Re: Ann: SWI-Prolog 7.1.0

   - Lists are no longer represented as .(H,T).  Instead, the list

     functor is now '$cons'(H, T).  The empty list is still [], but
     this is not an atom.  I.e., '[]' == [] fails.

I distinctly remember the awkwardness of coding expressions where 
a term could be an atom or a list, and running into [] being both.
I expect my code would break with this change but it's for the best.

   - By default, double quoted "text" is mapped to an object of type
     string.  This already raised some discussions.


I had trouble using number-list strings because it further confuses 
things when you can't distinguish list(int) from string.  But using
atoms was inefficient.

   - Quoted atoms are no longer operators.


Like Haskell.  Good idea.

   - Unquoted atoms may contain internal dots.  E.g., a.b is an
     atom.

I find this confusing given V.b is emphatically not an atom.  
What's the motivation?

   - functor() is valid syntax.  It produces a term that is distinct
     from 'functor'.  The `block' operator '()' to hack this syntax
     has been removed.

So call(plus(), 2,3,X) is now a thing?
I used to wish for this syntax, but now I can't remember why.

Alan Baljeu