3 Using the MLWorks Libraries
3.2 The MLWorks libraries
The MLWorks libraries are supplied in two ways:
- 1. As mixtures of source and object files
- 2. As image files
The libraries are:
- The Basis library. This library is an implementation of the Standard ML Basis library developed by the SML community. It provides a basic SML toolkit for general programming tasks such as I/O; extensions to the SML type system; internationalization; and Posix support. Part of the Basis library, the
Generalstructure, is available permanently at top level in MLWorks.
- Object and source files for the Basis library are in the
basiscompound, an installation subdirectory. (Some Basis object files are in thesystemsubdirectory.) An image file including the Basis library is inimagesbasis.img.
- The MLWorks pervasive library. This library is MLWorks' own general-purpose library containing facilities for I/O, creation of standalone applications, multiprocessing, profiling, and so on. There is some overlap between the facilities provided by the pervasive library and those provided by the Basis library.
- The pervasive library literally pervades the MLWorks environment, as the permanently available structure
MLWorks. Object and source files for the pervasive library are also available in thepervasivecompound, an installation subdirectory. An image file can be found inimagespervasive.img.
- The MLWorks foreign interface library. This library is MLWorks' own library for interfacing to code written in languages other than Standard ML. C is the only foreign language supported at present.
- The MLWorks Motif interface library. This library is MLWorks' own library for GUI programming through Motif.
- Object files for the Motif interface library are in the directory
motif; the image file isimages/xm.img.
- The interactive environment library. The MLWorks interactive context provides this library in the permanently available structure
Shell. This library is not available in the batch context -- see Section 2.6, "The MLWorks batch compiler".