File readme.w32 for Moscow ML 2.00 for Win95/98/NT/2000 (June 2000)


EXTENT OF THE IMPLEMENTATION

The current version 2.00 of Moscow ML

    * implements the full Standard ML language, as revised 1997, 
      including Modules and some extensions
    * yet is backwards compatible with versions prior to 2.00
    * implements large parts of the new SML Basis Library
    * implements separate compilation 
    * can produce compact stand-alone executables (a la Caml Light)
    * supports quotations and antiquotations, useful for metaprogramming
    * supports dynamic linking of external functions under Linux (x86
      and Alpha), FreeBSD, NetBSD, Solaris, Digital Unix, HP-UX,
      MacOS, and MS Windows'95/98/NT

New in version 2.00 of Moscow ML

   * The full SML Modules language (structures, signatures, and functors) 
     is now supported, thanks to Claudio Russo.  Also, several extensions 
     to the SML Modules language are provided:
      - higher-order functors: functors may be defined within structures 
        and functors
      - first-class modules: structures and functors may be packed and 
        then handled as Core language values, which may then be unpacked 
        as structures or functors again
      - recursive modules: signatures and structures may be recursively 
        defined
   * Value polymorphism has become friendlier: non-generalizable free
     type variables are left free, and become instantiated (once only)
     when the bound variable is used
   * Added facilities for creating and communicating with subprocesses
     (structure Unix and Signal from SML Basis Library).
   * Added facilities for efficient functional generation of HTML code
     (structure Msp); also supports the writing of ML Server Page scripts.
   * Added facilities setting and accessing `cookies' in CGI scripts
     (structure Mosmlcookie), thanks to Hans Molin, Uppsala, Sweden.
   * The Gdimage structure now produces PNG images (using Thomas 
     Boutell's gd library).

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

Compilation under Unix is best done using GNU make, gcc, and Perl.  A
binary installation requires 5 MB disk space; a source installation
requires 25 MB disk space.

LIST OF FILES

Executables and bytecode files:
    bin/*               Moscow ML top-level system and batch compiler
    lib/*               Bytecode files and standard libraries
    tools/*             Tools to infer unit inter-dependencies

Documentation files:
    install.txt         Installation instructions for Linux
    README              This file
    doc/manual.pdf      User manual (PDF format)
    doc/mosmlref.pdf    A compact guide to Moscow ML syntax and primitives
    doc/mosmllib.pdf    Moscow ML library documentation with an index
    doc/mosmllib/*.html Moscow ML library documentation in HTML format
    copyrght/*          Copyright notices (for Caml Light, SML/NJ, ...)

AUTHOR AND CREDITS

Moscow ML was written by
    Sergei Romanenko (roman@keldysh.ru)
    Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics, Russian Academy of Sciences
    Miusskaya Pl. 4, 125047 Moscow, Russia
and Claudio V. Russo (Claudio.Russo@cl.cam.ac.uk), University of Cambridge.
    Thanks to Don Sannella at LFCS, Division of Informatics,
    University of Edinburgh for funding under EPSRC grant GR/K63795
and Peter Sestoft (sestoft@dina.kvl.dk),
    Department of Mathematics and Physics, Royal Veterinary and
    Agricultural University, Thorvaldsensvej 40, DK-1871 Frederiksberg C, 
    Denmark.  Much of the work was done at the Technical University of
    Denmark, and while visiting AT&T Bell Laboratories, New Jersey, USA.

Moscow ML owes much to:
    * the CAML Light implementation by Xavier Leroy and Damien Doligez
      (INRIA, Rocquencourt, France); especially the Caml Light bytecode
      generator and the runtime system;
    * the ML Kit by Lars Birkedal, Nick Rothwell, Mads Tofte and David Turner
      (Copenhagen University, Denmark, and Edinburgh University, Scotland);
    * inspiration from the SML/NJ compiler developed at Princeton
      University and AT&T Bell Laboratories, New Jersey, USA; 
    * the good work by Doug Currie, Flavors Technology, USA, on the
      MacOS port and many improvements; and
    * feedback, contributions, and useful suggestions, in particular
      from Ken Friis Larsen, but also from Jonas Barklund, Mike Gordon,
      Michael Norrish, Konrad Slind, Jakob Lichtenberg, Hans Molin, and 
      numerous other people.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE FOR MOSCOW ML

    Moscow ML - a lightweight implementation of Standard ML.
    Copyright (C) 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000
    Sergei Romanenko, Moscow, Russia and Peter Sestoft, Copenhagen, Denmark.

    This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
    modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
    as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
    of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

    This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
    but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
    MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
    GNU General Public License in copyrght/gpl2 for more details.

    You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
    along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
    Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.

Note that a number of source files are derived from the Caml Light
distribution, copyright (C) 1993 INRIA, Rocquencourt, France.  Thus
charging money for redistributing Moscow ML may require prior
permission from INRIA; see the INRIA copyright notice in file
copyrght/copyrght.cl.  The Caml Light system itself can be obtained
from ftp.inria.fr:lang/caml-light.

AVAILABILITY

    * The Moscow ML home page is at  
        http://www.dina.kvl.dk/~sestoft/mosml.html
    * Moscow ML library documentation
        http://www.dina.kvl.dk/~sestoft/mosmllib/
    * The Linux executables (and documentation) are in
        ftp://ftp.dina.kvl.dk/pub/mosml/linux-mos20bin.tar.gz
    * The MS Windows executables are in 
        ftp://ftp.dina.kvl.dk/pub/mosml/win32-mos20bin.zip
    * The MS DOS executables (and documentation) are in
        ftp://ftp.dina.kvl.dk/pub/mosml/mos20bin.zip
    * The Macintosh/MacOS (68k and PPC) executables are in
        ftp://ftp.dina.kvl.dk/pub/mosml/mac-mos20bin.sea.hqx
    * The Unix source files (and documentation) are in
        ftp://ftp.dina.kvl.dk/pub/mosml/mos20src.tar.gz
    * The MacOS modified source files (relative to Unix) are in
        ftp://ftp.dina.kvl.dk/pub/mosml/mac-mos20src.sea.hqx

The files are mirrored at 
        ftp://ftp.csd.uu.se/pub/mirror/mosml
