MzScheme and SML

[Shriram Krishnamurthi <sk@cs.brown.edu>]

We've made extensive comparisons of MzScheme to SML/NJ.  They are more
voluminous than we can possibly list here.  Some key differences:

- there are two static analysis systems for Scheme:

  - Soft Scheme is very ML-like in its underlying theory
  - MrSpidey is very different, offering type information that is
    incomparable (in the technical sense) to that produced by ML

- the module system of MzScheme is also incomparable:

  - it does not have the excellent type system of SML
  - it offers more sophisticated linking facilities

- Scheme has a very advanced macro system; ML has none at all

The recent PhD theses from the Rice PLT group all address these
issues.  That should give you a sense of how much there is to say.

For a user who doesn't care about all these details, your remark

>     Is SML/NJ just a faster Scheme system
> with different syntax and compile-time type checking?

is a sufficient summary.

Shriram