[MLton-devel] hello

[Stephen Weeks]

> Just thought of a question for you, actually.  How does SML compiled with 
> MLton compare to OCaML?  I haven't used OCaML, but I get the impression 
> from some that it's more widely used, liked, etc.  What's your take?

I'd guess that OCaml is more widely used, partially due to a better
implementation and tools, partially due to better libraries, and
partially due to having only one implementation and so fewer
portability problems.  We have addressed some of those deficiencies of
SML with MLton, focusing initially on efficient code and lately on
better tools and libraries.  But there is still a ways to go.

As to comparing generated code, both OCaml and MLton use relatively
simple, but effective local code generation strategies, so I'd guess
that's pretty much a wash.  Although OCaml has had more work, so it
might be a little better.  MLton almost certainly wins when
cross-module optimization becomes important, since it does a lot more
whole program analysis and optimization.  How much that matters
depends on programming style, and programmers change their programming
style to suit the optimizer, so OCaml programmers probably don't
notice what they're missing.

I'll let the other readers of this list chime in with additional
thoughts.



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