ML programming language

ML is a general-purpose functional programming language developed by Robin Milner and others in the late 1970s at Edinburgh University. Historically, ML stands for metalanguage, though this name is no longer very applicable. ML is often referred to as an impure functional language, because it permits imperative programming, and therefore, side-effectss, unlike other functional programming languages such as Haskell.

Features of ML include automatic memory management through garbage collection, parametric polymorphism, type inference, algebraic data types, pattern matching, and exceptions.

Today there are several languages in the ML family; the most popular are SML (Standard ML) and Ocaml. Ideas from ML influenced several other languages, especially ones designed at the universities. Examples include Cyclone and Nemerle.

The first ML implementation was written to implement the LCF theorem-proving system. Since then, ML strengths are mostly applied in language design and manipulation (compilers, analyzers, theorem provers), but also in bioinformatics, in financial systems, in a genealogical database, a peer-to-peer client/server program, etc.