Visualizing prolog: A "jigsaw puzzle" approach

Lee Mondshein, Bridgewater State University
Abdul Sattar, Bridgewater State University
Torben Lorenzen, Bridgewater State University

Abstract

At Bridgewater State College, Prolog serves as a student's first introduction to programming in a declarative language. Students often find it difficult to understand how Prolog implements logical deduction and handles variable bindings as it processes a query. The authors show snapshots of the deduction process and present a graphical ("jigsaw puzzle") representation of the emerging logical relationships, which our students find to be helpful. Typical parent-child predicate relationships are used as introductory examples.