This is the first public release of the Caml Special Light system. OVERVIEW: Caml Special Light is an implementation of the ML language, based on the Caml Light dialect extended with a powerful module system in the style of Standard ML. Though close to Caml Light in many ways, Caml Special Light is not the latest release of Caml Light: the language implemented has changed in significant ways, source-level compatibility is not ensured, and the implementation has been almost completely rewritten from scratch. Caml Special Light comprises two compilers. One generates bytecode which is then interpreted by a C program. This compiler runs quickly, generates compact code with moderate memory requirements, and is portable to essentially any 32 or 64 bit Unix platform. Performance of generated programs is quite good for a bytecoded implementation: almost twice as fast as Caml Light 0.7. This compiler can be used either as a standalone, batch-oriented compiler that produces standalone programs, or as an interactive, toplevel-based system. The other compiler generates high-performance native code for a number of processors. Compilation takes longer and generates bigger code, but the generated programs deliver excellent performance (our tests show that this compiler consistently outperforms Standard ML of New Jersey 1.08), while retaining the moderate memory requirements of the bytecode compiler. The native-code compiler currently runs on the following platforms: Alpha processors: DecStation 3000 under OSF1 Sparc processors: Sun Sparcstation under SunOS 4.1 or Solaris 2 Intel 386 / 486 / Pentium processors: PCs under Linux Mips processors: DecStation 3100 and 5000 under Ultrix 4 Other operating systems for the processors above have not been tested, but the compiler may work under other operating systems with no or little work. This distribution has been tested on the following platforms: DecStation 3000/300, OSF/1 2.0, cc and gcc 2.5.8 SparcStation 10, SunOS 4.1.3, gcc 2.5.8 PC 486 DX2/66, Linux 1.2.13, gcc 2.5.8 DecStation 5000/200, Ultrix 4.1, cc and gcc 2.4.5 CONTENTS: INSTALL instructions for installation LICENSE license and copyright notice Makefile main Makefile Makefile.config configuration information README this file asmcomp/ native-code compiler and linker asmrun/ native-code runtime library boot/ bootstrap compiler bytecomp/ bytecode compiler and linker byterun/ bytecode interpreter and runtime system config/ autoconfiguration stuff driver/ driver code for the compilers lex/ lexer generator parsing/ syntax analysis stdlib/ standard library tools/ various utilities toplevel/ interactive system typing/ typechecking utils/ utility libraries yacc/ parser generator COPYRIGHT: All files in this distribution are copyright 1995 Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et Automatique (INRIA) and distributed under the conditions stated in file LICENSE. They can be freely redistributed for non-commercial purposes, provided the copyright notice remains attached. INSTALLATION: See the file INSTALL for installation instructions on Unix machines. DOCUMENTATION: The Caml Special Light manual is distributed in Postscript, DVI, and plain text. It can be obtained by anonymous FTP from ftp.inria.fr as described below. It is also available on the World Wide Web, at http://pauillac.inria.fr/caml/ AVAILABILITY: The complete Caml Special Light distribution resides on ftp.inria.fr, and can be accessed by anonymous FTP: host: ftp.inria.fr (192.93.2.54) directory: lang/caml-special-light or through a Web browser at ftp://ftp.inria.fr/lang/caml-special-light/. KEEPING IN TOUCH WITH THE CAML COMMUNITY: There exists a mailing list of users of the Caml implementations developed at INRIA. The purpose of this list is to share experience, exchange ideas (and even code), and report on applications of the Caml language. This list is moderated; messages can be written in English or in French. The list has about 200 subscribers. Messages to the list should be sent to: caml-list@pauillac.inria.fr If you wish to subscribe to this list, please send a message (including your email address) to: caml-list-request@pauillac.inria.fr Archives of the list are available on the World Wide Web at URL http://pauillac.inria.fr/caml/. The Usenet news group comp.lang.ml also contains discussions about the ML family of programming languages, including Caml. The newsgroup is moderated. BUG REPORTS AND USER FEEDBACK: Send your bug reports by E-mail to: caml-light@pauillac.inria.fr To be effective, bug reports should include a complete program (preferably small) that exhibits the unexpected behavior, and the configuration you are using (machine type, etc). The mailing list caml-light@pauillac.inria.fr is forwarded to a small group of implementors at INRIA. For general questions and discussions, caml-list@pauillac.inria.fr is better; for bug reports and very specific technical questions, caml-light@pauillac.inria.fr is preferred. We often cross-post from one list to the other, anyway.