SML#: a new Standard ML family programming language

Post by Altenuvian » Sat, Jul 20, 2013, 1:47 PM UTC

alegrn wrote: post #10

nnq wrote: post #8

sorry to ask, but who uses SML nowadays and for what do they use it? (I know about it's descendants or languages influenced/inspired by it, like OCaml, F# and the less related Haskell, but nothing hits the news about SML projects.)

Although SML is such a beautiful and pragmatic language and has many Compilers and Runtimes, I am not aware of any real world projects with impact other than the well-known SML compilers (Mlton, SMLNJ, MosML, Poly ... to only name a few). Usage of SML results in very short, readable and efficient programs, so I wonder why there is only so little industry adoption.

Post by p4bl0 » Sat, Jul 20, 2013, 2:39 PM UTC

mackwic wrote: post #15

Mindless2112 wrote: post #5

"Functional record update" [1] was the one missing feature that bothered me most about Standard ML. If you want to change one element in a record, you've got to specify explicitly that every other element in the record didn't change. [1] http://www.pllab.riec.tohoku.ac.jp/smlsharp/docs/1.0/en/Ch4....

You can also update one field in OCaml, I really like this language.

    # type foo = { bar: int ; baz: string };;
    type foo = { bar : int; baz : string; }
    # let a = { bar = 42; baz = "hello" };;
    val a : foo = {bar = 42; baz = "hello"}
    # let b = {a with baz = "bye"};;
    val b : foo = {bar = 42; baz = "bye"}
    # a;;
    - : foo = {bar = 42; baz = "hello"}

Post by nnq » Sat, Jul 20, 2013, 5:12 PM UTC

Altenuvian wrote: post #21

alegrn wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Although SML is such a beautiful and pragmatic language and has many Compilers and Runtimes, I am not aware of any real world projects with impact other than the well-known SML compilers (Mlton, SMLNJ, MosML, Poly ... to only name a few). Usage of SML results in very short, readable and efficient programs, so I wonder why there is only so little industry adoption.

adaption of ML style languages suffers from the unfamiliar syntax, the pretty steep learning curve for those trained in imperative dialects at 'java-school'. at least when it comes to syntax mythryl might someday provide an option. its basically SML/NJ with a c-like syntax and multithreading support. still very much in development but looks promising: mythryl.org that said Haskell certainly seems to be the winner of…

Post by mackwic » Mon, Jul 29, 2013, 3:37 PM UTC

p4bl0 wrote: post #23

mackwic wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can also update one field in OCaml, I really like this language.

I wouldn't use "update" since it imply that there is a modification of the value in the original record. This is possible with mutable field of course, but I think the feature of OCaml (and apparently, SML#) you're talking about is the `with` keyword: # type foo = { bar: int ; baz: string };; type foo = { bar : int; baz : string; } # let a = { bar = 42; baz = "hello" };; val a : foo = {bar = 42; baz = "hello"} # let…