Running SML Under Emacs

You can get a nicer environment for programming in sml by using sml-mode and running the sml interpreter as an inferior process in emacs. Complete information on this is available at http://www.smlnj.org/doc/Emacs/sml-mode.html, but here are the highlights:

Add the following lines to the .emacs file in your home directory. Notes:
- If you don't have a .emacs file, create one. (Note the leading . on the file name.)
- If you are not running on cs at Roanoke College, you won't be able to access the sml-mode-3.3 directory used here. Here's a zip file containing this directory; just download it to your computer, put it somewhere convenient, unzip it, and substitute that path for "~bloss/public_html/sml-mode-3.3" below.
```
(setq load-path (cons "~bloss/public_html/sml-mode-3.3" load-path))
(autoload 'sml-mode "sml-mode" "Major mode for editing SML" t)
(setq sml-dedicated-frame nil)
```
Start emacs and type M-x sml-mode. It should say "loading sml-mode" at the bottom, and then you should see (SML). This means you are in SML mode.
Now you should have features like the TAB key doing appropriate indentation, and others that the documentation will tell you about. But best of all, if you type M-x sml, it will start sml in an inferior process, and if you type it again, it will split the screen so you can see that process. What you see should look just like running sml at the command line. Type in some expressions and you'll see that it works the same, too. But you can also load your file directly. Go back to the first window, enter some sml code if you haven't already, save the file, and type C-c C-l (that's el, not one). It should ask what file you want to load, defaulting to the current one. When you hit enter, you'll see your definitions load in the sml window. Hurray!
Consult the documentation for more information. I found the "Running ML under Emacs" section to be particularly useful.