Moscow ML

A light-weight implementation of Standard ML written by

Sergei Romanenko [email protected] of the

Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics with assistance

from Peter Sestoft [email protected], Royal Veterinaryand Agricultural University. Moscow ML is based on CAMLLight.

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 CamlLight. 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 Intel80386-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 IBMPCs, slower on RISCs).

DOS.

Linux.

Source.

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)