SML for the Poplog system from the University of Sussex, UK.

Poplog is an open source, reflective, incrementally compiled software development environment for the programming languages POP-11, Common Lisp, Prolog, and Standard ML, originally created in the UK for teaching and research in Artificial Intelligence at the University of Sussex, and later marketed as a commercial package for software development as well as for teaching and research. It was one of the initiatives supported for a while by the UK government-funded Alvey Programme.

A multi-language programming environment, which includes the languages Pop-11, ML, Common Lisp and Prolog. It supports mixed-language programming and {incremental compilation} and includes a comprehensive X Window System interface. It is built on top of a two-stack {virtual machine}, PVM. POPLOG was developed at the University of Sussex, Brighton, UK. ["POPLOG's Two-Level Virtual Machine Support for Interactive Languages", R. Smith et al, in Research Directions in Cognitive Science, v.5 (1992)].

Meta Language

1. <robotics> Manipulator Language. IBM language for handling robots. 2. Meta Language. R. Milner <rm@lfcs.edinburgh.ac.uk> et al, 1973. A strict higher-order functional language. It was the first language to include polymorphic typing which was statically-checked. It also had garbage collection and a formal semantics. It began as the metalanguage for the Edinburgh LCF proof assistant. (LCF="Logic for Computable Functions") People soon noticed that ML could be a useful general programming language and stand-alone versions were implemented. Standard ML (SML) is a descendant of these (and related languages such as Hope). The "metalanguage" aspect has long since disappeared from the language itself (although there are some systems that still use it that way). The historical name is now so inappropriate that asking what ML stands for is like asking what C or Unix stands for. It doesn't stand for anything; it just is. LCF ML was implemented in Stanford LISP. Cardelli (1981) implemented ML in Pascal using the {Functional Abstract Machine} (FAM). It has been significantly redesigned to produce Standard ML and Lazy ML. ["A Metalanguage for Interactive Proof in LCF", M.J.C. Gordon et al, 5th POPL, ACM 1978]. (2006-07-21)

Mail List

<networking> The country code for Mali. (1999-01-27)

A light-weight implementation of Standard ML written by Sergei Romanenko <sergei-romanenko@refal.msk.su> of the Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics with assistance from Peter Sestoft <sestoft@dina.kvl.dk>, {Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University}. Moscow ML is based on {CAML Light}. Version: 1.20 implements the Standard ML Core language. The sublanguage of Modules implemented by Moscow ML contains signatures and non-nested structures, and identifies structures with source files. It is certainly less expressive than the full Standard ML Modules language, but the type-safe separate compilation facility is simple, useful, and easy to use. It is the intention to implement the full Standard ML Modules language (including functors) in due course. Compilation of a signature produces a compiled interface file, which is used when compiling other signatures and structures. Compilation of a structure produces a bytecode file. Bytecode files are compact and load fast. For instance, a 3250-line program consisting of 24 structures and 17 signatures compiles to 221 KB of bytecode and 241 KB of compiled signatures. Starting the ML system and loading the 24 bytecode files takes 1-2 cpu seconds plus network delays, less that 5 seconds real time in all. Release 1.20 permits loading of precompiled bytecode files into the top-level interactive session. The next release will be able to create stand-alone executables by linking bytecode files. There is a mechanism for adding basis libraries, as in {Caml Light}. Release 1.20 includes the basis libraries Array, List, and Vector and the MS-DOS version includes the Graphics library from Caml Light. In principle, Moscow ML can be compiled on any platform supported by Caml Light. So far we have tried {Intel 80386}-based IBM PCs running MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows, OS/2 or Linux, DEC MIPS running Ultrix, DEC Alpha running OSF/1, Sun-4 running SunOS, HP9000 running HP/UX, SGI MIPS running IRIX 5. Moscow ML is particularly useful when fast compilation and modest storage consumption are more important than fast program execution. Thanks to the efficient Caml Light run-time system used in Moscow ML, it compiles fast and uses little memory, typically 5-10 times less memory than SML/NJ 0.93 and 2-3 times less than Edinburgh ML. Yet the bytecode is only 3 to 10 times slower than SML/NJ 0.93 compiled native code (fast on {IBM PCs}, slower on RISCs). {DOS (ftp://dina.kvl.dk/pub/Peter.Sestoft/mosml/mos12bin.zip)}. {Linux (ftp://dina.kvl.dk:pub/Peter.Sestoft/mosml/linux-mos12bin.tar.gz)}. {Source (ftp://dina.kvl.dk:pub/Peter.Sestoft/mosml/mos12src.tar.gz)}. Caml Light 0.61 and gcc are required to recompile Moscow ML for Unix or Caml Light 0.61, djgpp, Perl, and Borland C++ version 2.0 (or later) to recompile Moscow ML for DOS. (1994-12-12)