I want to ask a weird question. I'd love to learn ASP.net but i can't bring myself to deal with Microsoft Windows and their tech. Is F# a way for me to learn enough NET to make some money?
Why F#?
61–70 of 424 posts
Re: Why F#?
#62If you've had C# and F# co-exist in the same codebase, how do they co-exist? Is it like C# and VB.Net where a project (dll) is either C# or VB.Net, and they can reference each other? Or: Is it more like the Swift / Objective C ecosystem where Swift, Objective C, and even straight C can co-exist in the same library? In a mixed C# and F# codebase, generally when do you favor C# versus F#? Coming from a C# background, w…
You have likely heard "functional core, imperative shell". This refers to having IO-heavy code that favors imperative patterns be written in C# and then have the actual domain logic core written in F# which is much better at expressing it. Because both languages are hosted on .NET, you simply achieve it by having two projects and having one reference another. It is very seamless F# and C# types are visible to each other if marked to be so.
The biggest advantage of F# is its gradual typing and full type inference which allows to massively reduce the amount of text required to describe application or domain logic. It is also extremely composable and I find doing async in F# somewhat nicer than in C# too. F# also has better nullability (or, rather, lack of thereof) assurances and, in my opinion, better UX for records.
Re: Why F#?
#63Our shop converted 6 years ago, from C# to exclusively F#. I also author and maintain some packages (falco, donald, validus and others). The language is tough to learn if you're coming from a C-style language. But worth the effort and experience. It's extremely concise a true delight to build programs in that are fast, robust and durable. There are a few drawbacks, depending on your perspective: - compilation is slow…
How does the typing system work for F#?
From the article, it looks like it's mostly dynamically typed. Or is it inferred? Or is it something else?
Like, if I write
let hello value =
print value
hello "world"
hello 2
To me, that'd be a point that might steer me away from the language. Deducible types seem vital to larger and long lived projects.
Re: Why F#?
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
Curried functions combined with that magnificent pipe operator, overlaid on the .NET runtime. Don Syme et al knocked it out of the park. It's the one programming language that changed how I think about programming. I'm only talking about the version before type providers. Then it got messy. Before that, we could (and I did) recompile fsi.exe to do some custom prompt manipulation. It was a slog, but it worked, but the…
F# is up to version 9 now, and has only improved over time, IMHO. Type providers are a very small part of the story and can be avoided entirely if you want.
I tried F# when it was first released and was not a fan, but it sounds like that impression is a little outdated. C# has come so far in that time it’s almost a new language. I’ll have to take another look.
Re: Why F#?
#65People will do anything except actually try Elixir. :D ...I mean: pipes, immutability, transparent mega-parallelism... helloooo? I tried F# some years ago (after I was fired from a shop that decided they will go all-in on Java and F# and dropping everything else overnight) and I was not impressed. I mean the language is really nice but the C# baggage and runtime was just a bit much. And I was not left convinced that…
If one need to get on Beam, is it better to start on Elixir or Gleam?
Elixir's ecosystem is much farther ahead than Gleam, so if you want to actually achieve stuff without pauses to fill the gaps yourself, then Elixir is the way to go.
And don't get me wrong, I love the idea of Gleam, a lot (Rust syntax, strong static typing, what's not to love?). But my PL early adopter days are over.
Re: Why F#?
#66Our shop converted 6 years ago, from C# to exclusively F#. I also author and maintain some packages (falco, donald, validus and others). The language is tough to learn if you're coming from a C-style language. But worth the effort and experience. It's extremely concise a true delight to build programs in that are fast, robust and durable. There are a few drawbacks, depending on your perspective: - compilation is slow…
As a proficient Elm developer with industry experience, I’m wondering what are the biggest challenges in hiring devs? Is it the paradigm, learning the ecosystem, lack of interest?
Are you currently hiring?
Re: Why F#?
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm aware, but you need to understand the .NET ecosystem to get anything practical done (at least when I was using it in 2017). All the books written on it (I own 3) are also the same way and assume you're a skilled C# dev.
100% this, I spent many months going through the most recent books on F# including one which the latest version was only released last year I think. They all seem to try and shield you from the fact that you are much better placed if coming from C# (which everyone seems to refer to as .net these days) and have a solid understanding of the .net class library. All the main web frameworks sit on top of asp.net and prett…
What is the issue with learning C# alongside it, if only the bits necessary to improve the F# experience? Both are excellent languages.
Re: Why F#?
#68As a 20+ year C# developer I’ve tried several times to learn/use F#. Despite being interested in FP, my brain is having trouble figuring out how to structure my code in F#. In C# I’d either build a service (or use the mediator pattern) for the domain and a repository for data access. With F# it’s functions all the way down and it feels unnatural (as silly as that may sound).
The secret is currying. Replace your DI for currying and you'll start to see somewhat similar patterns
Re: Why F#?
#69F# is beautiful, but I could never crack the nut and get fluent in it. I think the big problem is I only know a little C#, so it is difficult to figure out the object oriented methods that F# depends on. It was the same thing with Clojure and Scala for the JVM. I have zero interest in first learning C# or Java, just to use those platforms.
> It was the same thing with Clojure and Scala for the JVM. I have zero interest in first learning C# or Java, just to use those platforms.
FWIW, I managed to learn Clojure without knowing anything from Java/JVM before diving into it. I did have plenty of JS experience which made ClojureScript easier to pick up I suppose, but Java works more or less the same as every other Algol-like and/or OOP language out there so if you have any previous experience with something like that, basic Java is trivial to pick up even accidentally.
Re: Why F#?
#70If you've had C# and F# co-exist in the same codebase, how do they co-exist? Is it like C# and VB.Net where a project (dll) is either C# or VB.Net, and they can reference each other? Or: Is it more like the Swift / Objective C ecosystem where Swift, Objective C, and even straight C can co-exist in the same library? In a mixed C# and F# codebase, generally when do you favor C# versus F#? Coming from a C# background, w…
You have likely heard "functional core, imperative shell". This refers to having IO-heavy code that favors imperative patterns be written in C# and then have the actual domain logic core written in F# which is much better at expressing it. Because both languages are hosted on .NET, you simply achieve it by having two projects and having one reference another. It is very seamless F# and C# types are visible to each ot…
That's just like how C# and VB.Net can co-exist in the same project. Would you pick the pattern of:
1: C# Library with interfaces and/or abstract base classes
2: F# library with implementations of those interfaces and base classes
3: C# program (console, web service, GUI, ect) that specifies the implementations in Dependency Injection
Or is there a simpler way for C# and F# to co-exist in the same project (dll or exe)?