Discussion on:

Microsoft unveils the F# programming language

Code is a dead stop on our planet.From beginning to end,show me writing a software program with code.Start by writing a program like Paint Shop Pro.

from the Lotus Notes Days

B-F Compadre'

I see F# being a likely candidate to replace VB.NET

I took a look at F# about a year ago, while it has changed since then, Microsoft is not positioning it as a VB.Net alternative, nor would it be a good candidate for that. It is a *decent* (not great) scripting language, it is excellent for modelling certain types of scenarios (scientific and mathematical items, for example), and it good for when you need something akin to a "programming calculator" since it has an interactive mode. But for general purpose programming, my gut feeling is that VB.Net may or may not be better suited, and it certainly has momentum on its side.

J.Ja

I don't think MS are pitching F# to replace any of the 'core' languages. They're attemtping to open functional programming languages up to the masses.

Enabling development in a known and comfortable (sometimes) environment (eg. Visual Studio), with all the friendly intellisense etc may well allow people who wouldn't previously to explore the different methodology involved.

I for one welcome F# to the fray, at least by sitting on a common framework, I can start to incorporate functional programming solutions into my work. The MSIL is gonna be the same at the end of the day, but visualising and developing certain solutions in a functional language can be a more natural fit, and I'm glad to have the choice.

Well, it seems C# is the more dominant language (no hate mail please) with VB.NET there as well, but I agree that F# will never replace these. I just have a hard time seeing its future - developers won't switch to one language for one type of problem, or will they?

with MSIL, is that you can switch to the 'best' language for the job, or even 'your' best language.

Of course there are limiting factors on that.

Academic, personal and business inertia.
Teaching more than one language, learning more than one language and supporting more than one language.

Of couse that crap exists because of the useful perception that language is programming.

As a person who has spent the last 3 years
developing a web based front-end/SQL
compliant db backend solution for an
organisation which effectively IS the OS for
the organisation, the answer is yes. We have
a predominantly VBscript ASP system ( my
original web design course taught this
outdated language) with some C# and VB.NET
aspx pages (moving stuff around the network
solutions etc)[My Uni course taught this more
suited language] and a linux server on a VM
running some php pages ( which is what my web
design course should have taught me ). And of
course we have ajax and suchlike all over.
Yes it is untidy, and aesthetically ugly
(maybe), but it actually works really well.
So either I am not a developer (you'd have a
hard time convincing my employers of that) or
the answer is that not only will they,they
do....

does F stands for fail?

..

the fail track already though.
1) .NET, not available to ALL operating systems. critical flaw.

2) F# not available to all operating systems. Critical flaw.

until MICROSOFT releases .NET for EVERY os, it's useless.

Mono allows cross platform to some extent. Why should MSFT create the runtime for an OS they are less familiar with? Release the specs and let someone else port it. The Mono project is still young but I have been able to run .NET apps I have written on Linux using Mono.

Get the F# outta here LoL

F# may be useful but more depdendant on web or desktop apps.

The convergence? The Separation?

I'm not a veteran coder but it'll be interesting to see the responses of hardcore programmers.

I have to contend with my design skills, xaml, expression/blend and vb/c# so I wonder the direction F# is heading especially with newer versions of VB on the way

There are so many to work with now. And don't forget that Visual Studio 2008 (even Express Editions) also come with Visual C++. I like using these 3. I only wish that there was a Visual Perl Visual PHP and Visual Classic ASP 2.0 in the mix. But I guess there's reasons for MS avoiding those. What those reasons are I never did find out.

Active State makes a Perl compiler for .Net (it turns Perl code into a .Net assembly, and allows the same Perl code to consume other .Net code). Sadly, the last I checked, it does not integrate with Visual Studio at all, which is a major flaw in my opinion.

J.Ja

I was thinking of not .net but just having the same IDE and features to create Perl, PHP and ASP 2.0 code, including especially debugging and running on a browser. I do have DevPHP though. I'm sure others are out there. Just wish I had it all from one place in Visual Studio. Obviously that won't happen. LOL!

How many freaking languages do you need!? Give me a break. Either learn how to use an existing language or leave the code writing up to the professionals.

I say FU to F#.

Leave code writing up to the professionals, especially those who are have or are, or are prepared to learn existing languages such as F#.

You might want to have a look at what you posted and replace F# with whatever language you do know. Then you'll realise how dumb it was....

Come on guys how many languages yo want.....
learn the existing languages Expertize in that first....

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