4 ms·

F# is really, really bleeding into C#. There'll be a convergence, for all intents and purposes, by about C# 15 at this rate.

paavohtl 5y ago
Ehhh, not really. It really depends on what you mean by convergence. You could add every single one of F#'s features into C#, and I still wouldn't consider them to be same language or the other to be irrelevant. The strength of F# is the primary coding style: mostly functional, mostly immutable, expression-based, strongly typed with global type inference. The way most C# is written is almost the polar opposite: mostly OOP/imperative, mostly mutable, statement-based, statically typed but with a less expressive type system (no sum types, exceptions and nulls over Result and Option) and very limited local type inference. The F# style is enabled by a set of features - some of which would be really hard to add to C# (such as currying and global type inference) - but even if they were added, the millions(?) of C# developers would be unlikely adopt the functional style just because it was possible. A language is not just a list of features; each language has its own culture and "idiomatic" way of doing things.
- iddan 5y ago
  Look at JavaScript though. A few years back it was all about loose typing, mutation, OOP (with prototype), etc and now TypeScript is king, React and Rx are promoting functional idioms (immutability, purity). So I think that can teach us that when a language can be typed and functional there could be a vibrant community that uses it that way while there’s another that doesn’t
spaetzleesser 5y ago
Is F# still moving forward? I am tempted to try it but I don’t want to bet on another tool MS may abandon soon like they did with the .NET frameworks.
- munchler 5y ago
  Yes. F# 6 was just released with .NET 6 and Visual Studio 2022. It's an awesome language with a vibrant community. Plus, it's fully open source and cross-platform, so if MS were to abandon it, I think it could carry on anyway.
  - celdon25 5y ago
    I think the real question to ask is how it would fare without Don :)
- runevault 5y ago
  Here's the blog post JUST for the changes in the newest release. It is surprisingly meaty for being something other than c# https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/whats-new-in-fsharp-6/ https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/whats-new-in-fsharp-6/
  - dgellow 5y ago
    I love how detailed those blog posts are. Always a (very long) delight to read :)
- oaiey 5y ago
  And F# is the single piece of the inner .NET which is truly community driven. And they have a vibrant community.

paavohtl 5y ago

Ehhh, not really. It really depends on what you mean by convergence. You could add every single one of F#'s features into C#, and I still wouldn't consider them to be same language or the other to be irrelevant. The strength of F# is the primary coding style: mostly functional, mostly immutable, expression-based, strongly typed with global type inference. The way most C# is written is almost the polar opposite: mostly OOP/imperative, mostly mutable, statement-based, statically typed but with a less expressive type system (no sum types, exceptions and nulls over Result and Option) and very limited local type inference. The F# style is enabled by a set of features - some of which would be really hard to add to C# (such as currying and global type inference) - but even if they were added, the millions(?) of C# developers would be unlikely adopt the functional style just because it was possible. A language is not just a list of features; each language has its own culture and "idiomatic" way of doing things.

iddan 5y ago
Look at JavaScript though. A few years back it was all about loose typing, mutation, OOP (with prototype), etc and now TypeScript is king, React and Rx are promoting functional idioms (immutability, purity). So I think that can teach us that when a language can be typed and functional there could be a vibrant community that uses it that way while there’s another that doesn’t

spaetzleesser 5y ago

Is F# still moving forward? I am tempted to try it but I don’t want to bet on another tool MS may abandon soon like they did with the .NET frameworks.

munchler 5y ago
Yes. F# 6 was just released with .NET 6 and Visual Studio 2022. It's an awesome language with a vibrant community. Plus, it's fully open source and cross-platform, so if MS were to abandon it, I think it could carry on anyway.
- celdon25 5y ago
  I think the real question to ask is how it would fare without Don :)
runevault 5y ago
Here's the blog post JUST for the changes in the newest release. It is surprisingly meaty for being something other than c# https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/whats-new-in-fsharp-6/ https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/whats-new-in-fsharp-6/
- dgellow 5y ago
  I love how detailed those blog posts are. Always a (very long) delight to read :)
oaiey 5y ago
And F# is the single piece of the inner .NET which is truly community driven. And they have a vibrant community.