[MLton] questions on mlton

Heath Putnam hp@heathputnam.com
10 Nov 2004 16:25:24 -0800


Matthew,

I'm interested in using CML with mlton on the x86 with OpenBSD.

Assuming I get my port working, I'll be doing a simple ping/pong
benchmark under OpenBSD with sml/nj and mlton. As it is, I only have
sml/nj.

Is it correct that the essence of a CML port is getting the threads
right? As you mention, it doesn't use many smlnj-isms.

Is there any documentation for mlton's thread concept? I saw that this
is an issue (in the port you had to change a few things), but I didn't
get why the changes had to be made (something about crossing the
threads). 

Also, I saw some comparisons between O'Caml and mlton. It looks like
O'Caml was (is?) faster, in general, than mlton. Do you know if this
is still the case? I can't really imagine using O'Caml (no CML, can't
see how to port it myself), but I'm wondering if this is still the
case.

Also, I'm wondering if there are any resources related to mlton's
runtime requirements. This was pretty well documented for sml/nj at
some point. I'm wondering if it is feasible to use mlton in supervisor
mode.


Thanks,

Heath