Path: news1.ucsd.edu!ihnp4.ucsd.edu!munnari.OZ.AU!news.mel.connect.com.au!news.mira.net.au!Germany.EU.net!main.Germany.EU.net!mcsun!EU.net!howland.erols.net!cam-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!das-news2.harvard.edu!cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!rowan From: rowan@cs.cmu.edu (Rowan Davies) Newsgroups: comp.lang.ml,comp.answers,news.answers Subject: Comp.Lang.ML FAQ [Monthly Posting] Followup-To: poster Date: 5 Sep 1996 17:46:36 GMT Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, School of Computer Science Lines: 1297 Sender: rowan@cs.cmu.edu Approved: comp-lang-ml@cs.cmu.edu Expires: Wed, 2 Oct 1996 00:00:00 GMT Message-ID: <50n3ls$d4e@cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu> Reply-To: comp-lang-ml-request@cs.cmu.edu NNTP-Posting-Host: vixen.fox.cs.cmu.edu Summary: This posting contains a list of Frequently asked questions (and their answers) about the family of ML programming languages, including Standard ML, CAML, Lazy-ML, and CAML-Light. This post should be read before asking a question on the comp.lang.ml newsgroup. Originator: rowan@VIXEN.FOX.CS.CMU.EDU Xref: news1.ucsd.edu comp.lang.ml:1347 comp.answers:16173 news.answers:64769 Archive-name: meta-lang-faq Last-modified: 1995/10/14 COMP.LANG.ML Frequently Asked Questions and Answers (compiled by Dave Berry and Greg Morrisett) (maintained by Rowan Davies) Please send corrections, additions, or comments regarding this list to comp-lang-ml-request@cs.cmu.edu. Changes since last month: - Updated contact address for SML/NJ, and added bug report address. (Thanks to John Reppy). - Added Camlot compiler. (Thanks to Regis Cridlig) Contents: --------- 1. What is ML? 2. Where is ML discussed? a. Comp.Lang.ML b. SML-LIST c. CAML-LIST 3. What implementations of ML are available? a. quick summary (by machine/OS) b. Standard ML of New Jersey (SML/NJ) c. sml2c d. Caml Light e. Objective Caml f. Bigloo g. Camlot h. Moscow ML i. ML Kit j. Edinburgh k. MicroML l. Poly/ML m. Poplog ML 4. Unsupported SML/NJ Ports a. Linux b. OS/2 c. FreeBSD d. NEXTSTEP e. SVR4 5. Where can I find documentation/information on ML? a. The Definition b. Textbooks c. Information on the Internet 6. Where can I find ML library code? a. The Edinburgh SML Library b. The SML/NJ Library c. Caml-light libraries d. The Qwertz Toolbox (for AI) 7. Theorem Provers and ML 8. Miscellaneous Questions a. How do I write the Y combinator in SML? b. Where can I find an X-windows interface to SML? c. How do I call a C function from SML/NJ? d. How do I fix the emacs mode to work with emacs 19? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 0. Where can I find the latest copy of this FAQ? This document can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from ftp://pop.cs.cmu.edu/usr/rowan/sml-archive/faq.txt or from rtfm.mit.edu. There is an HTTP version with active links at http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/meta-lang-faq/faq.html -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. What is ML? ML (which stands for Meta-Language) is a family of advanced programming languages with [usually] functional control structures, strict semantics, a strict polymorphic type system, and parametrized modules. It includes Standard ML, Lazy ML, CAML, CAML Light, and various research languages. Implementations are available on many platforms, including PCs, mainframes, most models of workstation, multi-processors and supercomputers. ML has many thousands of users, is taught at many universities (and is the first programming language taught at some). -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Where is ML discussed? COMP.LANG.ML ------------ comp.lang.ml is a moderated usenet newsgroup. The topics for discussion include but are not limited to: * general ML enquiries or discussion * general interpretation of the definition of Standard ML * applications and use of ML * announcements of general interest (e.g. compiler releases) * discussion of semantics including sematics of extensions based on ML * discussion about library structure and content * tool development * comparison/contrast with other languages * implementation issues, techniques and algorithms including extensions based on ML Requests should be sent to: comp-lang-ml@cs.cmu.edu Administrative mail should be sent to: comp-lang-ml-request@cs.cmu.edu Messages sent to the newsgroup are archived at CMU. The archives can be retrieved by anonymous ftp from internet sites. Messages are archived on a year-to-year basis. Previous years' messages are compressed using the Unix "compress" command. The current year's messages are not compressed. ftp pop.cs.cmu.edu username: anonymous password: <username>@<site> binary cd /usr/rowan/sml-archive get sml-archive.<year>.Z quit zcat sml-archive.<year>.Z (Pop's IP address is 128.2.205.205). Individual messages can also be accessed in the directories /usr/rowan/mh-sml-archive/<year>-sml. SML-LIST -------- The SML-LIST is a mailing list that exists for people who cannot (or do not want to) read the Usenet COMP.LANG.ML newsgroup. Messages are crossposted from COMP.LANG.ML to the SML-LIST and vice-versa. You should ask to join the SML-LIST _only if_ you cannot (or do not want to) read the Usenet COMP.LANG.ML newsgroup. To send a message to the SML-LIST distribution, address it to: sml-list@cs.cmu.edu (sites not connected to the Internet may need additional routing.) Administrative mail such as requests to add or remove names from the distribution list should be addressed to sml-list-request@cs.cmu.edu CAML-LIST --------- The Caml language, a dialect of ML, is discussed on the Caml mailing list. To send mail to the Caml mailing list, address it to: caml-list@margaux.inria.fr Administrative mail should be addressed to: caml-list-request@margaux.inria.fr ALT.LANG.ML ----------- No longer used. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. What implementations of ML are available and where can I find them? Quick Summary: System full SML? contact Platforms ------ --------- ------------ ------------------------------ SML/NJ yes sml-nj@research.bell-labs.com Unix/Sparc,Mips,Vax,680x0, ftp.research.att.com I386/486/Pentium,HPPA,RS/6000, MacOS/MacII ftp.cs.sunysb.edu Linux (including binaries) ftp-os2.nmsu.edu OS/2 (including binaries) ftp.informatik.uni-muenchen.de Nextstep sml2c yes dtarditi@cs.cmu.edu 32-bit Unix machines (C code) ftp.cs.cmu.edu Caml Light coreish caml-light@margaux.inria.fr Unix, Mac, PC 80386, ftp ftp.inria.fr (bytecode) Objective own caml-light@pauillac.inria.fr Unix and Windows NT/95 Caml modules ftp ftp.inria.fr (bytecode) Alpha, Sparc, x86, Mips, HPPA, Power (native code) Bigloo coreish Manuel.Serrano@inria.fr. Unix (compiles caml-light ftp ftp.inria.fr to native code) Camlot coreish Regis.Cridlig@ens.fr Any 32-bit (compiles ftp ftp.inria.fr caml-light to C) Moscow ML core+ sestoft@dina.kvl.dk PC 80386, Mac, Unix ftp ftp.dina.kvl.dk (bytecode) Kit yes ftp ftp.diku.dk (Requires another SML compiler ftp ftp.dcs.ed.ac.uk to build binaries) Edinburgh core ftp.dcs.ed.ac.uk 32-bit machines (bytecode) ftp.informatik.uni-muenchen.de PC 80386SX+, Amiga MicroML core Olof.Johansson@cs.umu.se PC 8086+ (bytecode) ftp ftp.cs.umu.se Poly/ML yes ahl@ahl.co.uk SPARC/SUNOS, SPARC/Solaris RS6000/AIX PoplogML yes isl@isl.co.uk Sun/Solaris, Sun/SunOS, SG/IRIX, PC/Linux, HP/HP-UX, Alpha/OSF, Alpha/VMS, VAX/VMS Details: Standard ML of New Jersey ------------------------- (Sometime later this year the SML/NJ team expects to release a new general public release of Standard ML of New Jersey, the first such release since version 0.93 in the spring of 1993. See the paragraph at the end of this subsection for a preview of this new version.) Standard ML of New Jersey was developed jointly at AT&T Bell Laboratories and Princeton University. It is an open system (source code is freely available) implemented in Standard ML. Version 0.93 of SML/NJ generates native code for 68020, SPARC, and MIPS (big and little endian), I386/486/Pentium, HPPA(HP9000/700), and RS/6000 architectures under various versions of the Unix operating system (SunOS, Ultrix, Mach, Irix, Riscos, HPUX, AIX, AUX, etc.), and on the Macintosh OS (Mac II, System 7.x, min 12MB ram or any system of greater or equal power, which includes most Macs produced after about 1987). Version 0.75 runs on the Vax under Ultrix, BSD, and Mach. There are unsupported ports of SML/NJ to other platforms, including Linux, FreeBSD, NEXTSTEP, OS/2, and SVR4. See the "Unsupported SML/NJ Ports" section for details. SML/NJ comes with a source-level debugger, profiler, gnu emacs interface, ML implementations of LEX, YACC, and Twig, separate compilation facilities, Concurrent ML, the eXene X Window library, and the SML/NJ library. It runs interactively and can produce stand-alone executable applications. Non-standard extensions include typed first-class continuations, Unix signal handling, and higher-order functors. SML/NJ is copyrighted by AT&T but the system, including source code, is freely distributable. It is available by anonymous ftp from ftp.research.att.com (192.20.225.2) and princeton.edu (128.112.128.1). Login as "anonymous" with your user name as password. Put ftp in binary mode and copy the (compressed tar) files you need from the directory dist/ml (pub/ml on princeton.edu). You only need the 93.mo.*.tar.Z files for your machine in addition to the 93.src.tar.Z. (You might also want the 93.release-notes.[ps|txt], 93.tools.tar.Z, 93.doc.tar.Z, and smlnj-lib-0.2.tar.Z files.) Alternatively mail sml-nj@research.bell-labs.com. In the UK, SML/NJ is available from the LFCS. Bug reports should be sent to sml-bugs@research.bell-labs.com. The upcoming general public release of SML/NJ (the successor to version 0.93) will include the following improvements: - Vastly improved standard library, operating system interface - SML Standard Library compliant - Excellent support for separate compilation - Improved execution speed - New, high-tech garbage collector - Portable runtime system - Character type distinct from single-character strings - Easier interface to C code - Many platforms supported: Intel 80x86: Linux, FreeBSD, [Win NT, Win '95, OS/2, NeXTStep], SGI (MIPS): Irix 5.x, Irix 4.x HP Precision: [HPUX 10, NeXTStep] DEC Alpha: OSF/1 Sparc: SunOS, Solaris RS/6000, PowerPC: AIX, [MacOS] 68020: SunOS, [MacOS, NeXTStep] For those brave souls who want the latest, interim version, we are pleased to announce the availability of an interim SML/NJ version, by anonymous FTP from ftp.research.att.com:dist/ml/working. Integer release numbers (currently 108) are generally more stable than the intermediate fractional releases (i.e., versions 108.x); both are located in the dist/ml/working directory. Get the 108-README file (by FTP) for more information. We DO NOT RECOMMEND this version for anyone who is happy with version 0.93; these users should wait until the next general release, later this year. But those who need a newer version because it supports their computing platform, or because they need some recently implemented feature, or who want to make performance measurements, may wish to obtain version 108. THIS VERSION IS ILL-DOCUMENTED and STILL NEEDS IMPROVEMENT. However, if you are now using any version between 0.94 and 1.07 we STRONGLY RECOMMEND that you switch to 108, which is more stable and up-to-date. Note: [Bracketed] architectures listed above will be supported in the general release but are not yet available in the interim versions found in the 'dist/ml/working' directory. There is a WWW page for SML/NJ at: http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/what/smlnj/index.html SML2C ----- sml2c is a Standard ML to C compiler. It is based on an old version of SML/NJ from 1992 and shares its front-end and most of the runtime system. sml2c is a batch compiler and compiles only module-level declarations. It does not support SML/NJ style debugging and profiling. sml2c is easily portable and has been ported to IBM RT, Decstation 3100, Decstation 5000, Omron Luna 88k, sun-3, sun-4 and a 486-based machine (running Mach). The generated code is highly portable and makes very few assumptions about the target machine or the C compilers available on the target machine. The runtime system, which it shares with the SML/NJ has several machine and operating system dependencies. sml2c has eliminated some of these dependencies by using portable schemes for garbage collection and for freezing and restarting programs. sml2c is available by anonymous ftp from ftp.cs.cmu.edu (128.2.206.173). Log in as anonymous, send username@node as password. The distribution can be found in /afs/cs/project/mess/research/sml2c/ftp. The local ftp software will allow you to change directory only to /afs/cs/project/mess/research/sml2c/ftp. The README file in this directory describes the files in the distribution. The size of the uncompressed distribution is about 12 Meg. CAML LIGHT ---------- Caml Light is a portable, bytecode interpreter for CAML, a dialect of ML. Some features of Caml Light include separate compilation, streams and stream parsers, ability to link to C code, and a fairly rich library. The implementation has low memory requirements, compiles quickly and generates compact executables. The Caml Light system comprises a batch compiler, a toplevel-based interactive compiler, tools for building libraries and toplevel systems, a replay debugger, and a hypertext-based module browser. Caml Light runs on most modern Unix machines, including Sun Sparcstations (under SunOS 4.1 and Solaris 2), Decstations 3000 (Alpha) and 5000 (Mips), and PCs under Linux, but many more machines have been reported to work. It is also available for the Macintosh (as a "fat binary" that runs native on PowerMacs) and the PC under MS Windows and MSDOS. The current version is 0.71, released in February 1996. It is available by anonymous ftp from: host: ftp.inria.fr (192.93.2.54) directory: lang/caml-light Summary of the files: README.cl More detailed summary cl71unix.tar.gz Unix version (source code) cl7lin*.tar.gz Binaries for Linux (a.out) cl71macbin.sea.hqx Binaries for the Macintosh version cl71win*.zip Binaries for MS Windows and MSDOS cl7refman.* Reference manual, in various formats cl7tutorial.* Tutorial, in various formats cl71macdoc.sea.hqx On-line documentation for the Macintosh version cl71macsrc.sea.hqx Source code for the Macintosh version Compared with 0.7, this release adds a MS Windows graphical user interface for the toplevel. More information on Caml Light is available on the Web at: http://pauillac.inria.fr/caml The implementors can be contacted at caml-light@pauillac.inria.fr. General questions and comments of interest to the Caml community should be sent to caml-list@pauillac.inria.fr, the Caml mailing list. (see question 2 above for details.) OBJECTIVE CAML -------------- Objective Caml (formerly known as Caml Special Light) is a complete reimplementation of Caml Light that adds a complete class-based object-oriented system and a powerful module system in the style of Standard ML. The object system is statically type-checked (no "message not understood" run-time errors) and performs ML-style type reconstruction (no type declarations for function parameters). This is arguably the first publically available object-oriented language featuring ML-style type reconstruction. The module system is based on the notion of manifest types / translucent sums; it supports Modula-style separate compilation, and fully transparent higher-order functors. Objective Caml comprises two compilers: a bytecode compiler in the style of Caml Light (but up to twice as fast), and a high-performance native code compiler for the following platforms: Alpha processors: DecStation 3000 under OSF1 (a.k.a. Digital Unix) Sparc processors: Sun Sparcstation under SunOS 4.1, Solaris 2, NetBSD Intel 486 and Pentium processors: PCs under Linux, NextStep, FreeBSD, Windows 95 and Windows NT Mips processors: DecStation 3100 and 5000 under Ultrix 4 HP PA-RISC processors: HP 9000/700 under NextStep (no HPUX yet) PowerPC processors: IBM RS6000 and PowerPC workstations under AIX 3.2 The native-code compiler delivers excellent performance (better than Standard ML of New Jersey 1.08 on our tests), while retaining the moderate memory requirements of the bytecode compiler. The source distribution (for Unix machines only) is available by anonymous FTP on ftp.inria.fr, directory lang/caml-light. More information on Objective Caml is available on the World Wide Web, at: http://pauillac.inria.fr/ocaml/ Bug reports and technical questions should be directed to caml-light@pauillac.inria.fr. For general questions and comments, use the Caml mailing list caml-list@pauillac.inria.fr (to subscribe: caml-list-request@pauillac.inria.fr). BIGLOO ------ Bigloo is an optimizing Scheme-to-C and Caml-to-C compiler that produces native machine code from Caml sources. Compatibility with the bytecoded implementation of Caml Light is almost perfect. Performance of generated code is on a par with that of New Jersey ML. Bigloo is also one of the most efficient Scheme compilers available. Bigloo runs on the following Unix platforms: Decstations 3000 and 5000, Sparcstations, PCs under Linux, HP PA 730 and Sony News R3000. Bigloo is being developed by Manuel Serrano (Manuel.Serrano@inria.fr). Available from: ftp://ftp.inria.fr/lang/caml-light/bcl*.tar.gz. CAMLOT ----- Camlot is the stand alone Caml Light to C compiler. It then uses a standard C compiler to produce an executable machine code file. The compiler itself is mostly written in Caml Light and the runtime system is written in standard C, hence Camlot is easy to port to almost any 32-bit platform. The performance of the resulting code is quite good, often ten times faster than the bytecode original implementation of Caml Light. The distribution has been tested on the following platforms: Sun Sparcstation DecStation 3100 HP 9000/710 i386/486 Linux The distribution is avaiable at: ftp://ftp.inria.fr/lang/caml-light/camlot0.64a.tar.gz MOSCOW ML --------- Moscow ML is a Core Standard ML implementation, based on the Caml Light system. It implements the Core language of Standard ML and separate compilation via a limited version of the SML Modules language, with signatures and non-nested structures but no functors. Version 1.40 implements much of the new SML Basis Library, follows the 1996 revision of Standard ML (value polymorphism, default overloading resolution, new base types), and can produce compact stand-alone executables (a la Caml Light). Under DOS, Moscow ML requires 2 MB of RAM or more, and DOS 3.3 or later. Moscow ML works on many Unixes (Linux, DEC MIPS+Ultrix, DEC Alpha+OSF/1, Sun4+SunOS, Sun+Solaris, SGI MIPS+IRIX, and HP9000+HP/UX), and, thanks to Doug Currie, on MacOS (68k and PPC). It was written by Sergei Romanenko (sergei-romanenko@refal.ac.msk.su) at the Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics, Moscow, Russia, and Peter Sestoft (sestoft@dina.kvl.dk) at the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Denmark. * The Moscow ML homepage http://www.dina.kvl.dk/~sestoft/mosml.html * The DOS executables (and documentation) are in ftp://ftp.dina.kvl.dk/pub/mosml/mos14bin.zip * The Linux executables (and documentation) are in ftp://ftp.dina.kvl.dk/pub/mosml/linux-mos14bin.tar.gz * The Macintosh/MacOS (68k and PPC) executables are in ftp://ftp.dina.kvl.dk/pub/mosml/mac-mos14bin.sea.hqx (soon) * The DOS source files are in ftp://ftp.dina.kvl.dk/pub/mosml/mos14src.zip * The Unix source files are in ftp://ftp.dina.kvl.dk/pub/mosml/mos14src.tar.gz * The MacOS modified source files (relative to Unix) are in ftp://ftp.dina.kvl.dk/pub/mosml/mac-mos14src.sea.hqx (soon) The Internet number of ftp.dina.kvl.dk is 130.225.40.226. These files will be mirrored at ftp://ftp.dcs.ed.ac.uk/pub/ml/Moscow ftp://ftp.csd.uu.se/pub/mirror/mosml ML Kit ------ The ML Kit is a straight translation of the Definition of Standard ML into a collection of Standard ML modules. For example, every inference rule in the Definition is translated into a small piece of Standard ML code which implements it. The translation has been done with as little originality as possible - even variable conventions from the Definition are carried straight over to the Kit. If you are primarily interested in executing Standard ML programs efficiently, the ML Kit is not the system for you! (It uses a lot of space and is very slow.) The Kit is intended as a tool box for those people in the programming language community who may want a self-contained parser or type checker for full Standard ML but do not want to understand the clever bits of a high-performance compiler. We have tried to write simple code and module interfaces; we have not paid any attention to efficiency. The documentation is around 100 pages long and is provided with the Kit. It explains how to build, run, read and modify the Kit. It also describes how typing of flexible records and overloading are handled in the Kit. The ML Kit is written by Nick Rothwell, David N. Turner, Mads Tofte and Lars Birkedal at Edinburgh and Copenhagen Universities. There is a WWW page for the ML Kit at: http://www.diku.dk/research-groups/topps/activities/mlkit.html The ML Kit is also available via anonymous ftp. Here is a sample dialog: ftp ftp.diku.dk ftp ftp.dcs.ed.ac.uk Name: anonymous Name: anonymous Password: <your loginname@host> Password: <your loginname@host> ftp> binary ftp> binary ftp> cd diku/users/birkedal ftp> cd export/ml/mlkit ftp> get README ftp> get README ftp> get COPYING ftp> get COPYING ftp> get src.tar.Z ftp> get src.tar.Z ftp> get doc.tar.Z ftp> get doc.tar.Z ftp> get tools.tar.Z ftp> get tools.tar.Z ftp> get examples.tar.Z ftp> get examples.tar.Z ftp> bye ftp> bye The file README contains installation instructions. Note that no binaries are distributed and that you must build these using either Standard ML of New Jersey, or Poly/ML. Edinburgh ML 4.0 ---------------- Edinburgh ML 4.0 is an implementation of the core language (without the module system). It uses a bytecode interpreter, which is written in C and runs on any machine with 32 bit words, a continuous address space and a correct C compiler. Ports to various 16 bit machines are underway. The bytecode interpreter can be compiled with switches to avoid the buggy parts of the C compilers that we've used it with (as far as I know none of them worked correctly). Edinburgh ML 4.0 is available from the LFCS. See the WWW link: http://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/lfcsinfo/index.html A port to PCs with 386SX processors or better is available by FTP from ftp.informatik.uni-muenchen.de, in the file pub/comp/programming/languages/sml/ibmpc/edml3864.exe. Contact Joern Erbguth (erbguth@juris-sb.de) for more information. Also, there are apparently 8086 and 80386-specific ports of Edinburgh ML 3.5 in the same location. The 386 port is in the file edml3863.exe. There are other Edinburgh (PC-)ports of ML including an OS/2 2.x, an OS/2 PM and a Dos version. A new version has just been made ready and is available at forwiss.uni-passau.de (132.231.1.10) in pub/ibmpc/os2/lang/sml/sml04.zip. It is about 360K long (short?). All 3 programs have in common (all in one .zip): - true 32 Bit applications - easy to install, easy to use - As far as I know they work stable (except the DOS version working as a Windows window [you can use it with Windows but it crashes on *exit*]) - they don't require expensive hardware (and they don't need a co-processor) To be more specific: OS/2 PM OS/2 DOS OS >= OS/2 2.0+ServPak >= OS/2 2.0 >= DOS 5.0 Edit PM, GUI, Standard command history integrated editor (cut&paste) HW >= 386/33, 8MB >= 386/33 4MB >= 386sx, 2MB lots of MB and fast graphics ad. recommended Help online online (+ML ref. in german) There's also an amiga port of Edinburgh ML available on all aminet ftp sites (amiga users should know which these are) in dev/lang, called "sml4.1.02.lha". The standard version needs a 68020 or better and an FPU but there is a 68000-only version as well. MicroML ------- MicroML is an interpreter for core SML that runs on IBM PCs, from the Department of Computing Science at the Umea University in Sweden. It implements the core language except for records. A 80286 processor or better is recommended, but it runs even on a 8086. MicroML is available by anonymous ftp from ftp.cs.umu.se /pub/uml022.zoo. For more information contact Olof Johansson (olof@cs.umu.se). Poly/ML ------- Poly/ML is a commercial product from Abstract Hardware Ltd. (email to ahl@ahl.co.uk, or browse http://www.ahl.co.uk). The Poly/ML system has been used to implement a number of high-value tools including ICL's ProofPower, ViewLogic's ViewSchedule and AHL's own LAMBDA toolset. Poly/ML 3.0 (Motif Edition) runs on SPARC systems under either SunOS (4.1) or Solaris (2.3 or later). It also runs on IBM RS/6000 systems under AIX. The Motif Edition of Poly/ML features native code generation, a make system, an X11/Xlib interface, and a OSF/Motif interface. Non-standard extensions include concurrent processes and an associated message-passing scheme. The price of the Motif edition of Poly/ML is 1500 pounds for an academic site licence or 3500 pounds per machine for commercial users. Multiple and site licences are available by negotiation. AHL are currently developing a Windows Edition of Poly/ML. This will run on standard PC hardware under the Windows 95. The release date and pricing policy for this product have not yet been finalised. Poplog ML --------- Standard ML is one of four languages included with the Poplog system, the others being Pop-11, Prolog and Common Lisp. It uses an incremental, native-code compiler which implements the full language described in the Definition; compilation is fast with low memory usage. There is an integrated editor and an X interface; these are both programmable only from Pop-11 but the shared compilation environment makes it easy to link Pop-11 procedures into ML programs. This provides a general route for calling out to external libraries. Poplog is available for various Unix systems -- Sun SPARC with Solaris or SunOS, Silicon Graphics, DEC Alpha, HP RISC and Linux -- but also for VMS, both on Alpha and VAX. It costs money, but there are substantial discounts for academic users. Sales are handled by Integral Solutions Ltd. and enquiries should be directed to them at isl@isl.co.uk. You can get a free demonstration copy of Poplog for Linux/x86 from ftp://ftp.cogs.susx.ac.uk/pub/poplog/poplog15.0 This is entirely compatible with the full-price version, but is unsupported and has certain restrictions: in particular, it has a limited heap size and cannot make saved images. But it is a working system and may be of special interest to students who want SML on their PCs at home. Adrian John Howard (adrianh@cogs.susx.ac.uk) has a WWW page for Poplog: http://www.cogs.susx.ac.uk/users/adrianh/poplog.html -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Unsupported SML/NJ Ports This section describes various ports of SML/NJ (see section 3) that are not directly supported by the NJ folks. Linux: ------ (Thanks to Ralf Reetz, Peter Su, and Mark Leone) This is a port of Standard ML of New Jersey (SML/NJ) to Linux. It is based on the work of Mark Leone (mleone@cs.cmu.edu) who did the port for i386/i486 machines. The current binary was compiled using Linux 0.99.7a. Shared lib 4.3.3. This port was done by Sanford Barr (sbarr@cs.sunysb.edu) based on the original port of 0.91 by Hermano Moura (moura@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk) and Andre Santos (andre@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk). Various ftp sites seem to carry SML/NJ version 0.93 for Linux: tsx-11.mit.edu:/pub/linux/sources/usr.bin/ njsml.93.src.tar.z njsml.93.linux.README njsml.93.linux.README.NEW njsml.93.linux.diffs.z ftp.cs.sunysb.edu:/pub/linux/ njsml.93.bin.z njsml.93.mo.i386.z njsml.93.linux.README njsml.93.linux.diffs.z njsml.93.src.tar.z ftp.dcs.glasgow.ac.uk:/pub/linux/ njsml.93.linux.diffs.z njsml.93.src.tar.z smlnj-0.93-linux.README 16M of ram is suggested if you wish to do anything serious with the system. Also, a 386-40 or better would be helpful. KNOWN BUGS AND DEFICIENCIES: 1 Some minimal precision problems exist when a 387 emulator is used. 2 ML functions System.Directory.listDir and System.Directory.getWD not working at the moment. 3 There have been reported problems with the Div exceptions (real & int). The problems have been corrected. See: ftp.id.dth.dk (Internet 130.225.76.51) file pub/sestoft/sml93-linux99pl12/sml.gz That version also allows profiling; see the README file. OS/2: ----- Standard ML of New Jersey (version 0.93) for OS/2 has been implemented using Mark Leone's i386 code generator and the Unix emulator EMX (copyright of Eberhard Mattes). It is an (almost) complete implementation of SML/NJ 0.93. Only a few System.* functions have been left unimplemented. Features of this 2nd release for OS/2: * Signal handling * Interval timers (real-time, supports CML 0.9.8) * 'Garbage flushing', yields better performance on low-memory machines * Reduced executable size (well, now it equals the other ports ;-) * Exporting supported (also in the binary-only package) * Improved MakeML & BindCore utilities * Generally more robust * Using EMX version 0.8h (the latest release at this moment) Available from ftp.research.att.com (in /dist/ml/) and, in Europe, from ftp.id.dth.dk (in /pub/bertelsen/) as: 93.os2b.exe.zip Binary-only, SML/NJ interactive compiler (executable) 93.os2b.src.zip Sources & documentation 93.os2b.txt Introduction See 93.os2b.txt for system requirements and details on .zip files. Peter Bertelsen (c917023@id.dth.dk) Department of Computer Science, Technical University of Denmark FreeBSD: -------- A patch for the standard distribution is available at: ftp://pop.cs.cmu.edu/usr/rowan/sml-archive/freebsd/ NEXTSTEP: --------- The CSDMteam at the University of Munich proudly presents the port of Standard ML of NJ, version 0.93, to NEXTSTEP for Intel processors. The modified source can be found at ftp.informatik.uni-muenchen.de: /pub/comp/programming/languages/sml/NJ-0.93/93.src.nsfip.tar.Z (please look at the installation instructions in the file README.NeXT.I386). A precompiled binary of the interpreter (gzip'ed) is located at ftp.informatik.uni-muenchen.de:/pub/comp/platforms/next/Developer/languages/ml /sml.0.93.I.b.gz. SVR4: ----- An mplementation for SVR4.0.4 is available from Anthony Shipman (als@tusc.com.au) that fixes the problems with listDir and getWD and includes a full malloc implementation for runtime/malloc.c. Contact Anthony for more info. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. Where can I find documentation on ML? THE DEFINITION -------------- Robin Milner, Mads Tofte and Robert Harper The Definition of Standard ML MIT, 1990. ISBN: 0-262-63132-6 Robin Milner and Mads Tofte Commentary on Standard ML MIT, 1991 ISBN: 0-262-63137-7 TEXTS (date order) ----- Ake Wikstrom Functional Programming Using Standard ML Prentice Hall 1987 ISBN: 0-13-331661-0 Chris Reade Elements of Functional Programming Addison-Wesley 1989 ISBN: 0-201-12915-9 Lawrence C Paulson ML for the Working Programmer Cambridge University Press 1996 ISBN: 0-521-56543-X (paperback), 0-521-57050-6 (hardback) (see: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/lcp/MLbook/) Stefan Sokolowski Applicative High Order Programming: The Standard ML perspective Chapman & Hall 1991 ISBN: 0-412-39240-2 0-442-30838-8 (USA) Ryan Stansifer ML Primer Prentice Hall, 1992 ISBN 0-13-561721-9 Colin Myers, Chris Clack, and Ellen Poon Programming with Standard ML Prentice Hall, 1993 ISBN 0-13-722075-8 (301pp) Jeffrey D. Ullman Elements of ML Programming Prentice-Hall, 1993 (Oct. 15) ISBN: 0-13-184854-2 (See Comp.Lang.ML archives, message from Ullman dated 22 Sep 1993 for chapter headings.) Rachel Harrison Abstract Data Types in Standard ML John Wiley & Sons, April 1993 ISBN: 0-471-938440 Richard Bosworth, A Practical Course in Functional Programming Using Standard ML, McGraw-Hill 1995, ISBN: 0-07-707625-7. Elementary Standard ML Greg Michaelson UCL Press 1995 ISBN: 1-85728-398-8 PB (see ftp://ftp.cee.hw.ac.uk/pub/funcprog/gjm.book95.ps.Z for contents and prologue). INFORMATION AVAILABLE BY INTERNET --------------------------------- The Fox project at CMU has a WWW page for information about Standard ML: http://foxnet.cs.cmu.edu/sml.html The following report is available from the LFCS (Mairi McLennan, mlm@dcs.ed.ac.uk) and costs 5 pounds or 10 US dollars. It covers all of Standard ML. The report is also available via the World Wide Web off of http://foxnet.cs.cmu.edu/sml.html Alternatively, the report can be ftp'd from ftp://ftp.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/project/fox/mosaic/intro-notes.ps. Robert Harper Introduction to Standard ML LFCS Report Series ECS-LFCS-86-14 Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science Department of Computer Science University of Edinburgh Nov. 1986 (revised Jan. 1989 by Nick Rothwell and Kevin Mitchell) The following report is available from the LFCS (Mairi McLennan, mlm@dcs.ed.ac.uk) and costs 2.50 pounds or 5 US dollars for single copies and 1.50 pounds or 3 dollars when bought in bulk. It includes an introduction to Standard ML and 3 lectures on the modules system. The report is also available via the World Wide Web off of http://foxnet.cs.cmu.edu/sml.html Mads Tofte Four Lectures on Standard ML LFCS Report Series ECS-LFCS-89-73 Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science Department of Computer Science University of Edinburgh March 1989 The following report is available from the LFCS (Mairi McLennan, mlm@dcs.ed.ac.uk) and is free. It introduces Extended ML, a language for writing (non-executable) specifications of Standard ML programs and for formally developing Standard ML programs from such specifications. The report is also available at: http://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/%7Edts/eml/bcs.ps Don Sannella Formal program development in Extended ML for the working programmer. LFCS Report Series ECS-LFCS-89-102 Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science Department of Computer Science University of Edinburgh December 1989 Standard ML Basis Library: In order to enhance the usefulness of SML as a general-purpose programming language, a group of SML implementers, including representatives of Harlequin's ML Works, Moscow ML and SML/NJ, have put together a proposal for an SML Basis Library, containing a collection of modules to serve as a basic toolkit for the SML programmer. The current draft is available on the web at http://www.research.att.com/orgs/ssr/sml/sml-std-basis.html (might change during AT&T split) or http://www.dina.kvl.dk/~sestoft/sml/sml-std-basis.html Le projet Cristal at INRIA Rocquencourt has set up a WWW server for information regarding its activities, especially the Caml and Caml Light compilers. The server also offers on-line access to documentation, publications and to a database of BibTex references in CS. Welcome to http://pauillac.inria.fr/ Please report problems and suggestions to Xavier.Leroy@inria.fr. Richard Botting has taken Larry Paulson's SML Syntax and translated it into a form that can be read by mosaic, netscape, lynx and other WWW browsers. The URL is http://www.csci.csusb.edu/dick/samples/ml.syntax.html Andrew Cumming has made availible "A Gentle Introduction to ML". It is aimed at students who are reasonably computer literate but who are new to functional programming. It consists largely of questions and diversions broken up into roughly one-hour tutorials, most of the questions have hints which the student can follow up if required. The material is intended to be used alongside ML - sections of code may be copied from the browser window into an ML session. The URL is http://www.dcs.napier.ac.uk/course-notes/sml/manual.html There are some WWW pages based on an info-tree at MIT with a variety of useful information on ML. The URL is: http://www.ai.mit.edu/!info/sml/!!first There is an interesting collection of news articles at: http://www.cs.jcu.edu.au/ftp/web/FP/ml.html -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. Where can I find library code? a. The Edinburgh SML Library The Edinburgh SML Library provides a consistent set of functions on the built-in types of the language and on vectors and arrays, and a few extras. It includes a "make" system and a consistent set of parsing and unparsing functions. The library consists of a set of signatures with sample portable implementations, full documentation, and implementations for Poly/ML, Poplog ML and SML/NJ that use some of the non-standard primitives available in those systems. It is distributed with Poly/ML, Poplog ML and Standard ML of New Jersey. It is also available from the LFCS. The library documentation is available as a technical report from the LFCS (Mairi McLennan, mlm@dcs.ed.ac.uk) and costs 5 pounds or 10 US dollars. The LaTeX source of the report is included with the library. Dave Berry The Edinburgh SML Library LFCS Report Series ECS-LFCS-91-148 Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science Department of Computer Science University of Edinburgh April 1991 b. The SML/NJ Library The SML/NJ Library is distributed with the SML of New Jersey compiler. It provides a variety of utilities such as 2-dimensional arrays, sorting, sets, dictionaries, hash tables, formatted output, Unix path name manipulation, etc. The library compiles under SML/NJ but should be mostly portable to other implementations. c. Caml-light libraries (Included in the Caml Light distribution unless otherwise noted) (Most of these libraries are also available for Objective Caml) CAML-TK TK is a GUI library for the TCL language. Normally, TK is controlled from TCL. The Caml-TK interface provides a Caml Light library to control TK from Caml Light programs. Thus, TK can be used to program graphical user-interfaces in Caml Light without knowledge of the TCL language. LIBGRAPH The "libgraph" library implements basic graphics primitives (line and text drawing, bitmaps, basic event processing) for the Caml Light system. It is portable across all platforms that run Caml Light: X-Windows, Macintosh, MSDOS. CAMLWIN Camlwin is a GUI library for Caml Light that provide all the classical graphic objects: buttons, string and text editors, list... and a high level object like windowed file selector. It is based on an extension of the "libgraph" library and therefore highly portable. Its main interest is its ability to compile the same code under many systems. At present time, it works under DOS, Windows, and X11 with unix. Camlwin is distributed at: ftp.inria.fr:lang/caml-light/Usercontribs/camlwin The reference manual is also available on the WWW at: http://liasc.enst-bretagne.fr/~saunier LIBNUM The "libnum" library implements exact-precision rational arithmetic for Caml Light. It is built upon a state-of-the-art arbitrary-precision integer arithmetic package, and therefore achieves very good performance (it's much faster than Maple, for instance). LIBUNIX The "libunix" library makes many Unix system calls and system-related library functions available to Caml Light programs. It provides Caml programs with full access to Unix capabilities, especially network sockets. LIBSTR The "libstr" library for Caml Light provides high-level string processing functions, including regular expression matching and substitution. It is intended to support the kind of text processing that is usually performed with "sed" or "perl". d. The Qwertz Toolbox The qwertz toolbox, a library of Standard ML modules with an emphasis on symbolic Artificial Intelligence programming, may now be obtained by anonymous ftp at: ftp.gmd.de:gmd/ai-research/Software/qwertz.tar.gz The qwertz.tar.gz file is a tar archive compressed using the the GNU gzip program. Use the gunzip program to decompress it. The README file explains how the install the library. The toolbox includes: symbols and symbolic expressions, tables including association lists, sets, queues and priority queues, streams, heuristic search including A* and iterative deepening, and an ATMS reason maintenance system. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7. Theorem Provers and ML (Collected by Paul Black, pblack@cs.berekeley.edu. Thanks Paul!) - LCF (Edinburgh LCF and Cambridge LCF) * originally written in the Edinburgh dialect of ML from which SML developed. "Logic and Computation: Interactive Proof with Cambridge LCF" also by Lawrence C. Paulson. (Describes a Standard ML [core language only] version of LCF.) The port was done by M. Hedlund, then at Rutherford Appleton Labs, UK. It is available by anon. ftp from ftp://ftp.cl.cam.ac.uk/ml/lcf.tar.gz. - Lego (LFCS, Edinburgh Univ., SML) * originally developed in CAML * latest version (5) now runs under SML/NJ * only higher-order resolution * available via anon. ftp from ftp.dcs.ed.ac.uk:/pub/lego - HOL90 Authors = Konrad Slind, Elsa Gunter elsa@research.att.com, slind@informatik.tu-muenchen.de http://lal.cs.byu.edu/lal/hol-documentation.html hol90 is a free implementation in SML/NJ of Mike Gordon's HOL logic (a polymorphic version of Church's Simple Type Theory). The system provides a lot of automated support including: - a powerful rewriting package; - pre-installed theories for booleans, products, sums, natural numbers, lists, and trees; - definition facilities for recursive types and recursive functions over those types (mutual recursion is also handled); - extensive libraries for strings, sets, group theory, integers, the real numbers, wellordered sets, automatic solution of goals involving linear arithmetic, tautology checking, inductively defined predicates, Hoare logic, Chandy and Misra's UNITY theory, infinite state automata, and many others. The HOL community has a lively mailing list accessible at info-hol-request@leopard.cs.byu.edu and a yearly user's meeting that alternates between Europe and North America. hol90 is available by anonymous ftp from machine = ftp.informatik.tu-muenchen.de/local/lehrstuhl/nipkow/slind/hol90/ or machine = ftp.research.att.com/dist/ml/hol90/ Tim Leonard mentions that a description of the variant of ML used in HOL88 is online at the following url: http://lal.cs.byu.edu/lal/holdoc/Description/ML/ML.html - NuPrl (from Bob Constable`s group at Cornell) - Isabelle (Lawrence C. Paulson, Cambridge Univ. ) * has rewriting, but not many decision procedures. It does have things like model elimination-based decision procedures. * a generic automatic theorem prover i.e. you can program it to the logic system/proof system you want. Already has the following subsystems already implemented: i) FOL - first order logic ii) HOL - higher order logic iii) LCF - Logic of computable functions iv) LK - Gentzen system LK v) Modal - Modal logic systems T, S4, S43 vi) ZF - Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory * ftp from ftp://ftp.cl.cam.ac.uk/ml/Isabelle94.tar.gz * There's a WWW page: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/Research/HVG/isabelle.html * There's also a mailing list: isabelle-users@cl.cam.ac.uk - MERILL (Brian Matthews, U. of Glasgow & Rutherford Appleton Laboratory) * written in standard ML * a general purpose order-sorted equational reasoning system * Allows the user to declare their own object language, allows AC-rewriting and AC-unification of terms and equations, has several completion algorithms, is built on a hierarchy of types known as Order-Sorting, and allows the user to try different termination methods. * available via anonymous ftp from the University of Glasgow, ftp address: ftp.dcs.glasgow.ac.uk (130.209.240.50) * Brian Matthews, brian@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk or bmm@inf.rl.ac.uk - FAUST (Karlsruhe) * a HOL add-on written in ML. * ftp from goethe.ira.uka.de (129.13.18.22) - Alf * written in SML * An implementation of Martin-Lofs type theory with dependent types * Proof editor * available by anonymous ftp from cs.chalmers.se * only higher-order resolution - Coq * written in Caml-Light (but Caml-Light and SML are VERY similar) * no serious automated reasoning subsystems (other than higher-order resolution), but has a VERY nice package for program verification. * available via anon. ftp from ftp.inria.fr:/INRIA/coq/V5.8 * possible contact: Chet Murthy <murthy@cs.cornell.edu> - ICLHOL/ProofPower (ICL Secure Systems) * a commercial system using a reimplementation of HOL in SML * contact ProofPower-server@win.icl.co.uk - Lamdba/DIALOG (Abstract Hardware Ltd) * a commercial tool written in Poly/ML * contact ahl@ahl.co.uk - Elf (Frank Pfenning, Carnegie Mellon Univ.) * Elf is a higher-order logic programming language based on the LF Logical Framework. * Elf is not a theorem prover per-se, but is useful for specifying and proving properties of programming languages, logics, and their implementations. A number of examples are provided with the distribution. * The Elf implementation is written in SML/NJ and should be easily portable to other SML implementations. * Elf can be ftp'd from ftp.cs.cmu.edu (128.2.206.173) in the directory user/fp/ * A home page for Elf can be found at http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~fp/elf.html * There is an Elf mailing list. Contact elf-request@cs.cmu.edu to join. * For further information, contact Frank Pfenning (fp@cs.cmu.edu). References "ML for the Working Programmer" by Lawrence C. Paulson contains a small first-order theorem prover. Paulson also has a good chapter on writing theorem provers in ML in "Handbook of logic in computer science", Edited by: S. Abramsky, Dov M. Gabbay, and T.S.E. Maibaum. Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1992-. CALL#: QA76 .H2785 1992 Others We have an automated theorm proving system here at the University of Tasmania, but it is still under development, currently riddled with bugs and has an obscure "input language"; aside from those minor problems, it'd be perfect... La Monte H. Yarroll <piggy@hilbert.maths.utas.edu.au> Edinburgh's Concurrency Workbench and Sussex's Process Algebra Mauipulator are also ML systems of note, though neither are interactive theorem provers. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8. Miscellaneous How do I write the Y combinator in SML without using a recursive definition (i.e. "fun" or "let rec")? datatype 'a t = T of 'a t -> 'a val y = fn f => (fn (T x) => (f (fn a => x (T x) a))) (T (fn (T x) => (f (fn a => x (T x) a)))) Where can I find an X-Windows interface to SML? Poly/ML, Poplog/ML, and SML/NJ all come with X-Windows interfaces. See the appropriate entries under section 3. In addition, Poly/ML interfaces to the industry standard OSF/Motif toolkit. How do I call a C function from SML/NJ? See the file runtime/cfuns.c for example C functions that are in the runtime and callable from ML. You have to enter the function into a table at the end of the file along with a string. You use the function System.Unsafe.CInterface to look up the function, using the string as the key. Note that you'll need to convert ML values to C representations and back. You'll have to rebuild the compiler using makeml. How do I get the emacs mode to work with Emacs version 19? Add these three lines at the top of your `sml-init.el' file: - ----- BEGIN addition ; emacs 19 doesn't have `make-shell', which sml-shell needs, so get it ; when necessary. 12 Oct 1993 M-J. Dominus (mjd@saul.cis.upenn.edu) (autoload 'make-shell "make-shell" "Make and initialize shell buffer for SML." nil) - ----- END addition They tell emacs to load the file `make-shell.el' when it needs to use the `make-shell' function. Then install this file as `make-shell.el' somewhere on your load path, probably in your emacs `site-lisp' directory: (defun make-shell (name program &optional startfile &rest switches) (let ((buffer (get-buffer-create (concat "*" name "*"))) proc status size) (setq proc (get-buffer-process buffer)) (if proc (setq status (process-status proc))) (save-excursion (set-buffer buffer) ;; (setq size (buffer-size)) (if (memq status '(run stop)) nil (if proc (delete-process proc)) (setq proc (apply 'start-process name buffer (concat exec-directory "env") (format "TERMCAP=emacs:co#%d:tc=unknown:" (screen-width)) "TERM=emacs" "EMACS=t" "-" (or program explicit-shell-file-name (getenv "ESHELL") (getenv "SHELL") "/bin/sh") switches)) (cond (startfile ;;This is guaranteed to wait long enough ;;but has bad results if the shell does not prompt at all ;; (while (= size (buffer-size)) ;; (sleep-for 1)) ;;I hope 1 second is enough! (sleep-for 1) (goto-char (point-max)) (insert-file-contents startfile) (setq startfile (buffer-substring (point) (point-max))) (delete-region (point) (point-max)) (process-send-string proc startfile))) (setq name (process-name proc))) (goto-char (point-max)) (set-marker (process-mark proc) (point)) (shell-mode)) buffer))