.sics.se/sicstus/benchmarks.html). In particular SICStus ought to be as fast on Windows as on Linux given the same hardware. This will only affect pure Prolog code, builtins such as assert are not affected although the prolog part of libraries are affected. (The change is in the byte code dispatch mechanism).
• The Windows console (spwin.exe) can now save a transcript of the interaction with the Prolog top-level. The command is under the File menu. You may wish to increase the number of save lines in the Windows Settings (under the Settings menu).
• library(clpfd): new constraints disjoint1/[1,2], disjoint2/[1,2] model non-overlapping lines and rectangles.

Bug fixes:

• The Windows console: All Files should now work in file selection dialogs.
• A problem that prevented spld and splfr from working on Windows 95/98 has been fixed.
• Fixed meta-quoting of regular expressions in spld and splfr.
• spld warns when input files are ignored
• Runtime system executables generated using spld return 0 when user:runtime_entry/1 succeeds and 1 on failure or exception.
• SP_chdir declares its first argument as const char *.
• Restore fixes for native code.
• Atom garbage collection during restore fix.
• Listing fix for disjunctions.
• Integer range manual fix.
• Avoid doing initializations twice for -l and -r files.
• Compiler fix for once/1.
• Buffering fix for Linda.
• Wide character handling bug fixes.
• prolog_flag/[2,3]: fix for runtime systems.
• SP_unify(): undo any bindings on failure.
• library(bdb): relative filename handling fix.
• library(clpfd): GC interaction, overflow detection, performance fixes.
• A problem where multiple copies of the Jasper library were loaded has been fixed. This affects all platforms. Now there is exactly one version of the jasper shared library (libjasper.so or jasper.dll).
• Jasper: +atom maps to SPCanonicalAtom instead of SPTerm.
• Jasper: the +double specifier did not work.

Changes introduced in version 3.8.4

Version 3.8.4 is mainly a bugfix release. New features:

• abort/0 returns to the innermost top-level, and does not switch off the debugger.
• library(clpfd): Given a term Term containing domain variables, fd_copy_term(Term,Template,Body) will compute Template and Body where Template is a copy of the same term with all variables renamed to new variables such that executing Body will post constraints equivalent to those that Term is attached to.
• library(tcltk)):
  • Added list(CommandList) to the possible command formats. It creates a TCL list by, in effect, calling the TCL command list with the result of converting each element of CommandList. The result is that Tcl will treat the result as a list with the same length as CommandList even if the elements contains spaces or other special characters.

    Current code that uses ListOfCommands should probably often be better off using list(ListOfCommands). See the manual for details.

  • Added writeq(Command) and write_canonical(Command) as legal command specifications. Documented that write_canonical is the preferred way of passing Prolog terms from Prolog to Tcl and back.
  • More error checking and reporting. In particular the output of a Prolog goal must now be in the special command format. It used to just silently generate garbage. Potential backward compatibility issue.

    Now the value of variables named _ are ignored. This makes it possible to avoid errors if some uninteresting result is not in the special command format. This used to be less of a problem since such errors were silently ignored. (Note: in SICStus 3.8.5 this was changed to ignore all variables with names starting with underscore _.)

  • International (UNICODE) character now passed between Tcl/Tk and Prolog. Made the stream used internally by library(tcltk) always use UTF8 so that non seven bit characters gets recognized by Tcl. This transfers character codes unchanged between SICStus and Tcl so it assumes that SICStus interprets character codes as UNICODE (as this is what Tcl does).
  • tk_num_main_windows/2 and tk_main_window/2 no longer segfaults on Windows if tk_new/2 has not been called. Added a "tk_new called" check to some other routines as well. The segfault occurred when, due to a bug in Tk, Tk uses stubs to access Tcl. Presently Tk uses Tcl stubs by default only on Windows.
  • The empty string resulting from an empty CommandList now becomes properly NUL terminated.
  • prolog_call now resets the FLI stack to avoid space leaks when Tcl/tk is the master and Prolog the slave.
  • Corrected some bugs in the Tcl/Tk documentation. Added examples of using the new command specifications.
• library('linda/client'): New predicate shutdown_server/0. The server keeps running after receiving this signal, until such time as all the clients have closed their connections. Courtesy of Malcolm Ryan.
• Some more options are available when the user is asked about redefining predicates.

Bug fixes:

• skip_line/1, at_end_of_file/0, tab/2.
• Asserting, copying or throwing terms with domain variables now raises an exception instead of crashing.
• Non-existent files and the include/1 directive.
• GC and BDD interaction.
• save_program/[1,2], save_files/[1,2]: check for I/O errors; problems with '$ref'/2 terms; problems with SICStus Objects.
• unload_foreign_resource/1: false alarm in prelinked binaries.
• Jasper: glue code sometimes crashed when returning from a Java method that throwed an exception.
• Jasper: glue code reported errors for bogus argument numbers.
• library(tcltk)): Bug fixes and enhancements, see the New Features section above for details.
• spld/splfr on Windows: Errors are now properly reflected in the exit code from these programs.
• Error handling determining current directory.
• library(clpfd): disequations speeded up, bugs in disjoint1/[1,2], disjoint2/[1,2], element/3, propagation, entailment detection, backward compatibility.
• Workaround for crashes when static SICStus executables, i.e., built with spld --static, load (non-prelinked) dynamic foreign resources. With this workaround loading a dynamic foreign resource into a static SICStus executable will still, unnecessarily, load the shared version of the SICStus runtime system (libsprt38.so) but the shared runtime system will not be used. This will be fixed in a forthcoming release.

Changes introduced in version 3.8.5

Version 3.8.5 is mainly a bugfix release. New features:

• copy_term/2 and call_residue/2 now support finite domain variables.
• Representation errors due to illegal usage of finite domain variables have been replaced by more useful exceptions.
• The new exported predicate terms:term_variables_bag/2 is like terms:term_variables/2, but its output argument is a list of variables in order of first occurrence.
• bdb:db_open/5 is generalized so that a cache size can be provided.
• clpfd:fd_neighbors/2 is a new exported predicates. It is the relation that clpfd:fd_closure/2 is the transitive closure of.
• The Java interface has been improved; see below for new features.

Bug fixes:

• current_atom/1 now terminates correctly.
• once/1 is now handled correctly in ISO mode.
• predicate_property/2 now handles built-ins correctly.
• prolog_flag/2 alias current_prolog_flag/2 now behave as pure relations in SICStus execution mode.
• read/[1,2] now handle character code 0 correctly.
• save_files/2, save_predicates/2, and save_modules/2 do not replace given output file extensions. A .po extension will be added if none is given. Note, however, that load_files/[1,2] will only recognize files with a .po extension as .po files.
• statistics(trail,L) and statistics(choice,L) are more accurate.
• stream_code/2 now handles errors correctly.
• stream_interrupt/3 raises an existence error under Windows.
• stream_property/2 now handles alias/1 property for standard streams correctly.
• stream_select/3 now returns a valid list of streams, and raises an existence error under Windows.
• The tokenizer now does not read too far ahead on non-float tokens that start like floats.
• The s answer to redefinition queries is now handled correctly.
• Worked around a C compiler bug affecting garbage collection under Windows.
• A compiler bug fixed.
• Repeated restoring caused a memory leak, now sealed.
• SP_pred_refs cannot become dangling.
• Calls from C to Prolog now undergo module name expansion and goal expansion, just like calls to call/1.
• Bug fixes in SP_cons_list and SP_cons_functor.
• Memory overflows after SP_open_query() are safe.
• Stream position terms now preserve after end of stream conditions.
• Cyclic terms are detected in arithmetic function arguments.
• Predicates defined by goal expansion only can be exported.
• The character_escapes flag is obeyed in ISO execution mode.
• Debugger bugs fixed: showing source code in Emacs; the a, o, and r commands.
• The Emacs interface function prolog-comment-region now uses triple percent signs, to cater for indent-region.
• The clpfd:full_answer functionality has been repaired, affecting frozen/2, clpfd:attribute_goal/2 and clpfd:fd_copy_term/3. clpfd:fd_global/3 is now a meta-predicate.
• sockets:socket_select/[5,6] are now steadfast; better error handling.
• sockets:socket_select/[5,6] now works correctly with non-socket streams that use file descriptors on systems where sockets and file descriptors are treated the same (i.e., not Windows).
• system:working_directory/2 is now insensitive to any loads in progress. Its arguments are not subject to absolute_file_name/2 processing--that was never intended.
• timeout:time_out/3 now cleans up properly after abort.
• library(bdb) now handles wide characters, e.g. in error messages.
• library(clpfd) now cleans up properly after integer overflows, and does not assume a 32-bit architecture.
• clpfd:cumulative/[4,5] now check that the resource limit is not exceeded by any single task.
• Glue code generated for foreign resources (C and Java) did the wrong thing for [-term]. The problem occurred if the foreign function did many calls to SP_term_ref() or if it raised an exception.
• Fixed a problem with spld and splfr on Windows 95/98.
• On AIX spld and splfr tried to use a nonexisting file. The file (sprt.exp) is now included in the distribution.
• halt/0 and abort/0 are handled better in runtime systems of type --main=load and --main=restore.
• The Java interface (library(jasper) and se/sics/jasper/SICStus etc.) has been improved:
  • Fixed lots of bugs.
  • The Prolog runtime system is no longer de-initialized at random by the Java garbage collector.
  • All Java methods now properly synchronize with the Prolog runtime system to ensure thread safety.
  • There are no longer any known memory leaks when calling Java from Prolog or vice versa.
  • SPTerm and SPQuery now properly detect improper usage and raise exceptions instead of crashing in the Prolog runtime system.
  • Enhanced meta-call interface jasper_call/4 makes foreign resources and splfr strictly optional when calling Java from Prolog.
  • The constructor SPTerm() is no longer public, it was always documented as "should really have been private". Use the contructor SPTerm(SICStus) instead.
  • The exception IllegalCallerException is no longer used. You should change your code to reflect this. One possible change is to change throws IllegalCallerException into throws SPException, this works for the 3.8.4 version as well.
  • The exception IllegalTermException is new. It is signalled when attempting to use a SPTerm where the corresponding term ref is no longer valid. You need to update your code (typically adding throws IllegalTermException). One possible change is to use the less specific throws SPException instead of throws IllegalTermException, this should work for the 3.8.4 version as well.
  • It is now possible to create terms and queries by reading from a string. See SICStus.readFromString() and new versions of SICStus.openQuery() etc.
  • SPPredicate is now deprecated. The preferred method is to supply module and predicate name explicitly.
  • All calls to Prolog now behave as if wrapped in call(M:Goal) where M is the module specified when creating the query. This makes goal expansion and meta argument expansion do the right thing, i.e., behave as if entered interactively.
  • It is now possible to explicitly delete a SPTerm object, making the Prolog side term-ref available for re-use. See SPTerm.delete().
  • The documentation has been improved and expanded.
  • The examples have been updated and new examples added, notably a Swing demo with a Prolog top-level. The Prolog top-level is useful when debugging applications where Java is the top-level application.
  • JavaServer etc is now more clearly marked as unsupported example code. It represents an unfinished sockets based Jasper interface. It does not belong in the se.sics.jasper package and will be removed at a later date.
• library(tcltk). When Tcl/Tk calls prolog it now ignores the returned values of all unbound variables and variables with names starting with underscore _, In 3.8.4 it used to ignored only anonymous variables.

Generic limitations

On 32-bit architectures, the total data space cannot exceed 256 MB. The Linux implementation of sbrk() returns memory starting at 0x08000000, so in practice the limit there is 128 MB. An experimental workaround for the Linux 128 MB limit is available from sicstus-support@sics.se.

The number of arguments of a compound term may not exceed 255.

The number of atoms created may not exceed 262143 (67108863) on 32-bit (64-bit) architectures.

The number of characters of an atom may not exceed 65535.

NUL is not a legal character in atoms.

There are 256 "temporary" and 256 "permanent" variables available for compiled clauses.

Saved states are not portable between 32-bit and 64-bit architectures, or from a system built with native code support to a system without native code support for the same architecture.

Indexing on big integers or floats is coarse.

Questions and answers

Current support status for the various platforms can be found at the SICStus Homepage:

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

Information about and fixes for bugs which have shown up since the latest release can be found there as well.

Send requests for ordering information to

sicstus-request@sics.se

Report bugs through the web interface

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

sicstus-support@sics.se

Bugs tend actually to be fixed if they can be isolated, so it is in your interest to report them in such a way that they can be easily reproduced.

The mailing list

sicstus-users@sics.se

is a moderated mailing list for communication among users and implementors. To [un]subscribe, write to

sicstus-users-request@sics.se

Table of Contents

• SICStus Prolog Release Notes
• Overview
• Release notes and installation guide for UNIX
  • The Crypt Utility
  • Installation
  • Foreign language interface
    • How to customize splfr and spld
    • How to create dynamic linked foreign resources manually
    • Interfacing to C++
    • Runtime Systems on Target Machines
  • Platform specific notes
  • Files that may be redistributed with runtime systems
• Release notes and installation guide for Windows
  • Requirements
  • Installation
  • Windows Notes
    • Runtime Systems on Target Machines
    • Generic Runtime Systems
    • Setting SP_PATH under Windows
  • Command line editing
  • The console window
    • Console Preferences
  • Emacs Interface
  • Limitations
  • Files that may be redistributed with runtime systems
• Tcl/Tk notes
  • The Tcl/Tk Terminal Window
• Jasper notes
  • Getting Started
    • Running Java from SICStus
    • Running SICStus from Java
  • Jasper Package Options
  • Known Bugs and Limitations in Jasper
  • Java Examples Directory
  • Resources
• Visual Basic notes
• Berkeley DB notes
• The Emacs Interface
  • Installation
    • Installing On-Line Documentation
• Revision history
  • Changes in release 3
  • Changes introduced in 3#4
  • Changes introduced in 3#5
  • Changes introduced in 3#6
  • Changes introduced in version 3.7
  • Changes introduced in version 3.7.1
  • Changes introduced in version 3.8
    • Wide character support
    • Breakpointing debugger
    • ISO compliance
    • Generic new features
    • New features in library(jasper)
    • New features in library(clpfd)
    • Bugs fixed in version 3.8
  • Changes introduced in version 3.8.1
  • Changes introduced in version 3.8.2
  • Changes introduced in version 3.8.3
  • Changes introduced in version 3.8.4
  • Changes introduced in version 3.8.5
• Generic limitations
• Questions and answers