From: Aidan <ahumphreys@...>
Date: 2002-06-05T17:00:47+09:00
Subject: Re: Solving logic problems with Ruby

Victor Manuel Reyes Viloria wrote:

> 
> During my college days I experimented with a language called Prolog.
> This language was suitable to solve logic problems.
> Had anybody used Ruby to solve logic problems?

Take a look at the AI section in the RAA. Peter Hickman's SIE, expert 
system's shell might be of interest. 

http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/raa-list.rhtml?name=SIE

Prolog is a special case, since it intrinsically operates on as a 
theorem proving engine. There is however no reason why one could not 
implement a whole variety of specialized theorem engines in Ruby - just 
as one does with Lisp or C.

Another approach that offers some interesting possibilities is to 
implement hybrid applications where imperative languages like Ruby are 
used to perform data manipulation & distribution tasks, under the 
direction of a logic engine implemented in Prolog. A kind of body/brain 
split. You write such a program quite easily on a Linux system. Install 
swi-prolog, or a similar implementation, and drive it from Ruby.

Aidan