The FunctionalProgrammingLanguage ML was originally developed by RobinMilner (TuringAward 1991) and was the first language to include PolymorphicTypeInference, together with a type-safe exception-handling mechanism. ML stands for MetaLanguage, ''not'' for MarkupLanguage. ML is not MachineLanguage.

ML is a StronglyTyped, StaticallyTyped language with semantics somewhat resembling those of the SchemeLanguage.

ML provides the following features:
	* automatic TypeInference: Don't write types yourself, let the compiler do it for you!
	* mostly declarative syntax using PatternMatching
	* GenericType''''''s: Somewhat like C++'s templates (see CategoryCppTemplates).
	* ParametricModules (functors): Modules can take other modules as an argument. (As far as I know, this is unique for ML.)  ''(AnswerMe: I've tried to research this on the web aeons ago, and my understanding of how functors work still eludes me.  Can someone point a clueless n00b to a step-by-step tutorial or fill in the gaps on HowMlFunctorsWork ?  Thanks!)''

Unlike Haskell [HaskellLanguage] (and like LispLanguage and Scheme), ML is ''strict'': the arguments to a function are always evaluated before evaluating the body of the function (see StrictEvaluation and LazyEvaluation).

There are three ML dialects in wide use:
	* O'Caml [ObjectiveCaml]
	* Standard ML [SmlLanguage]
	* F# [FsharpLanguage]

See http://www.mpi-sws.mpg.de/~rossberg/sml-vs-ocaml.html for a concise description of the differences between O'Caml and Standard ML.

----
Can we see some code snippet and syntax/notation examples here? 

''Maybe some SmlLanguage examples would satisfy. There is an example at that page already.''
----
CategoryProgrammingLanguage CategoryFunctionalProgramming