While it is not absolutely necessary, some familiarity with logic programming in general, and Prolog in particular, is helpful in understanding the definite clause portion of ALE. Similarly, experience with unification grammar systems such as PATR-II, DCGs, or FUG is helpful in understanding the phrase structure component of the system. In particular, writing efficient programs and grammars in ALE involves the same kinds of strategies necessary for writing efficient programs in Prolog or PATR-II. For those not familiar with Prolog, the sequence of two books by Sterling and Shapiro (1986) and by O'Keefe (1990) are excellent general introductions to the theory and practice of logic programming. For those not familiar with unification-based grammar formalisms, Shieber (1986), Gazdar and Mellish (1987) and Pereira and Shieber (1987) are useful resources.
For those not familiar with Prolog, we need to point out the salient features of the language which will be assumed throughout this report. This section contains all of the information necessary about Prolog required to run ALE.