Preferred book for ML

Question

Hi All,

Which book would make the best starter's book for ML (excluding OCaml)?

Answer 1

If you're already an experienced programmer, I would recommend ML for the Working Programmers. The last two chapters present applications in which ML excels: interpreters and theorem provers.

For a gentler introduction, I would recommend The Functional Approach to Programming with Caml. This book actually goes very far. Look at the table of contents on Amazon.

Some free books:

• Robert Harper's Programming in Standard ML (Free Full-Text PDF)
• Le language Caml (Free Full-Text PDF in French)

Answer 2

If you are relatively sophisticated, Larry Paulsen's ML for the Working Programmer is a good book if a bit long.

If you are coming straight from C or from another imperative languate, Jeff Ullman's Elements of ML Programming is very easy to get into for C programmers. The problem is that Ullman's style is not very idiomatic. But the book is short and relatively comprehensive. I use it when I teach classes that involve ML (and I issue all sorts of dire warnings that students shouldn't emulate Ullman's style).

Answer 3

If you don't know programming you can also check Introduction to Programming using SML.

For free books/tutorials on SML there are:

• Notes on Programming Standard ML of New Jersey (PDF file)

• Programming in Standard ML '97: An On-line Tutorial, I think this one is very good

• A Gentle Introduction to ML

There is also this book: Modern Programming Languages: A Practical Introduction, it's for programming languages in general but contains 4 chapters about SML (by reading this book I started liking SML).