[MLton-user] The SML basis library socket module

[Stephen Weeks]

> > > You mean the different basis library implementations are not
> > > interchangable across the various SML compilers?
> >
> > Right, due to bugs, moving targets, and freedoms allowed by the
> > specification.
> 
> Even more importantly, the implementations are not interchangeable because
> they depend on compiler specific implementation details.  
...
> Certainly some modules, for example List and ListPair, would almost
> certainly be interchangeable, but that's probably about it.

Just to be clear, there are two different kinds of interchangeability.

1. Interchangeability of code that *uses* the basis library.
2. Interchangeability of code that *implements* the basis library.

I was talking about (1), which I thought Chris was asking about, while
Matthew was talking about (2).  I agree completely that porting code
that implements that basis library implementation is much harder than
porting code that uses the basis library.

I don't want people to think that code is only portable if it uses
just List and ListPair.  :-)