Jocelyn Paine

Part I describes the Logic Programming Tutor (LPT). This is a program to help teach Prolog to people who know nothing about logic or computing. The LPT can accept programs in either Prolog or an English-like notation, and translate between one and the other. It has a built-in editor, so students can change small programs without needing to master an external editor. The LPT can display sections from one of several "scripts" written by a teacher; these guide the student to learn Prolog by experimenting with the Tutor. Part I gives the rationale for using and developing the Tutor, and a complete description of its workings, all source code included. Part II lists the scripts used at Oxford University Psychology Department, with notes to the teacher.

The Logic Programming Tutor (LPT) assumes no prior knowledge or experience of Prolog. The book is designed as a teaching tool to be used in conjunction with a computer program of the same name which is offered free of charge on disk. The LPT is essentially a user friendly front-end that can accept either Prolog or an English-like notation, and translate between one and the other. There is a built-in editor which can display sections from one of several `scripts' written by an instructor; these guide the student in learning Prolog by experimentation. The book is divided into two parts. Part I describes in detail how the Tutor works, and finishes with a complete listing of the source code. Because the Tutor's editor and the script handler are independent of the programming language it accepts, it will be of interest not only to teachers of Prolog, but also to those teaching other logic-based languages built on it -- for example, frame-based or object-oriented languages. Part II contains the scripts and supplementary exercises used with the LPT at Oxford University. Each script is accompanied by notes to the teacher, giving answers to exercises, and indicating problems and misconceptions that students have experienced.

This book explains a new approach to debugging Prolog programs and to teaching the Prolog language. TPM's style of graphical representation (AORTA diagrams) is widely accepted as the best graphical visualization of Prolog execution. TPM was developed at the Open University in collaboration with Expert Systems International. The widely accepted presentation is used in the TPM software and also in the Open University teaching materials for Prolog. This book gives both the theory behind the TPM graphical debugger and a detailed account of its operation, including worked examples, code abstractions and a tutorial.