The History of Standard ML

This page will contain links to historical documents related to the development and evolution of the ML language, and Standard ML in particular.

Papers and Talks

• Luca Cardelli and the Early Evolution of ML, by David MacQueen. A paper presented at the Luca Cardelli Fest at Microsoft Research Cambridge on Sept. 8, 2014.
• The History of Standard ML: Ideas, Principles, Culture, by David MacQueen. Slides for a presentation at the ML Family Workshop, Vancouver, September 3, 2015
• The History of Standard ML (2020.04.05, final HOPL version), by David MacQueen, Robert Harper, and John Reppy. A paper to be presented at the ACM History of Programming Langauges conference, currently postponed until perhaps the first half of 2021. Also, we offer the extensive standardml.bib BibTeX bibliography file used for this paper.

Design Documents

Core Language

• A Proposal for Standard ML (TENTATIVE), by Robin Milner, April, 1983. The first draft of Milner's proposal for core Standard ML, which provided the basis for discussions at the first informal Standard ML meeting at Edinburgh in early April, 1983.
• Changes to proposal for standard ML, by Robin Milner, April/May 1983(?). Changes to the initial TENTATIVE proposal, probably in response to discussions at the first Standard ML meeting and comments on the circulated Proposal.
• A Proposal for Standard ML (second draft), by Robin Milner, June 1983. The second draft of Milner's proposal for core Standard ML, incorporating changes resulting from discussions and correspondence after the first informal Standard ML meeting in April, 1983. Section 1.1 gives some early history.
• A Proposal for Standard ML, by Robin Milner, November 1983. The third draft of Milner's proposal for core Standard ML.
• The Standard ML Core Language, by Robin Milner, July 1984. The language described is essentially the same as described in "A Proposal for Standard ML", appearing in the 1984 ACM Conference on LISP and Functional Programming, Austin, Texas.
• The Standard ML Core Language, by Robin Milner, October, 1984. The second draft of the "Core Language" design.
• The Standard ML Core Language (Revised), by Robin Milner, September, 1985. The third draft of the "Core Language" design.

Module Language

• Modules for Standard ML by David MacQueen, August, 1983. First manuscript draft of the modules proposal.
• A simplified syntax for instances and module definitions, with a proposal for treating sharing specifications by Robin Milner, 1984.5.23. A proposal for discussion at the June 1984 design meeting.
• Dependent Types and Modular Structure by David MacQueen, June, 1985, Marstrand, Sweden. Talk presented at the Marstrand Workshop on Specification and Derivation of Programs.
• Webs by Robin Milner, 1985.09.01. An abstract model of sharing in modules.
• A Denotational Semantics for ML Modules by Don Sannella, November, 1985.

Design Meetings

• ML Meeting Skeleton Timetable by Robin Milner, June, 1984.
• Schedule for Standard ML meeting 23-25 May 1985 by (probably) Robin Milner, May 1985.
• Report on the Standard ML Meeting, Edinburgh, May 23-25, 1985 (DRAFT) by Robert Harper, 1985.

Core Language Notes

• Operational Semantics of an ML Subset by Robin Milner, 1984.01.31. A transition-style dynamic semantics of a subset of Core SML.
• The Dynamic Operational Semantics of Standard ML (3rd Draft) by Robin Milner, April, 1985. An evaluation (big-step) semantics for Core SML.
• Tree Pattern Matching for ML (extended abstract), by Marianne Baudinet and David MacQueen, December, 1985. An early version of the SML/NJ pattern match compiler.

Types and Type Checking

• Locations as first class objects in ML, by Michael Gordon, circa 1980. A note to Luis Damas on ref types.
• Modified Damas Algorithm for Typechecking with References by David MacQueen, March, 1983. Proposal for "weak type variables" as a generalization of imperative type variables.
• Polymorphic References Revisited by Mads Tofte, 1987.03.09.
• Culprits: A Simple Aproach to Better Type Error Messages by David MacQueen, 2003. Slides for a talk at IFIP Working Group 2.8 meeting.
• Notes on Newman's "Stratified systems of login" by David MacQueen, 2015. Slides for a talk at the IFIP Working Group 2.8 meeting.
• System F omega with (equi-)recursive types by Francois Pottier, June, 2011.

Cardelli ML and Edinburgh ML

• The ML Abstract Machine by Luca Cardelli, November, 1980. Early discription of the abstract machine that developed into the FAM (Functional Abstract Machine).
• A Module Exchange Format by Luca Cardelli, December, 1980. Primitives needed to implement an Environment facility for (Cardelli) ML to support modules.
• ML under VMS by Luca Cardelli, 1982. Tutorial introduction to Cardelli ML, as implemented by his compiler on VAX-VMS.
• EDINBURGH ML by Luca Cardelli, March, 1982. A README file accompanying the distribution of Cardelli's ML Compiler for VAX-VMS.
• Differences between VAX and DEC-10 ML by Luca Cardelli, March, 1982. Describes differences between Cardelli's dialect of ML ("VAX ML" or "ML under VMS") and LCF/ML.
• ML System on Vax Unix by Nobuo Saito, March, 1982. README for an independent port of "ML under VMS" (Cardelli ML compiler on VAX-VMS) to Unix.
• ML Progress Report by Kevin Mitchell (for Rod Burstall), 1983.09.13. Progress report on Edinburgh ML, the reimplementation of Cardelli ML as a self-bootstrapping compiler.
• The Edinburgh Standard ML Compiler by Kevin Mitchell and Alan Mycroft, January, 1985. The Edinburgh ML compiler updated with Standard ML features.

Formal Definitions

• The Definition of Non-Standard ML (Syntax and Static Semantics) by Claudio Russo, December, 2014.

Implementation/System Notes

• Discussion with Rod Burstall about precompilation by Robin Milner, 1983.6.30.

Basis Library Documents

These are various documents connected to the design of the Standard ML Basis Library, which was part of the 1997 revision of the Definition of Standard ML.

• Toward a standard Standard ML (author unknown). The original proposal for standardizing an SML Basis Library.
• A New Initial Basis for Standard ML (Draft) by Andrew Appel, Dave Berry, Emden Gansner, Lal George, Lorenz Huelsbergen, Dave MacQueen, and John Reppy, March 5, 1994.
• A New Initial Basis for Standard ML (Draft) by Andrew Appel, Dave Berry, Emden Gansner, Lal George, Lorenz Huelsbergen, Dave MacQueen, and John Reppy, June 6, 1996.
• Proposed interface for Standard ML stream I/O by Andrew Appel, November 14, 1994. Working draft proposal for the design of stream I/O for Standard ML.
• Proposed interface for Standard ML stream I/O by Andrew Appel, November 30, 1994. Working draft proposal for the design of stream I/O for Standard ML.
• Proposed interface for Standard ML stream I/O by Andrew Appel, January 11, 1995. Working draft proposal for the design of stream I/O for Standard ML.
• Proposed interface for Standard ML stream I/O by Andrew Appel, January 11, 1995. Working draft proposal for the design of stream I/O for Standard ML.
• Proposed interface for Standard ML stream I/O by Andrew Appel, February 6, 1995. Working draft proposal for the design of stream I/O for Standard ML.
• Proposed interface for Standard ML stream I/O by Andrew Appel, May 31, 1995. Working draft proposal for the design of stream I/O for Standard ML.
• Proposed interface for Standard ML stream I/O by Andrew Appel, June 23, 1995. Working draft proposal for the design of stream I/O for Standard ML.
• Proposed interface for Standard ML stream I/O by Andrew Appel, July 13, 1995. Working draft proposal for the design of stream I/O for Standard ML.
• A safe interface to sockets (draft) by John Reppy, May 28, 1996. Proposal for a type-safe sockets interface.
• A ``Safe'' Sockets API by John Reppy, September 20, 1995. Slides from talk given at the IFIP WG2.8 meeting in 1995 (Aspenäs, Sweden).