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Caml Light is a small, portable implementation of the ML language,
that runs on most Unix machines. It has also been ported to the
Macintosh and to the IBM PC.

Caml Light implements the Caml language, a functional language from
the ML family. Caml is quite close to Standard ML, though not strictly
conformant. There are some slight differences in syntax and semantics,
and major differences in the module system (these changes were
required to support separate compilation).

The Caml Light implementation is mature and robust enough to be fully
bootstrapped, yet the whole system is quite small (about 100K for the runtime
system, and another 100K of bytecode for the compiler; 1.5 megabyte of
memory is enough to recompile the whole system), and easy to port to
almost any 32-bit platform. 

Caml Light comes in two flavors: a classical, interactive, toplevel-based
system; and a standalone, batch-oriented compiler that produces standalone
programs, in the spirit of the Unix cc compiler.

The version 0.5 of the Caml Light system has been released, and is
available by anonymous FTP from:

        host:      nuri.inria.fr (128.93.1.26)

        directory: lang/caml-light

        files:     cl5unix.tar.Z       Complete source code for Unix
                                       machines, plus a bootstrap compiler.

                   cl5docps.Z          Compressed Postscript for the
                                       Caml Light documentation (290 pages).

                   cl5docdvi.tar.Z     Compressed DVI (with Postscript
                                       inserts) for the Caml Light
                                       documentation (290 pages).

                   cl5macbin.sea.hqx   Binaries for the Macintosh version.

                   cl5pc386bin.zip     Binaries for the 80386 PC version.

                   cl5pc86bin.zip      Binaries for the 8086 PC version.

                   cl5macsrc.sea.hqx   Source code for the Macintosh version.

                   cl5pc386src.zip     Source code for the 80386 PC version.

                   cl5pc86src.zip      Source code for the 8086 PC version.


The Unix version should work on any modern workstation. We have tested
it on Sun 3 and 4, DecStations, HP 9000/700 and 9000/350, IBM RS/6000,
SGI Indigo, Sony News, Next cubes, and some more exotic machines.

The Macintosh version is now a standalone Macintosh application, and
no longer requires the Macintosh Programmer's Workshop. (Well, at
least for the toplevel environment; the batch compilers still run
under MPW.) The application provides some graphics primitives.

The PC version still comes in two flavors, one that run on any PC, but
is severely limited by the 640K barrier, and one that run on 80386 or
80486 PC's in 32 bit protected mode to circumvent these limitations.
Both versions now provide the same graphics primitives as the
Macintosh version.

Ports to OS/2 and to the Amiga are in progress.

MAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THIS RELEASE:

* Much more documentation. There's now a reference manual for the
language, and a complete description of the commands. The tutorial has
been extended, too.

* Language extensions: streams and stream parsers, a la Mauny/de
Rauglaudre.

* Extensions to the environment: a general mechanism to link Caml
Light code with C code. An X-windows toolkit based on this mechanism
should be released soon. A new command, camllibr, to build libraries
of Caml Light object files. A new command, camlmktop, to construct
custom toplevel systems.

* Bug fixes: many of them.

* Implementation changes: a new garbage collector. The major collector
is now incremental, meaning that garbage collection is even less
disruptive than before. Many minor optimizations in the compiler
back-end. The linker has been completely reworked, and is now clever
enough to avoid linking in useless code.

* For the PC versions: line editing is supported. The 80386 port is
VCPI-compliant.

FEEDBACK:

Please send your questions and comments to the Caml mailing list:

                caml-list@margaux.inria.fr

To subscribe or unsubscribe to the list, mail to
caml-list-request@margaux.inria.fr.


- Xavier Leroy

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% The Caml Light racing team, projet Formel, INRIA Rocquencourt.     %
% "Low tar, Caml taste".                                             %
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