5 ms·

I fail to see what problem F# solves that is not already done as well or better in Go, Rust, or Python, coupled with the wide acceptance and/or hype among other

I fail to see what problem F# solves that is not already done as well or better in Go, Rust, or Python, coupled with the wide acceptance and/or hype among other developers for those languages.

bgorman 5y ago
Type safety, expressiveness, consistency. Once you use an ML, it can feel like all other languages are stuck in the 70s.
- bmitc 5y ago
  I feel all one really needs is a Lisp/Scheme and an ML. Imagine if software engineering had coalesced on these two!
- shpongled 5y ago
  I really wish Standard ML had a bigger (I'd settle for active) community, a package system, and modern IDE support. Rust feels like the closest thing to me in terms of overall practicality/ease of use.
bayesian_horse 5y ago
I agree somewhat. F# is a decent language, even in some aspects "better" than Go, Rust or Python, but it is late. I think F# does have a much stronger "in the browser" game. Yes, even a bit more than Rust, if you consider whole web applications and not just performance critical modules. And some people and companies are extremely stuck in Dot.Net...
- lbriner 5y ago
  You are implying that people that use .net are stuck. I would say it is hands-down the best general purpose web programming language and also the goto for programming Windows apps. Sure I can write stuff in Go or Rust or Python but I don't see that any of those offer anything significantly better than .Net, including the support level, the quality of the IDE and even, God forbid, half-decent performance. Sure I would choose another language for something that had to be super fast or perhaps headless but otherwise I would choose .Net every time. Disclaimer, I have professionally used Java, PHP, C, C++ and C# but not Go or Rust.
  - bayesian_horse 5y ago
    I'd really question the claim on C#/.Net being the best Web programming language. Yes, you can eek out a performance benefit over Python, but many people prefer Python and its frameworks over C#. It's also proven to be a viable road for startups. IDEs for Python have improved a lot, and the more passionate Pythonists might fault C# for actually needing IDE tooling for being bearable... I can see why you would prefer C# over PHP, C++ and Java for Web programming though.
- bmitc 5y ago
  > F# is a decent language, even in some aspects "better" than Go, Rust or Python, but it is late. F# came out well before Go and Rust and well in time to compete with Python's popularity. There were other factors that affected its adoption.
de_keyboard 5y ago
None of the examples you give encourage (or even properly support) statically-typed functional programming with immutable data. The purpose of F# is to be an FP language with an emphasis on getting things done. I think you should look again :)

I fail to see what problem F# solves that is not already done as well or better in Go, Rust, or Python, coupled with the wide acceptance and/or hype among other developers for those languages.

bgorman 5y ago

Type safety, expressiveness, consistency. Once you use an ML, it can feel like all other languages are stuck in the 70s.

bmitc 5y ago
I feel all one really needs is a Lisp/Scheme and an ML. Imagine if software engineering had coalesced on these two!
shpongled 5y ago
I really wish Standard ML had a bigger (I'd settle for active) community, a package system, and modern IDE support. Rust feels like the closest thing to me in terms of overall practicality/ease of use.

bayesian_horse 5y ago

I agree somewhat. F# is a decent language, even in some aspects "better" than Go, Rust or Python, but it is late. I think F# does have a much stronger "in the browser" game. Yes, even a bit more than Rust, if you consider whole web applications and not just performance critical modules. And some people and companies are extremely stuck in Dot.Net...

lbriner 5y ago
You are implying that people that use .net are stuck. I would say it is hands-down the best general purpose web programming language and also the goto for programming Windows apps. Sure I can write stuff in Go or Rust or Python but I don't see that any of those offer anything significantly better than .Net, including the support level, the quality of the IDE and even, God forbid, half-decent performance. Sure I would choose another language for something that had to be super fast or perhaps headless but otherwise I would choose .Net every time. Disclaimer, I have professionally used Java, PHP, C, C++ and C# but not Go or Rust.
- bayesian_horse 5y ago
  I'd really question the claim on C#/.Net being the best Web programming language. Yes, you can eek out a performance benefit over Python, but many people prefer Python and its frameworks over C#. It's also proven to be a viable road for startups. IDEs for Python have improved a lot, and the more passionate Pythonists might fault C# for actually needing IDE tooling for being bearable... I can see why you would prefer C# over PHP, C++ and Java for Web programming though.
bmitc 5y ago
> F# is a decent language, even in some aspects "better" than Go, Rust or Python, but it is late. F# came out well before Go and Rust and well in time to compete with Python's popularity. There were other factors that affected its adoption.

de_keyboard 5y ago

None of the examples you give encourage (or even properly support) statically-typed functional programming with immutable data. The purpose of F# is to be an FP language with an emphasis on getting things done. I think you should look again :)