Editing ML (programming language) (section)

{{Short description|General purpose functional programming language}}
{{Other uses|ML (disambiguation){{!}}ML}}
{{More citations needed|date=May 2015}}
{{Infobox programming language
| name = ML
| logo =
| paradigm = [[Multi-paradigm programming language|Multi-paradigm]]: [[Functional programming|functional]], [[Generic programming|generic]], [[Imperative programming|imperative]]
| designer = [[Robin Milner]], others at the [[University of Edinburgh]]
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| released = {{Start date and age|1973}}
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| typing = [[Type inference|Inferred]], [[Static typing|static]], [[Strong and weak typing|strong]]
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| dialects = [[Caml]], [[OCaml]], [[Standard ML]], [[F Sharp (programming language)|F#]]
| influenced by = [[ISWIM]]
| influenced = [[Caml]], [[Clojure]], [[Coq (software)|Coq]], [[Cyclone (programming language)|Cyclone]], [[C++]], [[Elm (programming language)|Elm]], [[F Sharp (programming language)|F#]], [[F* (programming language)|F*]], [[Haskell]], [[Idris (programming language)|Idris]], [[Kotlin (programming language)|Kotlin]], [[Miranda (programming language)|Miranda]], [[Nemerle]], [[Opa (programming language)|Opa]], [[Erlang (programming language)|Erlang]], [[Rust (programming language)|Rust]], [[Scala (programming language)|Scala]], [[Standard ML]]
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}}
'''ML''' ('''Meta Language''') is a [[General-purpose programming language|general-purpose]], [[High-level programming language|high-level]], [[Functional programming|functional]] [[programming language]]. It is known for its use of the polymorphic [[Hindley–Milner type system]], which automatically assigns the [[data type]]s of most [[Expression (programming)|expressions]] without requiring explicit type annotations ([[type inference]]), and ensures type safety; there is a [[formal proof]] that a well-typed ML program does not cause runtime type errors.<ref>Robin Milner. A theory of type polymorphism in programming. Journal of Computer and System Sciences, 17(3):348–375, 1978.</ref> ML provides pattern matching for function arguments, [[Garbage collection (computer science)|garbage collection]], [[imperative programming]], [[call-by-value]] and [[currying]]. While a [[general-purpose programming language]], ML is used heavily in [[Programming language theory|programming language research]] and is one of the few languages to be completely specified and verified using [[Formal semantics of programming languages|formal semantics]]. Its types and pattern matching make it well-suited and commonly used to operate on other formal languages, such as in [[compiler writing]], [[automated theorem proving]], and [[formal verification]].