CLP(FD/Z) is a candidate for inclusion in the Prolog standard: Several Prolog systems provide it with notable commonalities in features, it fits perfectly into the existing language, and it follows the logic of the standard including its error system. It can even be implemented within Prolog, provided a few basic features are present in a Prolog system. For instance, the CLP(Z) system I provide and which is used in the paper runs with little modifications already in several different Prolog systems, including SICStus, Scryer and Trealla. CLP(FD/Z) is an admissible extension of the existing standard:
5.5 Extensions
A processor may support, as an implementation specific
feature, any construct that is implicitly or explicitly
undefined in the part of ISO/IEC 13211.
This is completely different from modifications of the standard that do not fit at all into the standard. For instance, interpreting double-quoted strings differently from what the standard prescribes is not an extension in the sense the standard defines it, but a modification of the standard.In addition, Scryer Prolog has an execution mode where all its extensions are turned off. This is called a strictly conforming mode, and is also prescribed by the standard:
5 Compliance
5.1 Prolog processor
A conforming Prolog processor shall:
...
e) Offer a strictly conforming mode which shall reject
the use of an implementation specific feature in Prolog
text or while executing a goal.
In Scryer Prolog, the strictly conforming mode is the default execution mode.Regarding the other points you mention: Even though it may sound easy to say "as long as that dialect has a reliable specification and implementation", I know no such system that exists, and what I see from systems that do not adhere to the Prolog standard makes me doubt that such a thing is possible. The systems that do not follow the standard often have elementary syntactic problems, such as reading a Prolog term that they themselves emit into a different Prolog term, a recipe for disaster and unacceptable in every domain I know.