7.3 Libraries

MLWorks comes with a set of libraries. The libraries are supplied in two ways:

: 1. As mixtures of source and object files
: 2. As image files

The libraries are:

The Standard ML 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. The General structure of the Basis library is pre-loaded into the interactive system in MLWorks, and is therefore permanently available at the top level.

: Object and source files for the Basis library are in the basis compound, an installation subdirectory. An image file of the Basis library is in images\basis.img. To use the Basis Library in your own code, you should make the project basis.mlp a subproject of your own project. This project file is found in the basis subfolder.

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 the pervasive compound, an installation subdirectory. An image file can be found in images\pervasive.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.

: Object and source files for the foreign interface library are in the foreign compound, an installation subdirectory. The image file is images\foreign.img.

The MLWorks Windows interface library. This library is MLWorks' own library for GUI programming through Win32.

: Object files for the Win32 interface library are in the winsys compound; the image file is images\windows.img.

Additionally, the MLWorks interactive environment provides the Shell structure, a library relating to the interactive environment only. This interactive environment library cannot be used in user applications, and is therefore not distributed in separate files like the other libraries.