[m-users.] Mercury operators explained

[Piotr Trojanek]

Thank you both for a detailed and prompt reply!

I am making my first steps with Mercury and perhaps I need a less
trial-and-error approach. However, I still can not find an explanation
of the "=\\=" operator. Is there any other reference/book/guide that I
should consult?

-- Piotr

On Wed, Feb 19, 2014 at 09:45:14AM +1100, Paul Bone wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 18, 2014 at 10:11:35PM +0000, Piotr Trojanek wrote:
> > Dear Mercury experts,
> > 
> > please excuse me for a naive question, but where can I find
> > documentation of the Mercury operators?
> >
> > I was translating my code from SWI-Prolog and found that there is no
> > "=\=" operator in Mercury. There are many other built-in operators
> > listed in the Mercury Reference Manual, but they are not explained.
> 
> There is no =\= module in Mercury.  Arithmetic expressions are evaluated
> immediately, they do not create terms so you do not need "is" "=:=" or "=\="
> and so-on.  The normal unification and comparison operators should be used.
> 
> Operators are listed in the reference manual and explained in the library
> documentation.  Operators such as "+" (like other predicates) can have
> definitions in different modules, for example the int module defines + as
> taking two "int"s and returning an "int", whereas the float module defines
> + as taking two "float"s and returning a "float".  If your program imports
> both modules the compiler uses the types of variables in your program to
> work out which definition of + to use.
> 
> Library reference:
> http://www.mercurylang.org/information/doc-release/mercury_library/index.html
> 
> Some comparison operators are defined here:
> http://www.mercurylang.org/information/doc-release/mercury_library/builtin.html#builtin
> 
> Goal operators such as conjunction, disjunction implication are defined in
> the reference manual:
> http://www.mercurylang.org/information/doc-release/mercury_ref/Goals.html#Goals
> 
> Some symbols, although I wouldn't call them operators others may disagree,
> are used in declarations, for example the ---> used in type definitions are
> described throughout the reference manual.
> 
> Also note that some symbols are used as both goal operators and symbols in
> declarations.  For example implication <= is also used to describe typeclass
> constraints.
> 
> I hope this helps.
> 
> 
> -- 
> Paul Bone

-- 
Piotr Trojanek