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Why F#?

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Re: Why F#?

#291

Post by throwaway2037 »

DonaldPShimoda wrote: post #200
raphinou wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I should have mentioned in the message, but I was looking for a strongly typed language. I was an avid-user of dynamically-typed languages, but that particular Ruby on Rails app became unmaintainable, and part of the culprit was due to the dynamic typing. I hoped that using a statically typed language would make it easier to maintain a complex app in the long term. And I must say that it totally materialised, to the…

This is a really minor point, but "strongly typed" and "statically typed" are not interchangeable terms. In the context of your comments here, you are exclusively interested in the static nature of the type system, rather than anything about the "strength" of it (which is something totally different and inconsistently defined).

Can you explain more about strongly typed vs statically typed?

Re: Why F#?

#292

Post by DeathArrow »

Iove the ideas behind functional programming but I never properly learned a functional programming language. I will probably never have the opportunity to use it professionaly and learning it just for hobby doesn't make sense to me.

If I am developing something in my spare time I also like to use something I can earn money with so I can hone and maintain my earning skills. Maybe sounds like min maxing.

If I would be in a situation where I can develop software just out of pleasure or pure curiosity, I would use just whatever language I deem interesting.

Re: Why F#?

#294

Post by DeathArrow »

jen20 wrote: post #91
8s2ngy wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand your perspective. I like to view niche languages as a medium for learning. For instance, I enjoy using Rust in my personal projects—even if many of these projects may never be released—because the lessons on immutability, functional programming constructs, and trait-oriented programming significantly enhance my day-to-day work. Therefore, I believe that learning niche languages, even in the absence of a…

I'm not sure I'd call Rust a "niche language" any more (perhaps in ~2018) - it's in common use across many big technology companies.

Just look at the job market. There are far more jobs for Go programmers and Go isn't particularly huge.

Compared with C/C++, Java, C#, Javascript, Python, Typescript, PHP, all the rest can be considered niche.

Re: Why F#?

#295

Post by throwaway2037 »

mmoskal wrote: post #221
homebrewer wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is extremely niche outside of this bubble.

According to Stack Overflow developer survey [0] Rust is at 12.5%, roughly a half of C# or Java and a quarter of Python. Also more than twice Ruby. So definitely not niche. [0] https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2024/technology#most-popular...

To be clear, that developer survey asked:

    > Which programming, scripting, and markup languages have you done extensive development work in over the past year, and which do you want to work in over the next year?
It does not ask if you are gainfully employed and using this language for your job.

Also, in the same results, just above Rust, I see:

    > PowerShell 13.8%
So, I guess that we can safely say that Microsoft PowerShell is still more popular than Rust.

Re: Why F#?

#296

Post by DeathArrow »

askonomm wrote: post #264
mmoskal wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to Stack Overflow developer survey [0] Rust is at 12.5%, roughly a half of C# or Java and a quarter of Python. Also more than twice Ruby. So definitely not niche. [0] https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2024/technology#most-popular...

In my mind not niche means having jobs, and Rust has no jobs, not in any meaningful amount at least, and none at all in most countries. That puts it deep in the niche category for me.

It's popular in the "let's rewrite X in Rust" community which are very actively posting on HN, Reddit and wherever they can. That gives the impression it is not niche.

But the moment you search Rust on LinkedIn, you can see the truth.

Re: Why F#?

#297

Post by LandR »

systems wrote: post #73

The problem with F#, Clojure and Elixir (hosted languages) For F# , you need some basic C# knowledge For Clojure, you need some basic Java knowledge For Elixir, you need some basic Erlang knowledge I like all 3 languages but usually each vm have a primary language, and each hosted language eventually become hosted on that primary language not the vm I understand that for many task simple, to medium complexity, you mi…

I've written a lot of Clojure now, and I've managed to avoided learning any Java really.

Re: Why F#?

#298

Post by baq »

throwaway2037 wrote: post #291
DonaldPShimoda wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a really minor point, but "strongly typed" and "statically typed" are not interchangeable terms. In the context of your comments here, you are exclusively interested in the static nature of the type system, rather than anything about the "strength" of it (which is something totally different and inconsistently defined).

Can you explain more about strongly typed vs statically typed?

strong typing: 2 + "2" is an error (e.g. Python vs JS)

static typing: 2 + "2" does not compile/parse (e.g. Python vs mypy, Typescript vs JS)

this is a very simplistic example, but should get you to feel the difference.

Re: Why F#?

#299

Post by DeathArrow »

vlovich123 wrote: post #127
homebrewer wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is extremely niche outside of this bubble.

F# will likely remain niche forever. It’s likely that Rust will not given its growing and accelerating adoption by Microsoft, Google and the Linux Kernel. It just takes time to defeat the 40+ years of c and c++ dominance.

I will take C, C++ or Zig over Rust any day. For some people, like me, the Rust way of doing things isn't a good fit. It's not a model I enjoy working with.

I like F#, Haskell, Elixir but not Rust.

Re: Why F#?

#300

Post by rawoke083600 »

I'm waiting for the excellent F# Article about railroad-coding to be posted here. Required F#e reading :) No not trolling. Am on mobile and traveling else I would have searched-posted
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