The first
consideration is what extension to use for the source files. Tradition
calls for .pl, but conflicts with Perl force the use of
another extension on systems where extensions have global meaning, such
as MS-Windows. On such systems .pro is the common
alternative. On MS-Windows, the alternative extension is stored in the
registry key
HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/SWI/Prolog/fileExtension or
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/SWI/Prolog/fileExtension. All
versions of SWI-Prolog load files with the extension .pl as
well as with the registered alternative extension without explicitly
specifying the extension. For portability reasons we propose the
following convention:
- If there is no conflict
- because you do not use a conflicting application or the system does not
force a unique relation between extension and application, use
.pl.
- With a conflict
- choose
.pro and use this extension for the files you want
to load through your file manager. Use
.pl for all other files for maximal portability.
