F# (and Windows Azure)

One of the great strengths of .NET is its language neutrality –whilst I may be a C# programmer, because my background is C and C++, there are lots of developers who favour other programming languages. One language that has caught a lot of attention recently is F#, so I went down to Microsoft Research in Cambridge, with my colleague Dave Brown, to meet Don Syme, the language’s creator, to find out more.

So what was going to be a video on the language and its relevance to Windows Azure, turned into a series of 4 videos on the language, what makes it different, how to get started with it, and how it is being used:

An Introduction to F# (#1 of 4) – Don Syme introduces the F# language and describes the best way to begin developing with F#.

An F# Tutorial (#2 of 4) -  Don Syme demonstrates the language with live coding examples, such as analysing a real-time Twitter feed using F# Interactive.

F'# and Windows Azure (#3 of 4)  – Don Syme demonstrates the F# language with live coding examples in F# Interactive, focussing on Windows Azure.

F# in use at Microsoft Research (#4 of 4) -  Dave Brown talks to several teams at Microsoft Research about their use of F#. Projects discussed include Project Emporia, which filters updates from the Twitter public feed , AdCenter & AdPredictor, which determines the best adverts to display in Bing search results, and The Path of Go, an AI implementation for the popular, ancient Chinese board game on XBOX 360.