[MLton] Re: MLton mailing list

[Martin Elsman]

Hi there,

>> I'm currently looking at improving the recompilation system in the
>> ML Kit by serializing import and export environments to disk, which
>> in principle could influence our PM system. One problem is that the
>> improvement requires a dependency analysis, which, as you know, is
>> difficult for Standard ML (because of toplevel value constructors
>> and infix declarations).
>>
> Stephen Weeks <sweeks@sweeks.com> writes:
>
> I'm not sure what you see the problem as, but I'd be happy to discuss
> it.  You might be interested in looking at the output of a new option
> we just added to MLton, -show-def-use, which gives dependency
> information on constructors, variables, types, signatures, structures,
> and functors.

I'm just eluding to a problem with recompilation upon modification of
source code in the PM system. Say that a program unit P declares a
value identifier vid at top-level with identifier status 'v'. Upon
modification of the source code for P, if the identifier status for
vid has changed to 'c' (or 'e') then dependency information must be
recomputed for all files following the program unit P in the
project. Top-level infix declarations and top-level open declarations
cause problems as well. Chapter 4 of my thesis work from 1998 states
some properties about "basis dependence" for Standard ML.


an exported identifier declared at top-level in a program unit P
constructor status for an ide Back in 1997 I did some work on
"elaboration dependence" for Standard ML.

>
>> So what happened to the ML Basis files - it seemed like a good idea?
>
> I agree :-).  I still plan to do it at some point.  I spent most of my
> free time over the last 6 months working on MLton's new front end.
> BTW, I'd love to get your feedback on trying that out on the ML Kit.
>
> My current plan is to do the mlb stuff this summer.  But I'm not sure
> if I will find the time.
>
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