ML for the Working Programmer

This book teaches the methods of functional programming--in particular, how to program in Standard ML, a functional language recently developed at Edinburgh University. The author shows how to use such concepts as lists, trees, higher-order functions and infinite data structures and includes a chapter on formal reasoning about functional programming. This is meant to be a practical book; the author avoids dogma, emphasizes efficiency, and provides many useful and interesting programs. These include fast sorting functions and efficient function implementations of arrays, queues, and priority queues. Examples also include a ^D*l-calculus reducer and theorem prover. Most features of ML (including modules and imperative programming) are covered in depth and the book can be used without an ML reference manual. The reader is assumed to have some experience in programming in conventional languages such as C or Pascal. For such individuals, be they students, graduates or researchers, this will be a convincing introduction to functional programming.

The new edition of this successful and established textbook retains its two original intentions of explaining how to program in the ML language and teaching the fundamentals of functional programming. The major change is the prominent coverage of modules.