How # Are You?

You're savvy in the ways of C#.  You know the .NET Framework like the back of your hand.  Or do you?

Just when you thought there were a plethora of dev languages to choose from, the waters become murky again.

Out of our research labs and into the hands of .NET developers everywhere comes F#.  So we skipped D and E, no big deal right?

The first announcment came on October 17 on Somasegar's blog.

F# is a functional programming language that will be integrated into the .NET framework and as the blog and other information indicates, it will become a "first class citizen" of .NET.  If you ask some VB folks, being a first class citizen in .NET doesn't always mean that you will find code samples in the SDKs in your language of choice however. 

So, the integration of F# should be interesting.  F# promises type-safety, performance and scripting capabilities.  When looking at some of the code, it reminds me of earlier versions of BASIC.  For example, here is the every popular Hello World application in F#;

let x = "Hello World";;
System.Console.WriteLine(x);;

Anybody recognize the keyword 'let'?

Want to get started with F#?  Download it here.

Oh yeah, don't be concerned about resources for learning and workign with it.  There already exists books and a community around the language so you can get started right away exploring and creating apps with it.  You can also check out HubFS, an online forum devoted to the language as well as Don Syme's blog on F#.

Have fun!

Gerry

Technorati tags: F#, programming languages, .NET