This section provides an example to illustrate how PrologBeans can be used. This application has a simple Java GUI where the user can enter expressions that will be evaluated by an expression evaluation server.
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import se.sics.prologbeans.*;
public class EvaluateGUI implements ActionListener {
private JTextArea text = new JTextArea(20, 40);
private JTextField input = new JTextField(36);
private JButton evaluate = new JButton("Evaluate");
private PrologSession session = new PrologSession();
public EvaluateGUI() {
JFrame frame = new JFrame("Prolog Evaluator");
Container panel = frame.getContentPane();
panel.add(new JScrollPane(text), BorderLayout.CENTER);
JPanel inputPanel = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
inputPanel.add(input, BorderLayout.CENTER);
inputPanel.add(evaluate, BorderLayout.EAST);
panel.add(inputPanel, BorderLayout. SOUTH);
text.setEditable(false);
evaluate.addActionListener(this);
input.addActionListener(this);
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame.pack();
frame.setVisible(true);
}
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event) {
try {
Bindings bindings = new Bindings().bind("E",
input.getText() + '.');
QueryAnswer answer =
session.executeQuery("evaluate(E,R)", bindings);
Term result = answer.getValue("R");
if (result != null) {
text.append(input.getText() + " = " + result + '\n');
input.setText("");
} else {
text.append("Error: " + answer.getError() + "\n");
}
} catch (Exception e) {
text.append("Error when querying Prolog Server: " +
e.getMessage() + '\n');
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
new EvaluateGUI();
}
}
The Java code above first sets up the GUI with a text area for showing
results, a text field for entering expressions, and a button for
requesting an evaluation (the constructor EvaluateGUI()). It
will also add itself as ActionListener on both the text field
and the button. The method actionPerformed(ActionEvent event)
will be called whenever the user has pressed <RET> or clicked on the
button. actionPerformed first binds the variable E to
the value of the text field, and then sends the query to the Prolog
server with session.executeQuery("evaluate(E,R)",
bindings);. If everything goes well, the Prolog server will return an
answer (bound to R), which will be appended to the text area.
:- module(evaluate,[main/0,my_predicate/2]).
:- use_module(library(prologbeans)).
:- use_module(library(charsio), [read_from_chars/2]).
%% Register acceptable queries and start the server (using default port)
main:-
register_query(evaluate(C,P), my_predicate(C,P)),
start.
%% We have received a list of characters,
%% which needs to be converted into an expression
my_predicate(Chars, P) :-
read_from_chars(Chars, X),
P is X.
The Prolog code above first defines the module and imports the needed
modules. Then, in the main/0 predicate, it configures the
server to answer queries on the form evaluate(C,P) and
starts the server. The last few lines defines the predicate
my_predicate(Chars, P), which is the predicate that performs the
evaluation. Note that the expression to evaluate is represented as a
list of characters and must be converted into a term before
evaluation.
Please note: the environment variable SP_PATH as used here is meant to be a shorthand for the SICStus Prolog installation directory, and does not need to be set explicitly.
To start the example, first start the Prolog server by going to the pbexamples(evaluate) directory and type:
% sicstus -l evaluate.pl --goal "main."
To start the GUI type (from the same directory as above):
> java -classpath "%SP_PATH%\bin\prologbeans.jar;." EvaluateGUI (Windows), or % java -classpath "$SP_PATH/bin/prologbeans.jar:." EvaluateGUI (UNIX)