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Programming Notes 2

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Programming Notes 2

Uploaded by

Gabi
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as TXT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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ML

ML is a general-purpose functional programming language developed by Robin Milner


and others in the
late 1970s at the University of Edinburgh, whose syntax is inspired by ISWIM.
Historically, ML stands
for metalanguage: it was conceived to develop proof tactics in the LCF theorem
prover (whose language,
pplambda, a combination of the first-order predicate calculus and the simply typed
polymorphic lambdacalculus, had ML as its metalanguage). It is known for its use of
the Hindley-Milner type inference algorithm,
which can automatically infer the types of most expressions without requiring
explicit type annotations. ML
is often referred to as an impure functional language, because it does not
encapsulate side-effects, unlike
purely functional programming languages such as Haskell.
Features of ML include a call-by-value evaluation strategy, first class functions,
automatic memory management through garbage collection, parametric polymorphism,
static typing, type inference, algebraic data
types, pattern matching, and exception handling.
Unlike Haskell, ML uses eager evaluation, which means that all subexpressions are
always evaluated.
However, lazy evaluation can be achieved through the use of closures. Thus one can
create and use infinite
streams as in Haskell, however, their expression is comparatively indirect.
Today there are several languages in the ML family; the two major dialects are
Standard ML (SML) and
Caml, but others exist, including F# - a language which Microsoft supports for
their .NET platform. Ideas
from ML have influenced numerous other languages, like Haskell, Cyclone, and
Nemerle.
ML�s strengths are mostly applied in language design and manipulation (compilers,
analyzers, theorem
provers), but it is a general-purpose language also used in bioinformatics,
financial systems, and applications
including a genealogical database, a peer-to-peer client/server program, etc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ML_%28programming_language%29

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