From: Neil Matthews
Subject: Re: Prolog vs. Lisp
Date: 
Message-ID: <5htjhu$30p@leibniz.praxis.co.uk>
Susan Fisher RSTC Contractor <·······@felix.cc.gatech.edu> writes: > Gary wrote:
> > 
> > I am looking for a comparison between Prolog and Lisp in terms of
> > the problem domains of each language.
> > is there a text on the net? Magazin?
> > Thanks
> >         Gary
> 
> I have a similar question.  I am taking an AI course where we may
> program in any language we choose.  I debating the use of C, C++,
> and LISP.  I am looking for any insight on the pros and cons of
> these languages.  I am a very new programmer and have honestly
> never had the option of which language to use!  And advice
> would be greatly appreciated.
> 
> Susan

It would depend on the application and its proposed method of
implementation.  Neither C nor C++ are traditional AI languages,
though if your application represents its data in a very numerical
format (for example, the use of arrays of more than one dimension),
C++ can be rather less messy.  LISP is built to accomodate recursive
list operations (it's easier than in C/C++) but personally I found
this to be more of an advantage when dealing with string data.  The
drawback with both C and C++ from an AI perspective is that they are
procedural in nature and in that respect defeat the purpose of an
inference-based AI approach.  Effectively representing rules and a
knowledge base in C++, whilst not impossible (I've done it), is not
an issue with which you'd want to hamper yourself as a new programmer.

Hope this helps.

Neil Matthews