Programming in Prolog by Clocksin & Mellish (Springer-Verlag)
Programming in Prolog, first edition, 1981.
The programming language Prolog was invented in 1972 and quickly became part of the toolkit for people interested in Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems, which were areas that were well funded in the 1970s and experienced rapid growth. This classic text, published in 1981, was well regarded and widely adopted as a standard textbook for the many Prolog courses that were popping up in many universities’ computer science departments.
The book has an iconic look: metallic silver cover, with the title printed in yellow with a white shadow effect using Churchward Design. The same design was used for several subsequent editions. Prolog itself was regarded as quite a difficult language, consequently the book itself could strike fear into the hearts of graduate computer science students who could easily spot the distinctive silver tome from across the courtyard, giving them flashbacks to late-nights struggling with Prolog.
The publishers imprint is in Helvetica and could be improved by kerning “York“ properly.
Second edition, 1984. The “Yo” pair is kerned tighter here.
Third, revised and extended edition, 1987. The title now was arranged in two lines, with a dark shadow.
