MINERVA superseeded IF/Prolog.
Please see
http://www.ifcomputer.co.jp/MINERVA
for details.
We discontinued to sell IF/Prolog Dec 31. 2003.
For current customers, we continue to provide
professional support for IF/Prolog until Dec 31, 2008.
Here, Special features of IF/Prolog for MS Windows are
explained. For features of IF/Prolog commonly available
on all platforms, please see "IF/Prolog V5.x Overview".
Graphical User Interface
A new graphical user interface for MS-Windows provides fast access to
consulting, loading, debugging, tracing and compilation facilities of
IF/Prolog, together with a comprehensive online hypertext manual and
database browser.
In true MS-Windows style, hot-key menu bars allow you to access key
functions of the system from a single `click' of a button. Pull-down
menus provide equivalent and additional functions for configuring the environment.
The on-line hypertext help provides a comprehensive manual at your
fingertips. The Manual is indexed by both predicate and functionality to
help you find that essential predicate and see what other similar
predicates are available.
The graphical user interface has been extended to fully incorporate the
constraint technology package. The debugger and tracer extend the
traditional four port box debugging model, to clearly show the
suspension and activation of constraints.
The Database Browser allows you to list and examine predicate
definitions in individual modules. Especially useful for
development of large applications comprising many modules and
code from a variety of sources.
Microsoft Developer Studio Environment
The comprehensive development environment compatible with Microsoft Developer
Studio enables IF/Prolog to be developed in a multi- programming
language environment interacting with graphic objects generated
using the graphical tools of the developer studio environment.
Prolog has always been well known as a "rapid-prototyping" language;
with this new interface we move Prolog into the world of rapid-application
development. Developer Studio application templates are provided to
initialise the environment and make compilation of Prolog, C++ and
graphic objects at the click of a button.
The environment allows you to mix the development of user defined
Prolog predicates written in C++ with editing toolbars, pull-down
menus and dialog boxes and of course, Prolog programming. Windows
messages are passed to Prolog via the event interface. Dialog boxes
and the user-main window are started from Prolog directly. A Prolog
system window centralises message events passed to the application and
shows Prolog stream output and error messages.
Unlike many other Prolog's, IF/Prolog does not intend to compete with grahic development tools. Instead, IF/Prolog provides an integrated development environment compatible with Microsoft Developer Studio and flexible enough to interface with any other Windows product.
DDEML, COM, Event and ADO Interfaces
Especially for MS-Windows, DDE, COM and Event interfaces provide easy and
essential access to other applications software.
DDE and COM provide direct bi-directional communication to other tools such as
Visual BASIC, Microsoft Word and Excel.
The COM Interface allows you to manipulate COM objects from IF/Prolog.
You may create new instances of COM components or invoke their methods.
The IF/Prolog COM component allows you to use the IF/Prolog engine
directly as a COM object from other COM compatible programs
such as C++ and Visual Basic.
Event Interface supports Windows own event call-back mechanism
directly inside IF/Prolog. In conjuction with the Microsoft
Developer Studio environment an easy way to bring Windows
events and messages into Prolog is provided. Typically an
event occurs when a button is depressed, a menu selected or a
dialog box is adjusted.
These interfaces are in addition to the C / C++ interface are
included in the standard development system. Applications with
IF/Prolog may naturally take advantage of all interfaces simultaneously.
System Requirement
Hardware Requirement
- An Intel Pentium compatible processor.
- We recommend at least 32Mb of main memory.
- A CD-ROM drive.
Software Requirement
- Microsoft 2000, NT, '95 or '98.
- Approximately 50Mb of free disk space.
When using the IF/Prolog C / C++ interface, a 32-bit C / C++ compiler is required, recommended is Microsoft Visual C++ 5.0 or later.
| 
