SWI

SWI is an acronym that can refer to multiple concepts or organizations, depending on the context. In the field of computing, the most widely recognized use is SWI-Prolog, a free, open-source Prolog programming environment and language.

SWI-Prolog is a complete Prolog implementation that includes a compiler and interpreter, a rich set of standard libraries, and tools to support development. It runs on major operating systems such as Linux, Windows, and macOS, and provides features like multi-threading and interfaces to other programming languages (notably C and Java), which allow it to be embedded in larger applications. The project was initiated by Jan Wielemaker in the late 1980s at the University of Amsterdam and is maintained by the SWI-Prolog team along with a community of contributors. It is widely used in education, research, and industry for tasks involving artificial intelligence, knowledge representation, natural language processing, and rapid prototyping of Prolog-based solutions. The distribution also includes development tools, debugging facilities, and networking libraries that support building interactive and networked applications.

Outside of computing, SWI can refer to various organizations, institutes, or programs that use the acronym in their names. Because SWI is a short and generic acronym, its meaning is highly context-dependent, and the intended reference should be inferred from accompanying information or explicit definitions. In most technical discussions, SWI-Prolog is the primary meaning discussed when the term appears without clarification.