Standard ML of New Jersey

Standard ML of New Jersey
Paradigm	Multi-paradigm: functional, imperative
Family	ML: Standard ML
Developers	Bell Laboratories,; Princeton University ; Lucent Technologies,; Yale University (FLINT Project),; AT&T Research
First appeared	1988;36 years ago
Stable release	110.99.4 / 1 August 2023;8 months ago
Typing discipline	strong, static, inferred
License	BSD-like
Filename extensions	.sml
Website	www.smlnj.org
Influenced by
	Standard ML
Influenced
	Mythryl

Last updated April 20, 2024

Standard ML of New Jersey (SML/NJ; Standard Meta-Language of New Jersey) is a compiler and integrated development environment for the programming language Standard ML. Aside from its runtime system, which is written in C language, SML/NJ is written in Standard ML. It was originally developed jointly by Bell Laboratories and Princeton University.^[1] It is free and open-source software released under a permissive software license (BSD-like).

Features

SML/NJ extends the SML'97 Basis Library with several added top-level structures:^[3]

System info – the SysInfo structure provides information about the runtime system, such as the operating system kind, type and version and whether or not the machine supports multiprocessing.^[4]
Weak pointers – the Weak structure provides support for weak pointers.^[5]
Lazy suspensions – the Susp structure implements the suspensions necessary for lazy evaluation (as opposed to eager evaluation).^[6]
Compiler internals – the Internals structure provides access to several of the compiler internals, including methods to instantiate and modify the signal table.^[7]
Unsafe access – the Unsafe structure provides unsafe access to data structures and runtime-system functions.^[8]
Visible compiler structures – SML/NJ also includes structures that provide access to the ML compiler, which contains substructures for execution profiling, control of compiler error-message printing and warnings, and customizable pretty printing.^[9]

Also, SML/NJ provides some syntactic constructs that are not standard features of SML'97:^[3]

Vector expressions and patterns – SML/NJ allows the creation of vectors with the #[exp₀, exp₁, ..., exp_n₋₁] syntax and allows pattern-matching on them with analogous syntax.
Or-patterns – SML/NJ extends the syntax of SML'97 patterns to allow for a matching multiple patterns in a single rule, provided each pattern has the same type, using (apat₁ | ... | apat_n) => exp .
Object language embedding – SML/NJ provides the quote/antiquote syntax that permits the embedding of expressions in an object language's concrete syntax within ML expressions and programs.^[10]
Higher-order modules – SML/NJ supports the parametrization of functors by allowing functors to be components of structures, in addition to Standard ML's parametric modules in the form of functors.

Development

Successor ML is a term used to describe the next version of the language. The documents describing it have been extracted from the SML/NJ '97 files and made available as a GitHub repository of TeX documents which the community is expected to collaborate and grow the language.^[11] Successor ML features can be enabled using the command-line option -Cparser.succ-ml=true.^[12]

Since at least 1998,^[13]MLton^[14] is the standard bootstrapping compiler, and includes some^[15] support for Successor ML.

In 2008, work began on HaMLet,^[16] a reference implementation of Successor ML written entirely in Standard ML.^[17]As of 2018^[update], HaMLet remains the only complete implementation of Successor ML, with added novel features.^[15]

Since 2015,^[18] the evolution of SML/NJ geared towards evolving the Basis library^[19] and adding support for the Successor ML definition with the release of version 110.79.^[12]

At the end of 2020, 64-bit support was added with the release of version 110.99.^[18]

External links

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References

1 2 "SML/NJ background information". Smlnj.org. Retrieved 2018-09-05.
↑ "Standard ML of New Jersey License". www.smlnj.org.
1 2 "SML/NJ Special Features". www.smlnj.org. Retrieved 2018-09-05.
↑ "The SYS_INFO signature". www.smlnj.org. Retrieved 2018-09-05.
↑ "The WEAK signature". www.smlnj.org. Retrieved 2018-09-05.
↑ "The SUSP signature". www.smlnj.org. Retrieved 2018-09-05.
↑ "The internals signature". www.smlnj.org. Retrieved 2018-09-05.
↑ "The Unsafe structure". www.smlnj.org. Retrieved 2018-09-05.
↑ "The Visible Compiler". www.smlnj.org. Retrieved 2018-09-05.
↑ "SML/NJ Quote/Antiquote". www.smlnj.org. Retrieved 2018-09-05.
↑ "Successor ML Definition". GitHub .
1 2 "Standard ML of New Jersey version 110.79 News". 2015-10-04.
↑ "MLton 1999-03-19 change notes". GitHub .
↑ "The MLton repository". GitHub .
1 2 "Three implementation efforts to support Successor ML". GitHub .
↑ Rossberg, Andreas. "HaMLet S: To Become or Not to Become Successor ML" (PDF).
↑ "SML reference interpreter". GitHub .
1 2 "Standard ML of New Jersey Change Log for v110.99".
↑ "The Standard ML Basis Library".

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[Devs-1] 1 2 "SML/NJ background information". Smlnj.org. Retrieved 2018-09-05.

[2] "Standard ML of New Jersey License". www.smlnj.org.

[:0-3] 1 2 "SML/NJ Special Features". www.smlnj.org. Retrieved 2018-09-05.

[4] "The SYS_INFO signature". www.smlnj.org. Retrieved 2018-09-05.

[5] "The WEAK signature". www.smlnj.org. Retrieved 2018-09-05.

[6] "The SUSP signature". www.smlnj.org. Retrieved 2018-09-05.

[7] "The internals signature". www.smlnj.org. Retrieved 2018-09-05.

[8] "The Unsafe structure". www.smlnj.org. Retrieved 2018-09-05.

[9] "The Visible Compiler". www.smlnj.org. Retrieved 2018-09-05.

[10] "SML/NJ Quote/Antiquote". www.smlnj.org. Retrieved 2018-09-05.

[11] "Successor ML Definition". GitHub .

[SUCC-12] 1 2 "Standard ML of New Jersey version 110.79 News". 2015-10-04.

[13] "MLton 1999-03-19 change notes". GitHub .

[14] "The MLton repository". GitHub .

[IMPL-15] 1 2 "Three implementation efforts to support Successor ML". GitHub .

[16] Rossberg, Andreas. "HaMLet S: To Become or Not to Become Successor ML" (PDF).

[17] "SML reference interpreter". GitHub .

[CHGLOG-18] 1 2 "Standard ML of New Jersey Change Log for v110.99".

[19] "The Standard ML Basis Library".

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