On Tuesday, Mar 16, 2004, at 00:25 Europe/London, Paulo Jorge de Oliveira Cantante de Matos wrote:
Is PolyML development dead? Is it safe to keep developing ML programs dependent on PolyML compiler?
Poly/ML is certainly not "development dead". I do continue to work on it and fix bugs but since this is a largely voluntary endeavour I need to fit this round my other work. My approach has always been to create a stable and efficient platform for writing Standard ML programs rather than to use it as a platform for experimentation. That tends to mean that new releases are infrequent and only when there is a significant change rather than producing a new release every few months. From feedback in the past I feel that this suits the users of Poly/ML better.
There is a specific question about the Basis library. I really don't know when this will be frozen. At one stage it was due to come out as a book, then it sounded as though the contract had been terminated, then I heard that it was supposed to be coming out as a book from CUP. I had intended to wait until the book came out and bring the Basis library in Poly/ML up to date with it so that it would be clear what version of the library Poly/ML supported. Since it was always due "in the next few months" that seemed like the right approach. I'm quite prepared to revisit the Basis library code and bring it a bit more up to date if that's what people would like. The question is which version.
Finally, Poly/ML is open-source. If someone wants a feature in Poly/ML badly enough they can always add it themselves. I'm happy to work with anyone who wants to do development work. If it seems sensible I'll add it to the source I maintain at polyml.org. The same goes for documentation. Although I maintain the version on polyml.org there's nothing to stop anyone else from distributing their version. Perhaps the fact that there isn't a constant stream of changes means that users are fairly content with Poly/ML as it is.
Regards, David.