PLOGHELP PRINT                               Simon Nichols, October 1990
                                        Updated, Simon Nichols, May 1991


Predicates which write a term to the current output using portray/1.

    ?- print(Term).
    ?- printq(Term).

The predicate print/1 attempts to print its argument using the
user-defined predicate portray/1. If the call to portray/1 succeeds,
then it is assumed that Term has been output. Otherwise, Term is printed
in a manner similar to write/1, except that print/1 is called to print
each argument (or component) of Term. Thus, portray/1 is invoked at each
stage of the printing of Term, including nested sub-terms.

The predicate printq/1 is similar, except that if no suitable portray
clause exists for a term or any component of it, printq/1 behaves like
writeq/1 rather than write/1. In other words, it quotes atoms which
need to be quoted in order to be re-readable using read/1 (see
PLOGHELP * WRITEQ).

By defining clauses for portray/1 and using print/1 rather than write/1
to print terms, you may define your own pretty printing. For example, if
you would like lists to be printed enclosed in parentheses and without
commas, add the following clause to portray/1:

    portray(List) :-
        (List = [] ; List = [_|_]), !,
        print_list(List).

and do all your output using print/1. This clause uses the predicate
print_list/1 to print lists in the preferred format:

    print_list(List) :-
        write('('),
        print_list1(List),
        write(')').

    print_list1([X]) :- !,
        print(X).
    print_list1([X|Xs]) :- !,
        print(X),
        tab,
        print_list1(Xs).
    print_list1([]).

Note the recursive calls to print/1, to ensure that the sub-lists (and
other terms) are printed using portray/1.

The goal

    ?- print([1,2,3,[4,5],6]).

will output

    (1 2 3 (4 5) 6)

whereas the goal

    ?- write([1,2,3,[4,5],6]).

will still output

    [1, 2, 3, [4, 5], 6]

All debugging output is printed using print/1.

Note: If you add clauses to portray/1 one at a time, make sure you use
consult/1 rather than reconsult/1, otherwise you will lose your earlier
clause definitions. (see PLOGHELP * CONSULT, PLOGHELP * RECONSULT).


-- RELATED DOCUMENTATION ----------------------------------------------

PLOGHELP * I_O
 Overview of input/output operations in Prolog

PLOGHELP * WRITE
 Predicate which writes a term to the current output

PLOGHELP * WRITEQ
 Predicate which writes a term to the current output, quoting atoms to
 make them readable by read/1

PLOGHELP * DISPLAY
 Predicate which writes a term to the current output in prefix format


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