3.11 SICStus Prolog IDE

SICStus Prolog IDE, also known as SPIDER, is an Eclipse-based development environment for SICStus with many powerful features.

SPIDER was added in SICStus Prolog 4.1 and is described on its own site, http://www.sics.se/sicstus/spider/.

Some of the features of SPIDER are:

Semantic Highligting

Code is highlighted based on semantic properties such as singleton variables, ....

On-the-fly warnings

The editor flags things like calls to undefined predicates, incorrect use of directives, missing declarations, ...

Pop-up documentation

Predicate documentation is parsed on-the-fly and shown when the mouse is hovering over a call. This works for both built-in and user-defined predicates.

Open Definition

Clicking on a called predicate can bring up its source code.

Document outline

The predicates in a file are shown in an outline. They can be alphabetically sorted and non-exported predicates can be hidden from the outline.

Variable Bindings in Debugger

The debugger shows the names and values of variables.

Debugger Backtrace

Backtrace is shown and there are buttons for common debugger actions (Step Over, Step Out, Redo, ...).

Source Code Debugging

Source-linked debugging. Works also for code that has no recorded source info, like the SICStus library.

Prolog Toplevel

The ordinary toplevel is still available, including the traditional debugger interface.

Works With Existing Code

No need to reorganize your code, SPIDER can work with your existing folder structure.

Powered by Eclipse

Eclipse provides many features for free, like support for other programming languages, revision control, and much more.

Some of these features can be seen in the following screen shot.