Information on Standard ML

Running Standard ML

• Generally the class will assume you are using the Standard ML of New Jersey compiler, a free compiler developed at Bell Labs. This can be run on turing using the command sml, but if you'd rather use your own computer, you can download it for most operating systems, including Windows and Linux.
  
  • This guide to using SML/NJ contains some very useful information on the mechanics of running the compiler, using it with emacs, and (perhaps most importantly) interpreting error messages.
    
    
• However, because the language has an official definition, there are several other good, freely-available compilers available for the language that you may use instead, including Moscow ML (for many operating systems; it can also be run on turing via the command mosml), Poly/ML (for many operating systems) and MLton (for x86 machines). Each implementation has its own advantages.
  

Learning Standard ML

• If you've done some SML programming in the past, the shortest way to get up to speed may be to read through the SML Overview for CS 131. This is meant to summarize the minimum knowledge about SML needed to do the programming for this class. As such, it is very condensed; if you find it too compressed then you might want to look elsewhere:
  
  • Professor Hodas's course notes from past semesters of CS 80/131 include several introductory lectures on Standard ML.
  • Robert Harper at Carnegie Mellon University has written a tutorial Programming in Standard ML (This is a rather long pdf file, so please don't send it to the college printers.) Chapter 1 jumps right into a relatively complex ML program; if this seems overwhelming you might go on to Chapter 2, which starts back at the beginning with a more introductory approach.
  • Andrew Cumming has written A Gentle Introduction to ML
  • There are several textbooks you can purchase on learning SML, including Jeffrey Ullman's Elements of ML Programming (ML97 Edition), Hansen and Rischel's Introduction to Programming Using SML, and Laurence Paulson's ML for the Working Programmer. Copies of all three books are also held on reserve at the Sprague circulation desk.
    
    
• Documentation for the Standard ML Basis (i.e., the standard library) is available on-line. Particularly useful are the modules Int, Real, String, and List, but there are many others as well.

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