Table of Contents

1 Introduction

Python has a huge developer community that maintains a large set of resources, notably interfaces to just about anything one can imagine. Making such interfaces directly available to Prolog can surely be done. However, developing an interface typically requires programming in C or C++, a skill that is not widely available everywhere. Being able to access Python effortlessly from Prolog puts us in a much better position because Python experience is widely available in our target audience. This solution was proposed in Andersen & Swift, 2023, Swift & Andersen, 2023, initially developed for XSB.

Janus provides a bi-directional interface between Prolog and Python using the low-level C API of both languages. This makes using Python from Prolog as simple as taking the standard SWI-Prolog distribution and loading library library(janus). Using Prolog from Python is as simple as import janus_swi as janus and start making calls. Both Prolog and Python being dynamically typed languages, we can define an easy to use interface that provides a latency of about one μS.

The Python interface is modeled after the recent JavaScript interface developed for the WASM (Web Assembly) version. That is

• A di-directional data conversion is defined. See section 2.

• A Prolog predicate py_call/2 to call Python functions and methods, as well as access and set object attributes.

• A non-deterministic Prolog predicate py_iter/2 to enumerate a Python iterator.

• A Python function janus.query_once() to evaluate a Prolog query as once/1, providing input to Prolog variables using a Python dict and return a Python dict with bindings for each Prolog output variable.

• A python function janus.apply_once() to call a Prolog predicate with N input arguments followed by exactly one output argument. This provides a faster and easier to use interface to compliant predicates.

• Python iterators janus.query() and janus.apply() that provide access to non-deterministic Prolog predicates using the calling conventions of janus.query_once() and janus.apply_once().

The API of Janus is the result of discussions between the SWI-Prolog, XSB and Ciao lang teams. It will be reflected in a PIP (Prolog Improvement Proposal). Considering the large differences in design an opinions in Prolog implementation, the PIP does not cover all aspects of the API. Many of the predicates and functions have a Compatibility note that explains the relation of the SWI-Prolog API and the PIP. We summarize the differences in section 12.

2 Data conversion

The bi-directional conversion between Prolog and Python terms is summarized in the table below. For compatibility with Prolog implementations without native dicts we support converting the {k1:v1, k2:v2, ...} to dicts. Note that {k1:v1, k2:v2} is syntactic sugar for {}(','(:(k1,v1), :(k2,v2))). We allow for embedding this in a py(Term) such that, with py defined as prefix operator, py{k1:v1, k2:v2} is both valid syntax as SWI-Prolog dict as as ISO Prolog compliant term and both are translated into the same Python dict. Note that {} translates to a Python string, while py({}) translates into an empty Python dict.

By default we translate Python strings into Prolog atoms. Given we support strings, this is somewhat dubious. There are two reasons for this choice. One is the pragmatic reason that Python uses strings both for identifiers and arbitrary text. Ideally we'd have the first translated to Prolog atoms and the latter to Prolog strings, but, because we do not know which strings act as identifier and which as just text, this is not possible. The second is to improve compatibility with Prolog systems that do not support strings. Note that py_call/3 and py_iter/3 provide the option py_string_as(string) to obtain a string if this is desirable.

Prolog		Python	Notes
Variable	⟶	-	(instantiation error)
Integer	⟺	int	Supports big integers
Rational	⟺	fractions.Fraction()
Float	⟺	float
@(none)	⟺	None
@(true)	⟺	True
@(false)	⟺	False
Atom	⟵	enum.Enum()	Name of Enum instance
Atom	⟺	String
String	⟶	String
#(Term)	⟶	String	stringify using write_canonical/1 if not atomic
prolog(Term)	⟶	janus.Term()	Represents any Prolog term
Term	⟵	janus.Term()
List	⟶	List
List	⟵	Sequence
List	⟵	Iterator	Note that a Python Generator is an Iterator
py_set(List)	⟺	Set
-()	⟺	()	Python empty Tuple
-(a,b, ... )	⟺	(a,b, ... )	Python Tuples. Note that a Prolog pair A-B maps to a Python (binary) tuple.
Dict	⟺	Dict	Default for SWI-Prolog
{k:v, ...}	⟺	Dict	Compatibility when using py_dict_as({})
py({})	⟵	{}	Empty dict when using py_dict_as({})
{k:v, ...}	⟶	Dict	Compatibility (see above)
py({k:v, ...})	⟶	Dict	Compatibility (see above)
eval(Term)	⟶	Object	Evaluate Term as first argument of py_call/2
py_obj blob	⟺	Object	Used for any Python object not above
Compound	⟶	-	for any term not above (type error)

The interface supports unbounded integers and rational numbers. Large integers (> 64 bits) are converted using a hexadecimal string as intermediate. SWI-Prolog rational numbers are mapped to the Python class fractions:Fraction.^{1Currently, mapping rational numbers to fractions uses a string as intermediate representation and may thus be slow.}

The conversion #(Term) allows passing anything as a Python string. If Term is an atom or string, this is the same as passing the atom or string. Any other Prolog term is converted as defined by write_canonical/1. The conversion prolog(Term) creates an instance of janus.Term(). This class encapsulates a copy of an arbitrary Prolog term. The SWI-Prolog implementation uses the PL_record() and PL_recorded() functions to store and retrieve the term. Term may be any Prolog term, including blobs, attributed variables. Cycles and subterm sharing in Term are preserved. Internally, janus.Term() is used to represent Prolog exeptions that are raised during the execution of janus.query_once() or janus.query().

Python Tuples are array-like objects and thus map best to a Prolog compound term. There are two problems with this. One is that few systems support compound terms with arity zero, e.g., f and many systems have a limit on the arity of compound terms. Using Prolog comma lists, e.g., (a,b,c) does not implement array semantics, cannot represent empty tuples and cannot disambiguate tuples with one element from the element itself. We settled with compound terms using the - as functor to make the common binary tuple map to a Prolog pair.

3 Janus by example

This section introduces Janus calling Python from Prolog with examples.

3.1 Janus calling spaCy

The spaCy package provides natural language processing. This section illustrates the Janus library using spaCy. Typically, spaCy and the English language models may be installed using

> pip install spacy
> python -m spacy download en

After spaCy is installed, we can define model/1 to represent a Python object for the English language model using the code below. Note that by tabling this code as shared, the model is loaded only once and is accessible from multiple Prolog threads.

:- table english/1 as shared.

english(NLP) :-
    py_call(spacy:load(en_core_web_sm), NLP).

Calling english(X) results in X = <py_English>(0x7f703c24f430), a blob that references a Python object. English is the name of the Python class to which the object belongs and 0x7f703c24f430 is the address of the object. The returned object implements the Python callable protocol, i.e., it behaves as a function with additional properties and methods. Calling the model with a string results in a parsed document. We can use this from Prolog using the built-in __call__ method:

?- english(NLP),
   py_call(NLP:'__call__'("This is a sentence."), Doc).
NLP = <py_English>(0x7f703851b8e0),
Doc = [<py_Token>(0x7f70375be9d0), <py_Token>(0x7f70375be930),
       <py_Token>(0x7f70387f8860), <py_Token>(0x7f70376dde40),
       <py_Token>(0x7f70376de200)
      ].

This is not what we want. Because the spaCy Doc class implements the sequence protocol it is translated into a Prolog list of spaCy Token instances. The Doc class implements many more methods that we may wish to use. An example is noun_chunks, which provides a Python generator that enumerates the noun chunks found in the input. Each chunk is an instance of Span, a sequence of Token instances that have the property text. The program below extracts the noun chunks of the input as a non-deterministic Prolog predicate. Note that we use py_object(true) to get the parsed document as a Python object. Next, we use py_iter/2 to access the members of the Python iterator returned by Doc.noun_chunks as Python object references and finally we extract the text of each noun chunk as an atom. The SWI-Prolog (atom) garbage collector will take care of the Doc and Span Python objects. Immediate release of these objects can be enforced using py_free/1.^{2Janus implementations are not required to implement Python object reference garbage collection.}

:- use_module(library(janus)).

:- table english/1.

english(NLP) :-
    py_call(spacy:load(en_core_web_sm),NLP).

noun(Sentence, Noun) :-
    english(NLP),
    py_call(NLP:'__call__'(Sentence), Doc, [py_object(true)]),
    py_iter(Doc:noun_chunks, Span, [py_object]),
    py_call(Span:text, Noun).

After which we can call

?- noun("This is a sentence.", Noun).
Noun = 'This' ;
Noun = 'a sentence'.

The subsequent section 4 documents the Prolog library library(janus).

4 library(janus): Call Python from Prolog

This library implements calling Python from Prolog. It is available directly from Prolog if the janus package is bundled. The library provides access to an embedded Python instance. If SWI-Prolog is embedded into Python using the Python package janus-swi, this library is provided either from Prolog or from the Python package.

Normally, the Prolog user can simply start calling Python using py_call/2 or friends. In special cases it may be needed to initialize Python with options using py_initialize/3 and optionally the Python search path may be extended using py_add_lib_dir/1.

[det]py_version

Print version info on the embedded Python installation based on Python sys.version. If a Python virtual environment (venv) is active, indicate this with the location of this environment found.

[det]py_call(+Call)

[det]py_call(+Call, -Return)

[det]py_call(+Call, -Return, +Options)

Call Python and return the result of the called function. Call has the shape‘[Target][:Action]*`, where Target is either a Python module name or a Python object reference. Each Action is either an atom to get the denoted attribute from current Target or it is a compound term where the first argument is the function or method name and the arguments provide the parameters to the Python function. On success, the returned Python object is translated to Prolog. Action without a Target denotes a buit-in function.

Arguments to Python functions use the Python conventions. Both positional and keyword arguments are supported. Keyword arguments are written as Name = Value and must appear after the positional arguments.

Below are some examples.

% call a built-in
?- py_call(print("Hello World!\n")).
true.

% call a built-in (alternative)
?- py_call(builtins:print("Hello World!\n")).
true.

% call function in a module
?- py_call(sys:getsizeof([1,2,3]), Size).
Size = 80.

% call function on an attribute of a module
?- py_call(sys:path:append("/home/bob/janus")).
true

% get attribute from a module
?- py_call(sys:path, Path)
Path = ["dir1", "dir2", ...]

Given a class in a file dog.py such as the following example from the Python documentation

class Dog:
    tricks = []

    def __init__(self, name):
        self.name = name

    def add_trick(self, trick):
        self.tricks.append(trick)

We can interact with this class as below. Note that $Doc in the SWI-Prolog toplevel refers to the last toplevel binding for the variable Dog.

?- py_call(dog:'Dog'("Fido"), Dog).
Dog = <py_Dog>(0x7f095c9d02e0).

?- py_call($Dog:add_trick("roll_over")).
Dog = <py_Dog>(0x7f095c9d02e0).

?- py_call($Dog:tricks, Tricks).
Dog = <py_Dog>(0x7f095c9d02e0),
Tricks = ["roll_over"]

If the principal term of the first argument is not Target:Func, The argument is evaluated as the initial target, i.e., it must be an object reference or a module. For example:

?- py_call(dog:'Dog'("Fido"), Dog),
   py_call(Dog, X).
   Dog = X, X = <py_Dog>(0x7fa8cbd12050).
?- py_call(sys, S).
   S = <py_module>(0x7fa8cd582390).

Options processed:

py_object(Boolean)

If true (default false), translate the return as a Python object reference. Some objects are always translated to Prolog, regardless of this flag. These are the Python constants None, True and False as well as instances of the Python base classes int, float, str or tuple. Instances of sub classes of these base classes are controlled by this option.

py_string_as(+Type)

If Type is atom (default), translate a Python String into a Prolog atom. If Type is string, translate into a Prolog string. Strings are more efficient if they are short lived.

py_dict_as(+Type)

One of dict (default) to map a Python dict to a SWI-Prolog dict if all keys can be represented. If {} or not all keys can be represented, Return is unified to a term {k:v, ...} or py({}) if the Python dict is empty.

Compatibility

PIP. The options py_string_as and py_dict_as are SWI-Prolog specific, where SWI-Prolog Janus represents Python strings as atoms as required by the PIP and it represents Python dicts by default as SWI-Prolog dicts. The predicates values/3, keys/2, etc. provide portable access to the data in the dict.

[nondet]py_iter(+Iterator, -Value)

[nondet]py_iter(+Iterator, -Value, +Options)

True when Value is returned by the Python Iterator. Python iterators may be used to implement non-deterministic foreign predicates. The implementation uses these steps:

1. Evaluate Iterator as py_call/2 evaluates its first argument, except the Obj:Attr = Value construct is not accepted.
2. Call __iter__ on the result to get the iterator itself.
3. Get the __next__ function of the iterator.
4. Loop over the return values of the next function. If the Python return value unifies with Value, succeed with a choicepoint. Abort on Python or unification exceptions.
5. Re-satisfaction continues at (4).

The example below uses the built-in iterator range():

?- py_iter(range(1,3), X).
X = 1 ;
X = 2.

Note that the implementation performs a look ahead, i.e., after successful unification it calls‘__next__()` again. On failure the Prolog predicate succeeds deterministically. On success, the next candidate is stored.

Note that a Python generator is a Python iterator. Therefore, given the Python generator expression below, we can use py_iter(squares(1,5),X) to generate the squares on backtracking.

def squares(start, stop):
     for i in range(start, stop):
         yield i * i

Options

is processed as with py_call/3.

Compatibility

PIP. The same remarks as for py_call/2 apply.

bug

Iterator may not depend on janus.query(), i.e., it is not possible to iterate over a Python iterator that under the hoods relies on a Prolog non-deterministic predicate.

[det]py_setattr(+Target, +Name, +Value)

Set a Python attribute on an object. If Target is an atom, it is interpreted as a module. Otherwise it is normally an object reference. py_setattr/3 allows for chaining and behaves as if defined as

py_setattr(Target, Name, Value) :-
    py_call(Target, Obj, [py_object(true)]),
    py_call(setattr(Obj, Name, Value)).

Compatibility

PIP

[semidet]py_is_object(@Term)

True when Term is a Python object reference. Fails silently if Term is any other Prolog term.

Errors

existence_error(py_object, Term) is raised of Term is a Python object, but it has been freed using py_free/1.

Compatibility

PIP. The SWI-Prolog implementation is safe in the sense that an arbitrary term cannot be confused with a Python object and a reliable error is generated if the references has been freed. Portable applications can not rely on this.

[semidet]py_is_dict(@Term)

True if Term is a Prolog term that represents a Python dict.

Compatibility

PIP. The SWI-Prolog version accepts both a SWI-Prolog dict and the {k:v,...} representation. See py_dict_as option of py_call/2.

[det]py_free(+Obj)

Immediately free (decrement the reference count) for the Python object Obj. Further reference to Obj using e.g., py_call/2 or py_free/1 raises an existence_error. Note that by decrementing the reference count, we make the reference invalid from Prolog. This may not actually delete the object because the object may have references inside Python.

Prolog references to Python objects are subject to atom garbage collection and thus normally do not need to be freed explicitly.

Compatibility

PIP. The SWI-Prolog implementation is safe and normally reclaiming Python object can be left to the garbage collector. Portable applications may not assume garbage collection of Python objects and must ensure to call py_free/1 exactly once on any Python object reference. Not calling py_free/1 leaks the Python object. Calling it twice may lead to undefined behavior.

[semidet]py_with_gil(:Goal)

Run Goal as once(Goal) while holding the Phyton GIL (Global Interpreter Lock). Note that all predicates that interact with Python lock the GIL. This predicate is only required if we wish to make multiple calls to Python while keeping the GIL. The GIL is a recursive lock and thus calling py_call/1,2 while holding the GIL does not deadlock.

[semidet]py_gil_owner(-Thread)

True when the Python GIL is owned by Thread. Note that, unless Thread is the calling thread, this merely samples the current state and may thus no longer be true when the predicate succeeds. This predicate is intended to help diagnose deadlock problems.

Note that this predicate returns the Prolog threads that locked the GIL. It is however possible that Python releases the GIL, for example if it performs a blocking call. In this scenario, some other thread or no thread may hold the gil.

[det]py_func(+Module, +Function, -Return)

[det]py_func(+Module, +Function, -Return, +Options)

Call Python Function in Module. The SWI-Prolog implementation is equivalent to py_call(Module:Function, Return). See py_call/2 for details.

Compatibility

PIP. See py_call/2 for notes. Note that, as this implementation is based on py_call/2, Function can use chaining, e.g., py_func(sys, path:append(dir), Return) is accepted by this implementation, but not portable.

[det]py_dot(+ObjRef, +MethAttr, -Ret)

[det]py_dot(+ObjRef, +MethAttr, -Ret, +Options)

Call a method or access an attribute on the object ObjRef. The SWI-Prolog implementation is equivalent to py_call(ObjRef:MethAttr, Return). See py_call/2 for details.

Compatibility

PIP. See py_func/3 for details.

[semidet]values(+Dict, +Path, ?Val)

Get the value associated with Dict at Path. Path is either a single key or a list of keys.

Compatibility

PIP. Note that this predicate handle a SWI-Prolog dict, a {k:v, ...} term as well as py({k:v, ...}.

[det]keys(+Dict, ?Keys)

True when Keys is a list of keys that appear in Dict.

Compatibility

PIP. Note that this predicate handle a SWI-Prolog dict, a {k:v, ...} term as well as py({k:v, ...}.

[nondet]key(+Dict, ?Key)

True when Key is a key in Dict. Backtracking enumerates all known keys.

Compatibility

PIP. Note that this predicate handle a SWI-Prolog dict, a {k:v, ...} term as well as py({k:v, ...}.

[det]items(+Dict, ?Items)

True when Items is a list of Key:Value that appear in Dict.

Compatibility

PIP. Note that this predicate handle a SWI-Prolog dict, a {k:v, ...} term as well as py({k:v, ...}.

py_shell

Start an interactive Python REPL loop using the embedded Python interpreter. The interpreter first imports janus as below.

from janus import *

So, we can do

?- py_shell.
...
>>> query_once("writeln(X)", {"X":"Hello world"})
Hello world
{'truth': True}

If possible, we enable command line editing using the GNU readline library.

When used in an environment where Prolog does not use the file handles 0,1,2 for the standard streams, e.g., in swipl-win, Python's I/O is rebound to use Prolog's I/O. This includes Prolog's command line editor, resulting in a mixed history of Prolog and Pythin commands.

[det]py_pp(+Term)

[det]py_pp(+Term, +Options)

[det]py_pp(+Stream, +Term, +Options)

Pretty prints the Prolog translation of a Python data structure in Python syntax. This exploits pformat() from the Python module pprint to do the actual formatting. Options is translated into keyword arguments passed to pprint.pformat(). In addition, the option nl(Bool) is processed. When true (default), we use pprint.pp(), which makes the output followed by a newline. For example:

?- py_pp(py{a:1, l:[1,2,3], size:1000000},
         [underscore_numbers(true)]).
{'a': 1, 'l': [1, 2, 3], 'size': 1_000_000}

Compatibility

PIP

[det]py_object_dir(+ObjRef, -List)

[det]py_object_dict(+ObjRef, -Dict)

Examine attributes of an object. The predicate py_object_dir/2 fetches the names of all attributes, while py_object_dir/2 gets a dict with all attributes and their values.

Compatibility

PIP

[det]py_obj_dir(+ObjRef, -List)

[det]py_obj_dict(+ObjRef, -Dict)

deprecated

Use py_object_dir/2 or py_object_dict/2.

[det]py_type(+ObjRef, -Type:atom)

True when Type is the name of the type of ObjRef. This is the same as type(ObjRef).__name__ in Python.

Compatibility

PIP

[semidet]py_isinstance(+ObjRef, +Type)

True if ObjRef is an instance of Type or an instance of one of the sub types of Type. This is the same as isinstance(ObjRef) in Python.

Type	is either a term Module:Type or a plain atom to refer to a built-in type.

Compatibility

PIP

[semidet]py_module_exists(+Module)

True if Module is a currently loaded Python module or it can be loaded.

Compatibility

PIP

[nondet]py_hasattr(+ModuleOrObj, ?Name)

True when Name is an attribute of Module. The name is derived from the Python built-in hasattr(). If Name is unbound, this enumerates the members of py_object_dir/2.

ModuleOrObj

If this is an atom it refers to a module, otherwise it must be a Python object reference.

Compatibility

PIP

[det]py_import(+Spec, +Options)

Import a Python module. Janus imports modules automatically when referred in py_call/2 and related predicates. Importing a module implies the module is loaded using Python's __import__() built-in and added to a table that maps Prolog atoms to imported modules. This predicate explicitly imports a module and allows it to be associated with a different name. This is useful for loading nested modules, i.e., a specific module from a Python package as well as for avoiding conflicts. For example, with the Python selenium package installed, we can do in Python:

>>> from selenium import webdriver
>>> browser = webdriver.Chrome()

Without this predicate, we can do

?- py_call('selenium.webdriver':'Chrome'(), Chrome).

For a single call this is fine, but for making multiple calls it gets cumbersome. With this predicate we can write this.

?- py_import('selenium.webdriver', []).
?- py_call(webdriver:'Chrome'(), Chrome).

By default, the imported module is associated to an atom created from the last segment of the dotted name. Below we use an explicit name.

?- py_import('selenium.webdriver', [as(browser)]).
?- py_call(browser:'Chrome'(), Chrome).

Errors

permission_error(import_as, py_module, As) if there is already a module associated with As.

[det]py_module(+Module:atom, +Source:string)

Load Source into the Python module Module. This is intended to be used together with the string quasi quotation that supports long strings in SWI-Prolog. For example:

:- use_module(library(strings)).
:- py_module(hello,
             {|string||
              | def say_hello_to(s):
              |     print(f"hello {s}")
              |}).

Calling this predicate multiple times with the same Module and Source is a no-op. Called with a different source creates a new Python module that replaces the old in the global namespace.

Errors

python_error(Type, Data) is raised if Python raises an error.

[det]py_initialize(+Program, +Argv, +Options)

Initialize and configure the embedded Python system. If this predicate is not called before any other call to Python such as py_call/2, it is called lazily, passing the Prolog executable as Program, passing Argv from the Prolog flag py_argv and an empty Options list.

Calling this predicate while the Python is already initialized is a no-op. This predicate is thread-safe, where the first call initializes Python.

In addition to initializing the Python system, it

• Adds the directory holding janus.py to the Python module search path.
• If Prolog I/O is not connected to the file handles 0,1,2, it rebinds Python I/O to use the Prolog I/O.

Options

is currently ignored. It will be used to provide additional configuration options.

[det]py_lib_dirs(-Dirs)

True when Dirs is a list of directories searched for Python modules. The elements of Dirs are in Prolog canonical notation.

Compatibility

PIP

[det]py_add_lib_dir(+Dir)

[det]py_add_lib_dir(+Dir, +Where)

Add a directory to the Python module search path. In the second form, Where is one of first or last. py_add_lib_dir/1 adds the directory as last. The property sys:path is not modified if it already contains Dir.

Dir is in Prolog notation. The added directory is converted to an absolute path using the OS notation using prolog_to_os_filename/2.

If Dir is a relative path, it is taken relative to Prolog source file when used as a directive and relative to the process working directory when called as a predicate.

Compatibility

PIP. Note that SWI-Prolog uses POSIX file conventions internally, mapping to OS conventions inside the predicates that deal with files or explicitly using prolog_to_os_filename/2. Other systems may use the native file conventions in Prolog.

4.1 Handling Python errors in Prolog

If py_call/2 or one of the other predicates that access Python causes Python to raise an exception, this exception is translated into a Prolog exception of the shape below. The library defines a rule for print_message/2 to render these errors in a human readable way.

error(python_error(ErrorType, Value), _)

Here, ErrorType is the name of the error type, as an atom, e.g., ’TypeError’. Value is the exception object represented by a Python object reference. The library(janus) defines the message formatting, which makes us end up with a message like below.

?- py_call(nomodule:noattr).
ERROR: Python 'ModuleNotFoundError':
ERROR:   No module named 'nomodule'
ERROR: In:
ERROR:   [10] janus:py_call(nomodule:noattr)

The Python stack trace is handed embedded into the second argument of the error(Formal, ImplementationDefined). If an exception is printed, printing the Python backtrace, is controlled by the Prolog flags py_backtrace (default true) and py_backtrace_depth (default 4).

Compatibility

PIP. The embedding of the Python backtrace is SWI-Prolog specific.

4.2 Calling and data translation errors

Errors may occur when converting Prolog terms to Python objects as defined in section 2. These errors are reported as instantiation_error, type_error(Type, Culprit) or domain_error(Domain, Culprit).

Defined domains are:

py_constant

In a term @(Constant), Constant is not true, false or none. For example, py_call(print(@error)).

py_keyword_arg

In a call to Python, a non keyword argument follows a keyword argument. For example, py_call(m:f(1,x=2,3), R)

py_string_as

The value for a py_string_as(As) option is invalid. For example, py_call(m:f(), R, [py_string_as(codes)])

py_dict_as

The value for a py_dict_as(As) option is invalid. For example, py_call(m:f(), R, [py_dict_as(list)])

py_term

A term being translated to Python is unsupported. For example, py_call(m:f(point(1,2), R).

Defined types are:

py_object

A Python object reference was expected. For example, py_free(42)

rational

A Python fraction instance is converted to a Prolog rational number, but the textual conversion does not produce a valid rational number. This can happen if the Python fraction is subclassed and the __str__() method does not produce a correct string.

py_key_value

Inside a {k:v, ...} representation for a dictionary we find a term that is not a key-value pair. For example, py_call(m:f({a:1, x}), R)

py_set

Inside a py_set(Elements), Elements is not a list. For example, py_call(m:f(py_set(42), R).

py_target

In py_call(Target:FuncOrAttrOrMethod), Target is not a module (atom) or Python object reference. For example, py_call(7:f(), R).

py_callable

In py_call(Target:FuncOrAttrOrMethod), FuncOrAttrOrMethod is not an atom or compound. For example, py_call(m:7, R).

4.3 Janus and virtual environments (venv)

An embedded Python system does not automatically pick up Python virtual environments. It is supposed to setup its own environment. Janus is sensitive to Python venv environments. Running under such as environment is assumed if the environment variable VIRTUAL_ENV points at a directory that holds a file pyvenv.cfg. If the virtual environment is detected, the actions in the list below are taken.^{3This is based on observing how Python 3.10 on Linux responds to being used inside a virtual environment. We do not know whether this covers all platforms and versions.}

• Initialize Python using the -I flag to indicate isolation.
• Set sys.prefix to the value of the VIRTUAL_ENV environment variable.
• Remove all directories with base name site-packages or dist-packages from sys.path.^{4Note that -I only removes the personal packages directory, while the Python executable removes all, so we do the same.}
• Add $VIRTUAL_ENV/lib/pythonX.Y/site-packages to sys.path, where X and Y are the major and minor version numbers of the embedded Python library. If this directory does not exist we print a diagnostic warning.
• Add a message to py_version/0 that indicates we are using a virtual environment and from which directory.

5 Calling Prolog from Python

The Janus interface can also call Prolog from Python. Calling Prolog from Python is the basis when embedding Prolog into Python using the Python package janus_swi. However, calling Prolog from Python is also used to handle call backs. Mutually recursive calls between Python and Prolog are supported. They should be handled with some care as it is easy to crash the process due to a stack overflow.

Loading janus into Python is realized using the Python package janus-swi, which defines the module janus_swi. We do not call this simply janus to allow coexistence of Janus for multiple Prolog implementations. Unless you plan to interact with multiple Prolog systems in the same session, we advice to import janus for SWI-Prolog as below.

import janus_swi as janus

If Python is embedded into SWI-Prolog, the Python module may be imported both as janus and janus_swi. Using janus allows the same Python code to be used from different Prolog systems, while using janus_swi allows the same code to be used both for embedding Python into Prolog and Prolog into Python. In the remainder of this section we assume the Janus functions are available in the name space janus.

The Python module janus provides utility functions and defines the classes janus.query(), janus.apply(), janus.Term(), janus.Undefined() and janus.PrologError().

The Python calling Prolog interface consist of four primitives, distinguishing deterministic vs. non-deterministic Prolog queries and two different calling conventions which we name functional notation and relational notation. The relational calling convention specifies a Prolog query as a string with an input dict that provides (input) bindings for part of the variables in the query string. The results are represented as a dict that holds the bindings of the output variables and the truth value (see section 5.4). For example:

>>> janus.query_once("Y is sqrt(X)", {'X':2})
{'truth': True, 'Y': 1.4142135623730951}

The functional notation calling convention specifies the query as a module, predicate name and input arguments. It calls the predicate with one argument more than the number of input arguments and translates the binding of the output argument to Python. For example

>>> janus.apply_once("user", "plus", 1, 2)
3

The table below summarizes the four primitives.

	Relational notation	Functional notation
det	janus.query_once()	janus.apply_once()
nondet	janus.query()	janus.apply()

We start our discussion by introducing the janus.query_once(query,inputs) function for calling Prolog goals as once/1. A Prolog goal is constructed from a string and a dict with input bindings and returns output bindings as a dict. For example

>>> import janus_swi as janus
>>> janus.query_once("Y is X+1", {"X":1})
{'Y': 2, 'truth': True}

Note that the input argument may also be passed literally. Below we give two examples. We strongly advise against using string interpolation for three reasons. Firstly, the query strings are compiled and cached on the Prolog sided and (thus) we assume a finite number of distinct query strings. Secondly, string interpolation is sensitive to injection attacks. Notably inserting quoted strings can easily be misused to create malicious queries. Thirdly and finally, serializing and deserializing the data is generally slower then using the input dictionary, especially if the data is large. Using a dict for input and output together with a (short) string to denote the goal is easy to use and fast.

>>> janus.query_once("Y is 1+1", {})    # Ok for "static" queries
{'Y': 2, 'truth': True}
>>> x = 1
>>> janus.query_once(f"Y is {x}+1", {}) # WRONG, See above
{'Y': 2, 'truth': True}

The output dict contains all named Prolog variables that (1) are not in the input dict and (2) do not start with an underscore. For example, to get the grandparents of a person given parent/2 relations we can use the code below, where the _GP and _P do not appear in the output dict. This both saves time and avoids the need to convert Prolog data structures that cannot be represented in Python such as variables or arbitrary compound terms.

>>> janus.query_once("findall(_GP, parent(Me, _P), parent(_P, _GP), GPs)",
               {'Me':'Jan'})["GPs"]
[ 'Kees', 'Jan' ]

In addition to the variable bindings the dict contains a key truth^{5Note that variable bindings always start with an uppercase latter.} that represents the truth value of evaluating the query. In normal Prolog this is a Python Boolean. In systems that implement Well Founded Semantics, this may also be an instance of the class janus.Undefined(). See section 5.4 for details. If evaluation of the query failed, all variable bindings are bound to the Python constant None and the truth key has the value False. The following Python function returns True if the Prolog system supports unbounded integers and False otherwise.

def hasBigIntegers():
    janus.query_once("current_prolog_flag(bounded,false)")['truth']

While janus.query_once() deals with semi-deterministic goals, the class janus.query() implements a Python iterator that iterates over the solutions of a Prolog goal. The iterator may be aborted using the Python break statement. As with janus.query_once(), the returned dict contains a truth field. This field cannot be False though and thus is either True or an instance of the class janus.Undefined()

import janus_swi as janus

def printRange(from, to):
    for d in janus.query("between(F,T,X)", {"F":from, "T":to})
        print(d["X"])

Iterators may be nested. For example, we can create a list of tuples like below.

def double_iter(w,h):
    tuples=[]
    for yd in janus.query("between(1,M,Y)", {"M":h}):
        for xd in janus.query("between(1,M,X)", {"M":w}):
            tuples.append((xd['X'],yd['Y']))
    return tuples

After this, we may run

>>> demo.double_iter(2,3)
[(1, 1), (2, 1), (1, 2), (2, 2), (1, 3), (2, 3)]

In addition to the iterator protocol that class janus.query() implements, it also implements the methods janus.query.next() and janus.query.close(). This allows for e.g.

    q = query("between(1,3,X)")
    while ( s := q.next() ):
        print(s['X'])
    q.close()

But, iterators based on Prolog goals are fragile. This is because, while it is possible to open and run a new query while there is an open query, the inner query must be closed before we can ask for the next solution of the outer query. We illustrate this using the sequence below.

>>> q1 = query("between(1,3,X)")
>>> q2 = query("between(1,3,X)")
>>> q2.next()
{'truth': True, 'X': 1}
>>> q1.next()
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
swipl.Error: swipl.next_solution(): not inner query
>>> q2.close()
>>> q1.next()
{'truth': True, 'X': 1}
>>> q1.close()

Failure to close a query typically leaves SWI-Prolog in an inconsistent state and further interaction with Prolog is likely to crash the process. Future versions may improve on that.

dict janus.query_once(query, inputs={}, keep=False, truth_vals=TruthVals.PLAIN_TRUTHVALS)

Call query using bindings as once/1, returning a dict with the resulting bindings. If bindings is omitted, no variables are bound. The keep parameter determines whether or not Prolog discards all backtrackable changes. By default, such changes are discarded and as a result, changes to backtrackable global variables are lost. Using True, such changes are preserved.

>>> query_once("b_setval(a, 1)", keep=True)
{'truth': 'True'}
>>> query_once("b_getval(a, X)")
{'truth': 'True', 'X': 1}

If query fails, the variables of the query are bound to the Python constant None. The bindings object includes a key truth^{6As this name is not a valid Prolog variable name, this cannot be ambiguous.} that has the value False (query failed, all bindings are None), True (query succeeded, variables are bound to the result converting Prolog data to Python) or an instance of the class janus.Undefined(). The information carried by this instance is determined by the truth parameter. Below is an example. See section 5.4 for details.

>>> import janus_swi as janus
>>> janus.query_once("undefined")
{'truth': Undefined}

See also janus.cmd() and janus.apply_once(), which provide a fast but more limited alternative for making ground queries (janus.cmd()) or queries with leading ground arguments followed by a single output variable.

Compatibility

PIP.

dict janus.once(query, inputs={}, keep=False, truth_vals=TruthVals.PLAIN_TRUTHVALS)

Deprecated. Renamed to janus.query_once().

Any janus.apply_once(module, predicate, *input, fail=obj)

Functional notation style calling of a deterministic Prolog predicate. This calls module:predicate(Input ... , Output), where Input are the Python input arguments converted to Prolog. On success, Output is converted to Python and returned. On failure a janus.PrologError() exception is raised unless the fail parameter is specified. In the latter case the function returns obj. This interface provides a comfortable and fast calling convention for calling a simple predicate with suitable calling conventions. The example below returns the home directory of the SWI-Prolog installation.

>>> import janus_swi as janus
>>> janus.apply_once("user", "current_prolog_flag", "home")
'/home/janw/src/swipl-devel/build.pdf/home'

Compatibility

PIP.

Truth janus.cmd(module, predicate, *input)

Similar to janus.apply_once(), but no argument for the return value is added. This function returns the truth value using the same conventions as the truth key in janus.query_once(). For example:

>>> import janus_swi as janus
>>> cmd("user", "true")
True
>>> cmd("user", "current_prolog_flag", "bounded", "true")
False
>>> cmd("user", "undefined")
Undefined
>>> cmd("user", "no_such_predicate")
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python3.10/code.py", line 90, in runcode
    exec(code, self.locals)
  File "<console>", line 1, in <module>
janus.PrologError: '$c_call_prolog'/0: Unknown procedure: no_such_predicate/0

The function janus.query_once() is more flexible and provides all functionality of janus.cmd(). However, this function is faster and in some scenarios easier to use.

Compatibility

PIP.

None janus.consult(file, data=None, module='user’)

Load Prolog text into the Prolog database. By default, data is None and the text is read from file. If data is a string, it provides the Prolog text that is loaded and file is used as identifier for source locations and error messages. The module argument denotes the target module. That is where the clauses are added to if the Prolog text does not define a module or where the exported predicates of the module are imported into.

If data is not provided and file is not accessible this raises a Prolog exception. Errors that occur during the compilation are printed using print_message/2 and can currently not be captured easily. The script below prints the train connections as a list of Python tuples.

    import janus_swi as janus

    janus.consult("trains", """
    train('Amsterdam', 'Haarlem').
    train('Amsterdam', 'Schiphol').
    """)

    print([d['Tuple'] for d in
           janus.query("train(_From,_To),Tuple=_From-_To")])
    

Compatibility

PIP. The data and module keyword arguments are SWI-Prolog extensions.

None janus.prolog()

Start the interactive Prolog toplevel. This is the Python equivalent of py_shell/0.

5.1 Janus iterator query

Class janus.query() is similar to the janus.query_once() function, but it returns a Python iterator that allows for iterating over the answers to a non-deterministic Prolog predicate.

query janus.query(query, inputs={}, keep=False)

As janus.query_once(), returning an iterator that provides an answer dict as janus.query_once() for each answer to query. Answers never have truth False. See discussion above.

Compatibility

PIP. The keep is a SWI-Prolog extension.

Query janus.Query(query, inputs={}, keep=False)

Deprecated. This class was renamed to janus.query(.)

dict|None janus.query.next()

Explicitly ask for the next solution of the iterator. Normally, using the query as an iterator is to be preferred. See discussion above.

None janus.query.close()

Close the query. Closing a query is obligatory. When used as an iterator, the Python destructor (__del__()) takes care of closing the query.

Compatibility

PIP.

5.2 Janus iterator apply

Class janus.apply() is similar to janus.apply_once(), calling a Prolog predicate using functional notation style. It returns a Python iterator that enumerates all answers.

apply janus.apply(module, predicate, *input)

As janus.apply_once(), returning an iterator that returns individual answers. The example below uses Python list comprehension to create a list of integers from the Prolog built-in between/3.

>>> [*janus.apply("user", "between", 1, 6)]
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

Compatibility

PIP.

any|None janus.apply.next()

Explicitly ask for the next solution of the iterator. Normally, using the apply as an iterator is to be preferred. See discussion above. Note that this calling convention cannot distinguish between the Prolog predicate returning @none and reaching the end of the iteration.

None janus.apply.close()

Close the query. Closing a query is obligatory. When used as an iterator, the Python destructor (__del__()) takes care of closing the query.

Compatibility

PIP.

5.3 Janus access to Python locals and globals

Python provides access to dictionaries holding the local variables of a function using locals() as well as the global variables stored as attributes to the module to which the function belongs as globals(). The Python C API provides PyEval_GetLocals() and PyEval_GetGlobals(), but these return the scope of the Janus API function rather than user code, i.e., the global variables of the janus module and the local variables of the running Janus interface function.

Python code that wishes Prolog to access its scope must pass the necessary scope elements (local and global variables) explicitly to the Prolog code. It is possible to pass the entire local and or global scope by the output of locals() and/or globals(). Note however that a dict passed to Prolog is translated to its Prolog representation. This representation may be prohibitively large and does not allow Prolog to modify variables in the scope. Note that Prolog can access the global scope of a module as attributes of this module, e.g.

increment :-
    py_call(demo:counter, V0),
    V is V0+1,
    py_setattr(demo, counter, V).

5.4 Janus and Prolog truth

In traditional Prolog, queries succeed or fail. Systems that implement tabling with Well Founded Semantics such as XSB and SWI-Prolog define a third truth value typically called undefined. Undefined results may have two reasons; (1) the program is logically inconsistent or (2) restraints have been applied in the derivation.

Because classical Prolog truth is dominant, we represent the success of a query using the Python booleans True and False. For undefined answers we define a class janus.Undefined() that may represent different levels of detail on why the result is undefined. The notion of generic undefined is represented by a unique instance of this class. The three truth values are accessible as properties of the janus module.

janus.true

This property has the Python boolean True

janus.false

This property has the Python boolean False

janus.undefined

This property holds a unique instance of class janus.Undefined()

5.4.1 Janus classed Undefined and TruthVal

The class janus.Undefined() represents an undefined result under the Well Founded Semantics.

Undefined janus.Undefined(term=None)

Instances are never created explicitly by the user. They are created by the calls to Prolog initiated from janus.query_once() and janus.query().

The class has a single property class term that represents either the delay list or the residual program. See janus.TruthVal() for details.

Enum janus.TruthVal()

This class is a Python enumeration. Its values are passed as the optional truth parameter to janus.query_once() and janus.query(). The defined instances are

NO_TRUTHVALS

Undefined results are reported as True. This is quite pointless in the current design and this may go.

PLAIN_TRUTHVALS

Return undefined results as janus.undefined, a unique instance of the class janus.Undefined().

DELAY_LISTS

Return undefined results as an instance of class janus.Undefined(). thats holds the delay list in Prolog native representation. See call_delays/2.

RESIDUAL_PROGRAM

Return undefined results as an instance of class janus.Undefined(). thats holds the residual program in Prolog native representation. See call_residual_program/2.

The instances of this enumeration are available as attributed of the janus module.

For example, given Russel's paradox defined in Prolog as below.

:- module(russel, [shaves/2]).

:- table shaves/2.

shaves(barber,P) :- person(P),  tnot(shaves(P,P)).
person(barber).
person(mayor).

From Python, we may ask who shaves the barber in four ways as illustrated below. Note that the Prolog representations for janus.DELAY_LISTS and janus.RESIDUAL_PROGRAM use the write_canonical/1 notation. They may later be changed to use a more human friendly notation.

# Using NO_TRUTHVALS
>>> janus.query_once("russel:shaves(barber, X)", truth_vals=janus.NO_TRUTHVALS)
{'truth': True, 'X': 'barber'}

# Using default PLAIN_TRUTHVALS (default)
>>> janus.query_once("russel:shaves(barber, X)")
{'truth': Undefined, 'X': 'barber'}

# Using default DELAY_LISTS
>>> janus.query_once("russel:shaves(barber, X)", truth_vals=janus.DELAY_LISTS)
{'truth': :(russel,shaves(barber,barber)), 'X': 'barber'}

# Using default RESIDUAL_PROGRAM
>>> janus.query_once("russel:shaves(barber, X)", truth_vals=janus.RESIDUAL_PROGRAM)
{'truth': [:-(:(russel,shaves(barber,barber)),tnot(:(russel,shaves(barber,barber))))], 'X': 'barber'}

5.5 Janus class Term

Class janus.Term() encapsulates a Prolog term. Similarly to the Python object reference (see py_is_object/1), the class allows Python to represent arbitrary Prolog data, typically with the intend to pass it back to Prolog.

Term janus.Term(*args)

Instances are never created explicitly by the user. An instance is created by handling a term prolog(Term) to the data conversion process. As a result, we can do

?- py_call(janus:echo(prolog(hello(world))), Obj,
           [py_object(true)]).
Obj = <py_Term>(0x7f7a14512050).
?- py_call(print($Obj)).
hello(world)
Obj = <py_Term>(0x7f7a14512050).

Term janus.Term.__str__()

Return the output of print/1 on the term. This is what is used by the Python function print().

Term janus.Term.__repr__()

Return the output of write_canonical/1 on the term.

5.6 Janus class PrologError

Class janus.PrologError(), derived from the Python class Exception represents a Prolog exception that typically results from calling janus.query_once(), janus.apply_once(), janus.query() or janus.apply(). The class either encapsulates a string on a Prolog exception term using janus.Term. Prolog exceptions are used to represent errors raised by Prolog. Strings are used to represent errors from invalid use of the interface. The default behavior gives the expected message:

>>> x = janus.query_once("X is 3.14/0")['X']
Traceback (most recent call last):
  ...
janus.PrologError: //2: Arithmetic: evaluation error: `zero_divisor'

At this moment we only define a single Python class for representing Prolog exceptions. This suffices for error reporting, but does not make it easy to distinguish different Prolog errors. Future versions may improve on that by either subclassing janus.PrologError or provide a method to classify the error more easily.

PrologError janus.PrologError(TermOrString)

The constructor may be used explicitly, but this should be very uncommon.

String janus.PrologError.__str__()

Return a human readable message for the error using message_to_string/2

String janus.PrologError.__repr__()

Return a formal representation of the error by means of write_canonical/1.

6 Janus and threads

Where SWI-Prolog support native preemptively scheduled threads that exploit multiple cores, Python has a single interpreter that can switch between native threads.^{7Actually, you can create multiple Python interpreters. It is not yet clear to us whether that can help improving on concurrency.} Initially the Python interpreter is associated with the thread that created it which, for janus, is the first thread calling Python. The Prolog thread that initiated Janus may terminate. This does not affect the embedded Python interpreter and this interpreter may continue to be used from other Prolog threads.

Janus ensures it holds the Python GIL when interacting with the Python interpreter. If Python calls Prolog, the GIL is released using Py_BEGIN_ALLOW_THREADS.

• Multiple Prolog threads can make calls to Python. The access to Python is serialized. If a Prolog thread does not want other threads to use Python it can use py_with_gil/1. When multiple Prolog threads make many calls to Python performance tends to drop significantly.

• Multiple Python threads can make calls to Prolog. While Prolog is working on the query, the Python interpreter may switch to other Python threads.

6.1 Calling Prolog from a Python thread

Prolog may be called safely from any Python thread. The Prolog execution is embraced with Py_BEGIN_ALLOW_THREADS and Py_END_ALLOW_THREADS, which implies that Python is allowed to switch to another thread while Prolog is doing its work.

If the calling Python thread is not the one that initiated Janus, janus.query_once() and janus.query() attach and detach a temporary Prolog engine using PL_thread_attach_engine() and PL_thread_destroy_engine(). This is relatively costly. In addition we allow associating a Prolog engine persistently with the calling thread.

int janus.engine()

Return the identifier of the Prolog engine associated to the current thread, -1 if no engine is attached or -2 if this version of Prolog does not support engines.

int janus.attach_engine()

Attach a Prolog engine to the current thread using PL_thread_attach_engine(). On success, return the integer thread id of the created Prolog engine.^{8The current implementation passes NULL to PL_thread_attach_engine(). Future versions may provide access to the creation attributes.}

If the thread already has an engine the attach count is incremented and the current engine id is returned. The engine is detached after a matching number of calls to janus.detach_engine()

None janus.detach_engine()

Decrement the attach count of the attached Prolog engine. Destroy the engine if this count drops to zero. Raises an exception of the calling thread is not attached to a Prolog engine.

6.2 Python and Prolog deadlocks

In a threaded environment, Python calls must be guarded by PyGILState_Ensure() and PyGILState_Release() that ultimately lock/unlock a mutex. Unfortunately there is no PyGILState_TryEnsure() and therefore we may create deadlocks when Prolog locks are involved. This may either apply to explicit Prolog locks from with_mutex/2 and friends or implicit locks on e.g. I/O streams. The classical scenario is thread A holding the Python GIL and wanting to call Prolog code that locks a mutex M, while thread B holds M and wishes to make a Python call and this tries to lock the GIL. The predicate py_gil_owner/1 can be used to help diagnosing such issues.

6.3 Janus versions

The current version as an integer can be accessed as janus.version. The integer uses the same conventions as the SWI-Prolog flag version and is defined as 10,000*Major + 100*Minor + Patch. In addition, the module defines the following functions:

str janus.version_str()

Return the Janus version as a string Major.Minor.Patch.

None janus.version()

Print information about Janus and SWI-Prolog version.

7 Janus as a Python package

The Janus GIT repo provides setup.py. Janus may be installed as a Python package after downloading using

pip install .

pip allows for installation from the git repository in a one-liner as below.

pip install git+https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-swipy.git#egg=janus_swi

Installing janus as a Python package requires

• The swipl program in the default search path. The setup.py runs swipl --dump-runtime-variables to obtain the installation locations of the various Prolog components. On Windows, if swipl is not on %PATH%, setup.py tries the registry to find the default binary installation.
• A C compiler that can be used by pip. The janus interface has been tested to compile using GCC, Clang and Microsoft Visual C++.

After successful installation we should be able to use Prolog directly from Python. For example:

python
>>> from janus_swi import *
>>> query_once("writeln('Hello world!')")
Hello world!
{'truth': True}
>>> [a["D"] for a in query("between(1,6,D)")]
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
>>> prolog()
?- version.
Welcome to SWI-Prolog (threaded, 64 bits, version 9.1.12-8-g70b70a968-DIRTY)
SWI-Prolog comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. This is free software.
...
?-

8 Prolog and Python

Prolog is a very different language than imperative languages. An interesting similarity is the notion of backtracking vs. Python iterators.

To be extended.

9 Janus performance evaluation

Below is a table to give some feeling on the overhead of making calls between Prolog and Python. These figures are roughly the same as the figures for the XSB/Python interface. All benchmarks have been executed on AMD3950X running Ubuntu 22.04, SWI-Prolog 9.1.11 and Python 3.10.6.

Action	Time (seconds)
Echo list with 1,000,000 elements	0.12
Call Pyton demo:int() from Prolog 1,000,000 times	0.44
Call Pyton demo:sumlist3(5,[1,2,3]) from Prolog 1,000,000 times	1.4
Call Prolog Y is X+1 from Python 1,000,000 times	1.9
Iterate from Python over Prolog goal between(1, 1 000 000, X)	1.1
Iterate over Python iterator range(1,1000000) from Prolog	0.17

10 Python or C/C++ for accessing resources?

Using Python as an intermediate to access external resources allows writing such interfaces with less effort by a much wider community. The resulting interface is often also more robust due to well defined data conversion and sound memory management that you get for free.

Nevertheless, Python often accesses resources with a C or C++ API. We can also create this bridge directly, bypassing Python. That avoids one layer of data conversion and preserves the excellent multi-threading capabilities of SWI-Prolog. As is, Python operations are synchronized using the Python GIL, a global lock that allows for only a single thread to use Python at the same time.^{9There are rumors that Python's multi threading will be able to use multiple cores.}

Writing an interface for SWI-Prolog is typically easier that for Python/C because memory management is easier. Where we need to manage reference counts to Python objects through all possibly paths of the C functions, SWI-Prolog term_t merely has to be allocated once in the function. All failure parts will discard the Prolog data automatically through backtracking and all success paths will do so through the Prolog garbage collector.^{10Using a Python C++ interface such as pybind11 simplifies memory management for a Python interface.}

Summarizing, Janus is ideal to get started quickly. Applications that need to access C/C++ resources and need either exploit all cores of your hardware or get the best performance on calls or exchanging data should consider using the C or C++ interfaces of SWI-Prolog.

11 Janus platforms notes

Janus relies on the C APIs of Prolog and Python and functions therefore independent from the platform. While the C, Python and Prolog code the builds Janus is platform independent, dynamically loading Prolog into Python or Python into Prolog depends on versions as well as several properties of the dynamic linking performed by the platform. In the sections below we describe some of the issues.

11.1 Janus on Windows

We tested the Windows platform using SWI-Prolog binaries from https://www.swi-prolog.org/Downloads.html and Python downloaded from https://www.python.org/downloads/windows/. The SWI-Prolog binary provides janus.dll which is linked to python3.dll, a “stable API” based wrapper that each Python 3 binary distribution provides in addition to python3xx.dll. Calling Python from Prolog is supported out of the box, provided the folder holding python3.dll is in the search %PATH%.

The Python package can be installed using pip as described in section 7. Once built, this package finds SWI-Prolog on %PATH% or using the registry and should be fairly independent from the Prolog version as long as it is version 9.1.12 or later.

11.2 Janus on Linux

On Linux systems we bind to the currently installed Prolog and Python version. This should work smoothly from source. Janus is included in the PPA distribution for Ubuntu as well as in the Docker images. It is currently not part of the SNAP distribution.

See section 7 for for building the janus_swi Python package.

11.3 Janus on MacOS

Unfortunately MacOS versions of Python do not ship with the equivalent of python3.dll found on Windows. This implies we can only compile our binaries against a specific version of Python. We will use the default Python binary for that, which is installed in /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/

The Macports version is also linked against an explicit version of Python, in this case provided by Macports.

The Python package janus_swi may be compiled against any version of Python selected by pip. See section 7 for details.

12 Compatibility to the XSB Janus implementation

We aim to provide an interface that is close enough to allow developing Prolog code that uses Python and visa versa. Differences between the two Prolog implementation make this non-trivial. SWI-Prolog has native support for dicts, strings, unbounded integers, rational numbers and blobs that provide safe pointers to external objects that are subject to (atom) garbage collection.

We try to find a compromise to make the data conversion as close as possible while supporting both systems as good as possible. For this reason we support creating a Python dict both from a SWI-Prolog dict and from the Prolog term py({k1:v1, k2:v2, ...}). With py defined as a prefix operator, this may be written without parenthesis and is thus equivalent to the SWI-Prolog dict syntax. The library(janus) library provides access predicates that are supported by both systems and where the SWI-Prolog version supports both SWI-Prolog dicts and the above Prolog representation. See items/2, values/3, key/2 and items/2.

Calling Python from Prolog provides a low-level and a more high level interface. The high level interface is realized by py_call/[2,3] and py_iter/[2,3]. We realize the low level interfaces py_func/[3,4] and py_dot/[4,5] on top of py_call/2. The interface for calling Prolog from Python is settled on the five primitives described in section 5.

We are discussing to minimize the differences. Below we summarize the known differences.

• SWI-Prolog represents Phyton dicts as Prolog dicts. XSB uses a term py({k:v, ...}), where the py() wrapper is optional. The predicate py_is_dict/1 may be used to test that a Prolog term represents a Python dict. The predicates values/3, keys/2, key/2 and items/2 can be used to access either representation.
• SWI-Prolog allows for prolog(Term) to be sent to Python, creating an instance of janus.Term().
• SWI-Prolog represents Python object references as a blob. XSB uses a term. The predicate py_is_object/1 may be used to test that a Prolog term refers to a Python object. In XSB, the user must call py_free/1 when done with some object. In SWI-Prolog, either py_free/1 may be used or the object may be left to the Prolog (atom) garbage collector.
• Prolog exceptions passed to Python are represented differently.
• When calling Prolog from Python and relying on well founded semantics, only plain truth values (i.e., janus.undefined are supported in a portable way. Delay lists, providing details on why the result is undefined, are represented differently.

12.1 Writing portable Janus modules

This section will be written after the dust has settled. Topics

• Dealing with Python dicts
• Dealing with Prolog modules
• Dealing with Prolog references to Python objects
• More?

13 Status of Janus

The current version of this Janus library must be considered beta code.

• The design is stable
• Naming and functionality are almost stable.
• Testing is not exhaustive.

Bibliography

Andersen & Swift, 2023

Carl Andersen and Theresa Swift. The janus system: A bridge to new prolog applications. In David Scott Warren, Verónica Dahl, Thomas Eiter, Manuel V. Hermenegildo, Robert A. Kowalski, and Francesca Rossi, editors, Prolog: The Next 50 Years, volume 13900 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pages 93--104. Springer, 2023.

Swift & Andersen, 2023

Theresa Swift and Carl Andersen. The janus system: Multi-paradigm programming in prolog and python. CoRR, abs/2308.15893, 2023.

Index

?

between/3

5.2

call_delays/2

5.4.1

call_residual_program/2

5.4.1

items/2

12 12 12

janus.apply()

janus.apply.close()

janus.apply.next()

janus.apply_once()

janus.attach_engine()

janus.cmd()

janus.consult()

janus.detach_engine()

janus.engine()

janus.once()

janus.prolog()

janus.query()

janus.query.close()

janus.query.next()

janus.query_once()

janus.version()

janus.version_str()

key/2

12 12

keys/2

12

message_to_string/2

5.6

once/1

1 5 5

parent/2

5

print/1

5.5

print_message/2

4.1 5

py_add_lib_dir/1

py_add_lib_dir/2

py_call/1

py_call/2

1 2 4.1 12

py_call/3

2

py_call/[2,3]

12

py_dot/3

py_dot/4

py_dot/[4,5]

12

py_free/1

3.1 12 12

py_func/3

py_func/4

py_func/[3,4]

12

py_gil_owner/1

6.2

py_hasattr/2

py_import/2

py_initialize/3

py_is_dict/1

12

py_is_object/1

5.5 12

py_isinstance/2

py_iter/2

1 3.1

py_iter/3

2

py_iter/[2,3]

12

py_lib_dirs/1

py_module/2

py_module_exists/1

py_obj_dict/2

py_obj_dir/2

py_object_dict/2

py_object_dir/2

py_pp/1

py_pp/2

py_pp/3

py_setattr/3

py_shell/0

5

py_type/2

py_version/0

4.3

py_with_gil/1

6

values/3

12 12

with_mutex/2

6.2

write_canonical/1

2 2 5.4.1 5.5 5.6

Exception

5.6

F

fractions:Fraction

2

P

janus.PrologError

5.6

janus.PrologError()

janus.PrologError.__repr__()

janus.PrologError.__str__()

Q

janus.Query()

T

janus.Term

5.6

janus.Term()

janus.Term.__repr__()

janus.Term.__str__()

janus.TruthVal()

U

janus.Undefined()