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<a class = mltona href="Home">MLton MLTONWIKIVERSION</a>
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Features
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MLton has the following features. <h2 id="head-b307b88c84327b1804aee227595be53342245965">Portability</h2>
<ul>
<li>
<p>
Runs on a variety of platforms.
</p>
</li>
<ul>
<li>
<p>
<a href="RunningOnARM">ARM</a>:
</p>
</li>
<ul>
<li>
<p>
<a href="RunningOnLinux">Linux</a> (Debian)
</p>
</li>
</ul>
<li class="gap">
<p>
<a href="RunningOnAlpha">Alpha</a>:
</p>
</li>
<ul>
<li>
<p>
<a href="RunningOnLinux">Linux</a> (Debian)
</p>
</li>
</ul>
<li class="gap">
<p>
<a href="RunningOnAMD64">AMD64</a>:
</p>
</li>
<ul>
<li>
<p>
<a href="RunningOnDarwin">Darwin</a> (Mac OS X)
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
<a href="RunningOnFreeBSD">FreeBSD</a>
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
<a href="RunningOnLinux">Linux</a> (Debian, Fedora, ...)
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
<a href="RunningOnSolaris">Solaris</a> (10 and above)
</p>
</li>
</ul>
<li class="gap">
<p>
<a href="RunningOnHPPA">HPPA</a>:
</p>
</li>
<ul>
<li>
<p>
<a href="RunningOnHPUX">HPUX</a> (11.11 and above)
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
<a href="RunningOnLinux">Linux</a> (Debian)
</p>
</li>
</ul>
<li class="gap">
<p>
<a href="RunningOnIA64">IA64</a>:
</p>
</li>
<ul>
<li>
<p>
<a href="RunningOnHPUX">HPUX</a> (11.11 and above)
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
<a href="RunningOnLinux">Linux</a> (Debian)
</p>
</li>
</ul>
<li class="gap">
<p>
<a href="RunningOnPowerPC">PowerPC</a>:
</p>
</li>
<ul>
<li>
<p>
<a href="RunningOnAIX">AIX</a> (5.2 and above)
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
<a href="RunningOnDarwin">Darwin</a> (Mac OS X)
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
<a href="RunningOnLinux">Linux</a> (Debian, Fedora)
</p>
</li>
</ul>
<li class="gap">
<p>
<a href="RunningOnPowerPC64">PowerPC64</a>:
</p>
</li>
<ul>
<li>
<p>
<a href="RunningOnAIX">AIX</a> (5.2 and above)
</p>
</li>
</ul>
<li class="gap">
<p>
<a href="RunningOnS390">S390</a>
</p>
</li>
<ul>
<li>
<p>
<a href="RunningOnLinux">Linux</a> (Debian)
</p>
</li>
</ul>
<li class="gap">
<p>
<a href="RunningOnSparc">Sparc</a>
</p>
</li>
<ul>
<li>
<p>
<a href="RunningOnLinux">Linux</a> (Debian)
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
<a href="RunningOnSolaris">Solaris</a> (8 and above)
</p>
</li>
</ul>
<li class="gap">
<p>
<a href="RunningOnX86">X86</a>:
</p>
</li>
<ul>
<li>
<p>
<a href="RunningOnCygwin">Cygwin</a>/Windows
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
<a href="RunningOnDarwin">Darwin</a> (Mac OS X)
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
<a href="RunningOnFreeBSD">FreeBSD</a>
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
<a href="RunningOnLinux">Linux</a> (Debian, Fedora, ...)
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
<a href="RunningOnMinGW">MinGW</a>/Windows
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
<a href="RunningOnNetBSD">NetBSD</a>
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
<a href="RunningOnOpenBSD">OpenBSD</a>
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
<a href="RunningOnSolaris">Solaris</a> (10 and above)
</p>
</li>
</ul>
</ul>
</ul>
<h2 id="head-8aa709faedc93ee0f2dd837347b1b6c2880d34d1">Robustness</h2>
<ul>
<li>
<p>
Supports the full SML 97 language as given in <a href="DefinitionOfStandardML">The Definition of Standard ML (Revised)</a>. <br>
If there is a program that is valid according to The Definition that is rejected by MLton, or a program that is invalid according to the Definition that is accepted by MLton, it is a bug. For a list of known bugs, see <a href="UnresolvedBugs">UnresolvedBugs</a>.
</p>
</li>
<li class="gap">
<p>
A complete implementation of the <a href="BasisLibrary">Basis Library</a>. <br>
MLton's implementation matches latest Basis Library specification, and includes a complete implementation of all the required modules, as well as many of the optional modules.
</p>
</li>
<li class="gap">
<p>
Generates standalone executables. <br>
No additional code or libraries are necessary in order to run an executable, except for the standard shared libraries. MLton can also generate statically linked executables.
</p>
</li>
<li class="gap">
<p>
Compiles large programs. <br>
MLton is sufficiently efficient and robust that it can compile large programs, including itself (over 140K lines). The distributed version of MLton was compiled by MLton.
</p>
</li>
<li class="gap">
<p>
Support for large amounts of memory (up to 4G on 32-bit systems; more on 64-bit systems).
</p>
</li>
<li class="gap">
<p>
Support for large array lengths (up to 2<sup>31</sup> - 1 on 32-bit systems; up to 2<sup>63</sup> - 1 on 64-bit systems).
</p>
</li>
<li class="gap">
<p>
Support for large files, using 64-bit file positions.
</p>
</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="head-63c904559993935c470f516c8b549ca7f3640dbb">Performance</h2>
<ul>
<li>
<p>
Executables have <a href="Performance">excellent running times</a>.
</p>
</li>
<li class="gap">
<p>
Generates small executables. <br>
MLton takes advantage of whole-program compilation to perform very aggressive dead-code elimination, which often leads to smaller executables than with other SML compilers.
</p>
</li>
<li class="gap">
<p>
Untagged and unboxed native integers, reals, and words. <br>
In MLton, integers and words are 8 bits, 16 bits, 32 bits, and 64 bits and arithmetic does not have any overhead due to tagging or boxing. Also, reals (32-bit and 64-bit) are stored unboxed, avoiding any overhead due to boxing.
</p>
</li>
<li class="gap">
<p>
Unboxed native arrays. <br>
In MLton, an array (or vector) of integers, reals, or words uses the natural C-like representation. This is fast and supports easy exchange of data with C. Monomorphic arrays (and vectors) use the same C-like representations as their polymorphic counterparts.
</p>
</li>
<li class="gap">
<p>
Multiple <a href="GarbageCollection">garbage collection</a> strategies.
</p>
</li>
<li class="gap">
<p>
Fast arbitrary precision arithmetic (<tt>IntInf</tt>) based on the <a href="GnuMP">GnuMP</a>. <br>
For <tt>IntInf</tt> intensive programs, MLton can be an order of magnitude or more faster than Poly/ML or SML/NJ.
</p>
</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="head-4fa8cc860c52b268dc6a3adcde7305e9415db5bb">Tools</h2>
<ul>
<li>
<p>
Source-level <a href="Profiling">Profiling</a> of both time and allocation.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
<a href="MLLex">MLLex</a> lexer generator
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
<a href="MLYacc">MLYacc</a> parser generator
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
<a href="MLNLFFIGen">MLNLFFIGen</a> foreign-function-interface generator
</p>
</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="head-656bcfe284e2da39c77d4fdab55b16ad3c654719">Extensions</h2>
<ul>
<li>
<p>
A simple and fast C <a href="ForeignFunctionInterface">ForeignFunctionInterface</a> that supports calling from SML to C and from C to SML.
</p>
</li>
<li class="gap">
<p>
The <a href="MLBasis">ML Basis system</a> for programming in the very large, separate delivery of library sources, and more.
</p>
</li>
<li class="gap">
<p>
A number of extension libraries that provide useful functionality that cannot be implemented with the <a href="BasisLibrary">Basis Library</a>. See below for an overview and <a href="MLtonStructure">MLtonStructure</a> for details.
</p>
</li>
<ul>
<li>
<p>
<a href="MLtonCont">continuations</a> <br>
MLton supports continuations via <tt>callcc</tt> and <tt>throw</tt>.
</p>
</li>
<li class="gap">
<p>
<a href="MLtonFinalizable">finalization</a> <br>
MLton supports finalizable values of arbitrary type.
</p>
</li>
<li class="gap">
<p>
<a href="MLtonItimer">interval timers</a> <br>
MLton supports the functionality of the C <tt>setitimer</tt> function.
</p>
</li>
<li class="gap">
<p>
<a href="MLtonRandom">random numbers</a> <br>
MLton has functions similar to the C <tt>rand</tt> and <tt>srand</tt> functions, as well as support for access to <tt>/dev/random</tt> and <tt>/dev/urandom</tt>.
</p>
</li>
<li class="gap">
<p>
<a href="MLtonRlimit">resource limits</a> <br>
MLton has functions similar to the C <tt>getrlimit</tt> and <tt>setrlimit</tt> functions.
</p>
</li>
<li class="gap">
<p>
<a href="MLtonRusage">resource usage</a> <br>
MLton supports a subset of the functionality of the C <tt>getrusage</tt> function.
</p>
</li>
<li class="gap">
<p>
<a href="MLtonSignal">signal handlers</a> <br>
MLton supports signal handlers written in SML. Signal handlers run in a separate MLton thread, and have access to the thread that was interrupted by the signal. Signal handlers can be used in conjunction with threads to implement preemptive multitasking.
</p>
</li>
<li class="gap">
<p>
<a href="MLtonStructure">size primitive</a> <br>
MLton includes a primitive that returns the size (in bytes) of any object. This can be useful in understanding the space behavior of a program.
</p>
</li>
<li class="gap">
<p>
<a href="MLtonSyslog">system logging</a> <br>
MLton has a complete interface to the C <tt>syslog</tt> function.
</p>
</li>
<li class="gap">
<p>
<a href="MLtonThread">threads</a> <br>
MLton has support for its own threads, upon which either preemptive or non-preemptive multitasking can be implemented. MLton also has support for <a href="ConcurrentML">Concurrent ML</a> (CML).
</p>
</li>
<li class="gap">
<p>
<a href="MLtonWeak">weak pointers</a> <br>
MLton supports weak pointers, which allow the garbage collector to reclaim objects that it would otherwise be forced to keep. Weak pointers are also used to provide finalization.
</p>
</li>
<li class="gap">
<p>
<a href="MLtonWorld">world save and restore</a> <br>
MLton has a facility for saving the entire state of a computation to a file and restarting it later. This facility can be used for staging and for checkpointing computations. It can even be used from within signal handlers, allowing interrupt driven checkpointing.
</p>
</li>
</ul>
</ul>
</div>
<p>
<hr>
Last edited on 2010-06-08 14:13:42 by <span title="fenrir.cs.rit.edu"><a href="MatthewFluet">MatthewFluet</a></span>.
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