The Standard ML of New Jersey compiler has been under development for five years now. We have developed a robust and complete environment for Standard ML that supports the implementation of large software systems and generates efficient code. The compiler has also served as a laboratory for developing novel implementation techniques for a sophisticated type and module system, continuation based code generation, efficient pattern matching, and concurrent programming features.

Standard ML is an excellent language for many kinds of programming. It is safe, efficient, suitably abstract, and concise. There are many aspects of the language that work well. However, nothing is perfect: Standard ML has a few shortcomings. In some cases there are obvious solutions, and in other cases further research is required.

Recent advances in compiler technology have demonstrated the benefits of using strongly typed intermediate languages to compile richly typed source languages (e.g., ML). A typepreserving compiler can use types to guide advanced optimizations and to help generate provably secure mobile code. Types, unfortunately, are very hard to represent and manipulate efficiently; a naive implementation can easily add exponential overhead to the compilation and execution of a program. This paper describes our experience with implementing the FLINT typed intermediate language in the SML/NJ production compiler. We observe that a type-preserving compiler will not scale to handle large types unless all of its type-preserving stages preserve the asymptotic time and space usage in representing and manipulating types. We present a series of novel techniques for achieving this property and give empirical evidence of their effectiveness.

We have designed a portable interface between shared-memory multiprocessors and Standard ML of New Jersey. The interface is based on the conventional kernel thread model and provides facilities that can be used to implement user-level thread packages. The interface supports experimentation with different thread scheduling policies and synchronization constructs. It has been ported to three different multiprocessors and used to construct a general purpose, user-level thread package. In this paper, we discuss the interface and its implementation and performance, with emphasis on the Silicon Graphics 4D/380S multiprocessor. 1 Supported in part by a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship. 2 Supported in part by NSF grant CCR-9002786. This research was sponsored in part by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, CSTO, under the title "The Fox Project: Advanced Development of Systems Software", ARPA Order No. 8313, issued by ESD/AVS under Contract No. F19628-91-C-0168. Th...

This document describes the eXene widget library; it is a companion to The eXene Library Manual [RG93], which is also included in the distribution.

Abstract We have designed a portable interface between shared-memory multiprocessors and Standard ML of New Jersey. The interface is based on the conventional kernel thread model and provides facilities that can be used to implement user-level thread packages. The interface supports experimentation with different thread scheduling policies and synchronization constructs. It has been ported to three different multiprocessors and used to construct a general purpose, user-level thread package. In this paper, we discuss the interface and its implementation and performance, with emphasis on the Silicon Graphics 4D/380S multiprocessor. 1 Supported in part by a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship.

This thesis covers the process leading up to the release of eXene 2.0, a User Interface Management System (UIMS) toolkit. Since its inception, eXene has provided a unique way to create meaningful graphical user interfaces (GUIs) for Standard ML applications. Additionally, it has gone through several quality revisions which have both enhanced the toolkit and corrected many deficiencies that were present. Even with these improvements, however, the full potential of eXene has become increasingly difficult for developers to utilize. That is, in spite of the natural innovation that eXene brings to GUI construction, its current lack of extensibility, usability, and functionality, has caused Standard ML developers to choose simpler, more familiar UIMS toolkits, despite their limitations, for the creation of their applications. In light of this fact, eXene needs an internal and cosmetic overhaul to extend its usage and appeal. First, to improve its extensibility, formerly weakened by organic growth, eXene requires some restructuring of its architecture. Second, to improve its overall usability, previously stifled by sparse documentation, eXene requires the implementation of an interactive electronic document for its API. Finally, to improve its functionality,