Emacs and SML

The SML-mode

• You will need to install the SML-mode for emacs. It is described in /users/courses/dSprogSem/SML/README.please, and summarized below. Read the README.please file anyway. There is more information in it.

Installing SML-mode in Emacs

• You need to make Emacs execute the following E-lisp code:

  (autoload 'sml-mode "/users/courses/dSprogSem/SML/sml-mode" () t) (setq auto-mode-alist (cons '("\\.sml$" . sml-mode) auto-mode-alist)) (setq auto-mode-alist (cons '("\\.sig$" . sml-mode) auto-mode-alist))

• If you are running daimi-setup, you can put the above code into ~/.daimi-setup/emacs.d/sml.el or just copy the file /users/courses/dSprogSem/SML/dot-emacs.
• If you are not using daimi-setup, you should insert the above lines into your .emacs file manually. Make sure you don't have any errors in your .emacs file, as it will stop execution at the first error and skip the rest of the file.
• Remember, just adding these lines will do nothing until they are executed, eg. when Emacs is restarted. To run them immediately, you can use "M-x eval-buffer" to evaluate it directly.

Testing the Setup

• To test that the setup works, try visiting a file ending in ".sml", eg. "test.sml". This should put you into SML-mode (visible in the Emacs status-line).
• Try entering a small ML program, e.g.

  val x=42

  and press "C-c C-b" to have Emacs start the SML interpreter in a buffer and send the code to it.

Using SML-mode

• Useful keyboard shortcuts:

  M-x sml-shell	Starts the SML interpreter in a buffer. Called automatically by the send-commands if the buffer doesn't already exist.
  C-c C-b	(sml-send-buffer) Sends the entire buffer to the SML-shell
  C-c C-c	(sml-send-function) Sends the block (empty-line delimitered) under the cursor to the SML-shell
  C-c '	(sml-next-error) Finds the next error-report in the output and sets the point to the location of that error in the source (should only be used after sml-send-buffer)

Running Under Windows

• Both Emacs and SML of NJ are available for Windows 95 and compatibles, and SML-mode actually works. It's not supported in any way, but if you can make it work yourself, it might make your homework a bit easier.
• You can use the newest version of NT-Emacs and SML of NJ (selfextracting installation available).
• You should check the instructions on how to set up Emacs, including where to place the .emacs file.
• You will probably have to modify the path from the sml-mode.el file. It containts the code

  (defvar sml-prog-name "/usr/local/bin/sml"  "Standard ML of New Jersey 110")

• You could perhaps change this directly, but an easier way to change the path of the program is to use the sml-mode-hook. Try adding the following to your .emacs file:

  (setq sml-mode-hook    '(lambda() "ML mode hacks"     (set-variable 'sml-prog-name "c:/Program Files/sml/bin/sml.bat")))

  Please report any problems.
• If you have any problems with the Windows software, you should probably ask on the dSprogSem newsgroup.