HELP EDINSYNT                                    Simon Nichols  Feb 1990

Although the syntax of POPLOG Prolog is similar to Edinburgh (or DEC10)
syntax, there are a number of differences, primarily relating to the
significance (or otherwise) of white space before an opening parenthesis
and after a full stop (see PLOGHELP * SYNTAX for details). Library
EDINSYNT provides full compatibility with Edinburgh syntax by defining a
new tokeniser and reader.

In addition to recognising white space in appropriate contexts, the
tokeniser caters for all Edinburgh features such as radix notation (e.g.
16'7F) and character notation (e.g. 0'a).


-- USAGE --------------------------------------------------------------

    ?- library(edinsynt).

loads the library.

    ?- prolog_syntax(edinburgh).

switches to Edinburgh syntax.

    ?- prolog_syntax(poplog).

switches back to the standard POPLOG Prolog syntax.

    ?- prolog_syntax(X).

unifies the variable X with the current syntax: possible answers are

    X = poplog ?

or

    X = edinburgh ?


-- COMMANDS -----------------------------------------------------------

Commands such as "ved", "help" and "cd" (see PLOGHELP * COMMANDS) will
work with Edinburgh syntax.


-- MACROS -------------------------------------------------------------

Macros (see PLOGHELP * MACROS) will not work with Edinburgh syntax.


-- MAKING A SAVED IMAGE OF PROLOG WITH EDINBURGH SYNTAX ---------------

There is a library file provided which when loaded will make a layered
saved image of Prolog with Edinburgh syntax:

    ?- library(mkedinsynt).

The saved image is invoked from the UNIX shell as:

    % prolog -edinsynt

or from VMS DCL as

    $ prolog/edinsynt

and will start-up with Edinburgh syntax as default.

When a saved image is made from within Prolog, it will contain
predicates and procedures you and your initialisation files ("init.pl",
"vedinit.p", etc.) have already loaded. This can be avoided by making a
saved image from the shell (or DCL) as follows:

    % prolog $usepop/pop/plog/lib/mkedinsynt                    (UNIX)

    $ prolog usepop:[pop.plog.lib]mkedinsynt                    (VMS)

Note that the saved image (whether created from inside Prolog or from
the operating system) will re-load your initialisation files on
start-up, just as the ordinary Prolog does.

See HELP * INITIAL for general information about saved images in POPLOG,
and REF * SYSTEM for further details.


--- C.all/plog/help/edinsynt
--- Copyright University of Sussex 1990. All rights reserved. ----------
