A synopsis of the SML programming language

We present here an introduction to the programming language SML in several steps. Each step tries to real the language in every more detail without confusing the issues with the most general forms of the constructs. Someone completely unfamiliar with SML or functional languages can look at SML, Part I to learn about function objects, let expressions and simple SML data types for integers, boolean values and tuples. Someone beginning to write simple SML programs will find in SML, Part II a description of the interaction with the SML compiler, patterns, the remaining primitive datatypes, and simple user-defined datatypes. Next come lists, polymorphism, and higher-order functions, and more about user-defined datatypes. After the main ideas are clear, SML, Part III is appropriate for examples of more advanced constructs like records and exception handling. Finally imperative constructs.


Ryan Stansifer <ryan@cs.fit.edu>
Last modified: Thu Apr 11 09:13:19 EST 1996