dbmacqueen

There is also ongoing discussion and other work on something called "successor ML" (sML). See smlfamily.org for further information. Functional record update is one of the features contemplated.

Type inference is hinted at in a 1934 paper by Haskell Curry on "functionality" (i.e. types) for combinatory logic. Max Newman (Turning mentor and leader of the Colossus project at Bletchley Park) published a paper in 1943 giving the first algorithm for type inference for the lambda calculus that I know of.