

F# Foundation Launch : Open-source, cross-platform F# (1PM PST/9PM GMT Today) - Oenotria
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/dsyme/archive/2012/11/06/commmunity-for-f-online-meetup-quot-the-f-foundation-quot-with-tomas-petricek-and-phil-trelford-thursday-nov-8-2012.aspx

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mercurial
Curious to see where that goes. I've been wanting to try it for a while, but a
combination of lack of time and lack of enthusiasm for the .NET stack has kept
me away from it. Is this used in production anywhere?

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sitharus
It is where I work. There was a bit of nervousness since most Microsoft shops
are very adverse to change, but it's taking hold.

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mercurial
Well, that probably beats C#. Are you in the finance sector?

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agentultra
F# is a really cool language. However without it's interop with the CLR it
looks to me to be another ML clone. I wonder what they mean by "independent."

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pjmlp
That is my thought as well.

If one wants a strict ML language than compiles to native code then OCaml is a
better solution, ditto for lazy ML languages by making use of Haskell.

F#'s real value is the ability to have a ML language as (almost as) first
citizen in the .NET ecosystem.

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cies
Port it to JVM? Then it has to compete with the similar language Scala.

Port it to LLVM? Then it can be compiled to native, in which case it has to
compete with Haskell (et al).

The "#" in F# basically binds it to the CLR, and that's what it's strength is.
Too bad it want to be something is isn't.

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funnelweb
it currently builds on mono and javascript (websharper) for cross-platform.

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codeape
Is it still based on .NET/mono?

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candl
F# already runs on Mono and is open source. Seems like it's not the case. Very
interesting. There's a mention of "independent".

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zokier
I don't think this is any technical change. Instead MS just got bored with F#
and gives it a non-profit ("F# foundation") for maintenance. So it will be
independent, ie. not affiliated with MS.

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Oenotria
MS is not abandoning F#. This is a community-led effort to try to increase
adoption of an excellent language and to create a better experience on non-
microsoft platforms.

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jeremyjh
Not yet.

