>>I have to admit that writing Prolog sometimes makes me want to bash my my head against the wall

I think much of the frustration with older tech like this comes from the fact that these things were mostly written(and rewritten till perfection) on paper first and only the near-end program was input into a computer with a keyboard.

Modern ways of carving out a program with 'Successive Approximations' with a keyboard and monitor until you get to something to work is mostly a recent phenomenon. Most of us are used to working like this. Which quite honestly is mostly trial and error. The frustration is understandable because you are basically throwing darts, most of the times in the dark.

I knew a programmer from the 1980s who(built medical electronics equipment) would tell me how even writing C worked back then. It was mostly writing a lot, on paper. You had to prove things on paper first.