New features and changes in Trinc-Prolog R3B

New features and changes in R3B

The new features of R3B

The compiler has been extended to support DCG notation for grammar rules.
The import/, import/2, import_module/1, import_module/2, export/1and export/2 clauses were added for creating large programs that consist of multiple modules. With these predicates it is possible to specify per module which clauses it imports from other modules and which predicates are exported for other modules.
59 new built-in predicates: add_callback/3, asserta/2, assertz/2, abolish/2, atom_integers/2, base64_decode_file/2, base64_encode_file/2 , close_console/0, create_module/2, del_env/1, dynamic/2, get/1, get/2, get0/1, get0/2, get_env/2, get_term/2, is_alpha/1, is_alphanum/1, is_ascii/1, is_cntrl/1, is_digit/1, is_graph/1, is_lower/1, is_upper/1, is_space/1, ispresent_callback/3, module/3, module_name/2, number_integers/2, prolog_version/3, put/1, put/2, remove_callback/3, replace/3, retract/2, round/2, see/1, seeing/1, seen/0, seentold/0, setof_reverse/3, set_env/2, set_stream_property/2, telling/1, this_module/3, time_elapsed/1, to_lower/1, to_prolog/1, to_string/1, to_upper/1, told/0, trim/1, triml/1, trimr/1, write_list/1, write_list/2, write_list_goal/2 and write_list_goal/3.
Four reserved variable names were added: __FILE__, __HOST__, __LINE__ and __MODULE__. These can be useful for debugging purposes because occurences of these variables are replaced while compiling a source file.
Windows shortcuts to files are automatically detected, read and followed by Trinc-Prolog while loading a file for compiliation.
It is possible to determine how integers and floating-point numbers are written to a stream with the number_format_string property of a stream. This is very useful for financial applications.
A list of open-options can be the third argument of consult/3, open_module_search/3 and open_module/3. An open-option called 'not_active' has been added.
7 new predicates in the datetime module: age/7, monday_of_week/5, next_week/4, num_weeks_in_year/2, prev_week/4, start_of_week/3 and first_week/2. The documentation of datetime module was changed and integrated with the built-in predicates documentation.
4 new predicates in the list module: largest_number/2, smallest_number/2, sum_list/2 and sum_list_integer/2. The documentation of the list module was changed.
A new simpeler method to send an asynchronous event from an extension library to Trinc-Prolog.
Argument indexing of predicates to increase the speed of program execution.
With the compile directive not_redo/1 is it possible to specify that for certain goals only 1 solution may be found.
The new predicate add_callback/3 makes it possible to send events of instances to a normal Prolog clause and not just to destination instances like with add_callback/4.
The database class can now use persistent database connections.
- database::persistentOpen/4.
The query class has 3 new methods to iterate through a result set with a fail driven loop:
The TPWin collection of classes has been extended with a numberEdit, treeView and line control classes.
The following methods were added to make visual controls more suitable for database applications:
New methods of TPWIN classes:

Changes in R3B

About 50% less memory is used and the speed of the Prolog inference engine has been increased by 30%.
The project manager translates absolute paths to relative paths, all filepaths are now relative to the location of the project file.
When a file is compiled the default access property of all clauses is public and clauses asserted to a module are automatically made public clauses. It is now allowed to assert non-existent clauses, i.e. if there are no user-defined procedures for it. This all complies with the ISO Prolog standard.
The built-in predicate this/1 now throws 'type_error(instance, Argument)' exceptions instead of 'type_error(variable, Argument)'.
The default value of the prolog flag num_digits has been increased from 7 to 15 to make working with very large floating-point numbers easier.
The maximum size of an atom is now 2.147.483.647 bytes. If an atom is equal or larger than that number of bytes the compiler generates an error.
With a second backslash character is it possible to signal the end of an escape sequence.
It is possible to use relative path names in the predicates consult/1, consult/3, open_module/1 and open_module/3.
The compiler now reports a syntax error when it detects an AND operator as the main operator of a Prolog clause, an example of such an incorrect clause is: 'a, b, c.'
The is_string/2 operator can now be used with null atoms.
An exception is thrown if an atom with arguments in the right expression of is_string/2 is encountered that is not a built-in predicate.
In the dialog for replaying a test an option has been added for ignoring the identifiers of empty variables.
The console window can be resized while it is asking the user for data.
The debugger does not show more than 2000 characters of a veriable value in the watch- and popup hint windows.
The maximum length of a line in the text editor was increased from 1000 to 2048 characters.
The declaration of the file class was moved to the file os.txt in the modules folder of Trinc-Prolog.
All reported bugs have been fixed, these are: 20001228-00, 20001229-00, 20010103-00, 20010107-00, 20010213-00, 20010213-01, 20010213-02, 20010213-03, 20010223-01

We welcome any idea for further improving and extending Trinc-Prolog, please use the wishlist forum for posting your ideas.

[top] [up] New features in R3A

info@trinc-prolog.com