🚀 go-pugleaf

The language ML has been around quite a while, and Standard ML is a recent
attempt to standardize it.  I mention this because there is a larger
literature on previous versions of ML than there is on Standard ML.
Here are some places to look:

Original ML (this was not a stand-alone language processor; rather, ML
  was a kind of overgrown command language for a proof system called LCF):

  Gordon et al, A Metalanguage for Interactive Proof in LCF, 5th POPL, 1978

  Gordon et al, Edinburgh LCF, Springer LNCS 78

Cardelli ML (a stand-alone version implemented by L. Cardelli):

  Cardelli, ML under UNIX, Bell Labs Tech. Memo.  (I don't have any other
     publication info.)

Standard ML:

  Milner, A Proposal for Standard ML, Symp. on Lisp and F. P., 1984,
    184-197

The latter is the only reference I can find describing Standard ML itself,
and it is not intended for the beginner - in fact, it is one of the most
terse language descriptions I've ever seen.

As far as obtaining a copy, Dave MacQueen (Bell Labs) and Andrew Appel
(Princeton) are nearing completion of a new implementation (Vax and 68020),
as reported in a recent paper:

  MacQueen and Appel, A Standard ML Compiler, Symp. on Functional P. L.'s
   and Computer Arch, 1987, Springer LNCS 274.

I suggest writing to MacQueen (Bell Labs, Murray Hill, NJ 07974) or
Appel (Dept. of C.S., Princeton U., Princeton, NJ 08544).

Sam Kamin
U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign