Computational improvements in Prolog applications by predicate variable pointers

The programming tradeoffs between structure-oriented and clause-oriented operations on data structures in Prolog are limited in current implementations because the assertion of clauses that include uninstantiated variables destroys any binding between these variables and those with which they are unified in the execution of the program. Built-in predicates for Prolog that allow one to assert predicate variables pointers, which are constants, rather than uninstantiated variables, are presented. The author shows: the possible performance benefits of clause-oriented implementations of data structures over equivalent structure-oriented versions, the logical implications of the proposed built-in predicates, and their practical significance by integrating them in C-Prolog and evaluating the two different implementations of the symbol table dictionary in D.H.D. Warren´s pseudo-Pascal compiler example