Standard ML of New Jersey
Version 110.33, May 23, 2001

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Warning

This version is intended for compiler hackers. The version ought to be quite stable, however we have not run our full regression testing.

Summary:

This version should build under Mac OS X.

This version is being used to introduce the new experimental C FFI (currently only available for x86/Linux) and to check point a number of changes to MLRISC.

The CKIT is now part of the release because it is needed for ml-nlffigen.

In support of the C FFI, the new $/c.cm library (from src/ml-nlffi-lib) implements an encoding of the C type system in ML. It receives help from the ml-nlffigen glue code generator (from src/ml-nlffigen) which transforms C source input into corresponding ML glue code.

The compiler has been modified to support the C FFI.

There are various bugfixes and some organizational changes.

Mac OS X

  1. This version should build under the new Apple Mac OS X operating system.

MLRISC

  1. infinite precision throughout

  2. support for virtual frame pointers ("omit-frame-pointer") (This was needed for a correct implementation of raw C calls, but it should also come in handy for clients of MLRISC other than SML/NJ. Currently x86 only.)

  3. see the omit-frame-pointer notes

  4. support for alternative control-flow in MLTREE

  5. other API changes

  6. bug fixes

CM

  1. "lambdasplit" parameter for class "sml" to control status and aggressiveness of cross-module inlining

  2. parallel make now works again

  3. "proxy libraries"

  4. other bug fixes

CKIT

  1. The ckit source tree is now part of the SML/NJ distribution.

compiler

  1. bug fixes (e.g., dead-up logic in cpsopt/contract.sml)

  2. lambda-split phase now in the optimization pipeline by default control via Compiler.Control.LambdaSplitting.* (and/or via CM)

  3. compiler now aware of certain offsets in runtime-system data structures to be able to generate code for raw C calls

  4. added raw memory access primops and a primop for raw C calls and handled them throughout the compiler

  5. prim.sml now has correct types for all primops

ML-NLFFI

  1. two source trees in support of the new NLFFI ("no-longer foreign function interface") added: 
        src/ml-nlffi-lib     --- support library
    src/ml-nlffigen      --- glue code generator

  2. some preliminary documentation under src/ml-nlffi-lib/Doc (The tar file for this will be retrieved only if you enable ml-nlffi-lib in config/targets. Be sure to do this only on x86/Linux platforms, though. If you use a different platform and want to look at the source or the documentation, fetch the tar file by hand.)

smlnj-lib

  1. Some API cleanup and bug fixes

runtime

  1. dlopen and friends added (currently x86/Linux only)

  2. changes to vproc-state.h to support efficient signal handling by new raw C call mechanism

  3. support for Mac OS X; Darwin

overall organization

  1. Use CM "proxy libraries" where possible

scripts

  1. various bug fixes to config/install.sh

  2. config/install.sh now knows about ckit, ml-nlffi-lib, and ml-nlffigen

  3. config/install.sh will use config/targets.customized if it exist (falls back to config/targets if not)

  4. makeml verbosity level controllable via MAKEML_VERBOSITY or command line switch
Lal George
Last modified: Thu May 24 11:27:19 EDT 2001