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Hey folks, Glad to see Dustin's good post get some visibility here :) If anyone is interested in learning F#, there are some resources available: F# docs index (has multiple guides for specific editors and a comprehensive overview of the language): https://docs.microsoft.com/dotnet/fsharp/ F# on JavaScript with Fable: https://fable.io/docs/ More F# in the browser with WebSharper: https://try.websharper.com/ F# on Azu…
Don't I need Mono, wait, shouldn't I be using .NET? Oh I will probably install it one way, only to discover I should have installed it another.
I find the .NET and Mono differences confusing.
So this is a barrier to entry to consider.
That said, this free book is kind of nice introduction:
https://www.oreilly.com/programming/free/analyzing-visualizi...
A gripe about F# on MacOs - how to install it, count the ways - 6. https://fsharp.org/use/mac/ Don't I need Mono, wait, shouldn't I be using .NET? Oh I will probably install it one way, only to discover I should have installed it another. I find the .NET and Mono differences confusing. So this is a barrier to entry to consider. That said, this free book is kind of nice introduction: https://www.oreilly.com/programmin…
You can see a more simplified version of how to get started here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/fsharp/get-started/
I heard F# supports this newish thing called dependent typing which allows the type checker to not only check for type correctness but logic correctness as well. I've never worked with dependent typing but is it true? Does the F# really take away the need for all unit testing on a project?
It is a wonderfully pragmatic language though and does guide the user towards more reliable software patterns than C# does. It sort of bridges the gap to be something you can actually use in production today, whereas the dependently typed languages are still in the realm of experimentation and toy projects for now.
Do HN users have any F# references, books, or guides they recommend? I've always been intrigued by F# but haven't found a good project / use case for it, but I suspect that's because I need to know more about it first.
Now release a native F# variant with rustup/cargo like tooling and a REPL and I'm sold.
I heard F# supports this newish thing called dependent typing which allows the type checker to not only check for type correctness but logic correctness as well. I've never worked with dependent typing but is it true? Does the F# really take away the need for all unit testing on a project?
Now release a native F# variant with rustup/cargo like tooling and a REPL and I'm sold.
Cargo[1]. REPL[2]. [1]: https://ardalis.com/how-to-add-a-nuget-package-using-dotnet-... [2]: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/fsharp/tutorials/fsh...
F# is 3 big things to me: Safer threading with immutability Safer programming with null-safety Safer logic with precise domain modeling The precise domain modeling is the real paradigm shift. The whole point of static typing is to inform the compiler about your intent so that it can provide guarantees about correctness. F# makes it easy to define lots of small types that precisely model state so that you can give mor…
>I have personally struggled with domain complexity in C# that i was able to model precisely in F# and have it work perfectly on the first try. If you're willing to provide a (simplified) example I would be very interested.
I've previously used Ocaml at my last job and use Scala at my current one, it's interesting that F# (just judging from this blog post) looks more similar to Ocaml than to Scala - like they've more aggressively pulled out syntax and embraced partial application etc. I'd always assumed F# was to C# what Scala is to Java - and I think that probably does represent their design goals, so I wonder what the different consid…