I don't like Java and I really like functional programming so playing with Standard ML make me feel good.
Because I never used this language family (SML/NJ, PolyML, MLTon, OCaml, F#) in an every day job, I need a few evenings to recall what I knew. And every time I learn again SML, I do it in a new way and always with a great pleasure.
You need PolyML, make and a good editor which can highlight SML syntax, like Vim.
The project hello in the directory hello is the best place to start. Don't forget to read the Makefile documentation.
- the
hello project, sample project with little experimentations, - the
mlTop project, a littletopinspired project, - project management with
make.
It's a full system with an interpreter, very useful to test and debug, and a compiler.
MLTon is just a compiler. Why using another compiler? It's one of the best way to be sure of syntax quality and an easy way to understand compiling errors. It's because each compiler have it's own error messages.
MLTon is easy to use. Just create an .mlb file with the list of the files used by your project and run the compiler!