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An Interview With F# Creator Don Syme

Posted by kdawson on from the same-as-g-flat-if-you're-tempered dept.

OCatenac passes along an interview with Don Syme, chief designer of F#, which is Microsoft Research's offering for functional programming on the .Net platform. Like Scala, which we discussed last fall, F# aims at being an optimal blend of functional and object-oriented languages. "[Q] What is the best program you've seen written in F#? [A] I've mentioned the samples from F# for Scientists, which are very compelling... For commercial impact then the uses of F# in the finance industry have been very convincing, but probably nothing beats the uses of F# to implement statistical machine learning algorithms as part of the Bing advertisement delivery machinery. ... We've recently really focused on ensuring that programming in F# is simple and intuitive. For example, I greatly enjoyed working with a high-school student who learned F#. After a few days she was accurately modifying a solar system simulator, despite the fact she'd never programmed before. You really learn a lot by watching a student at that stage."

6 of 267 comments (clear)

  1. There going to run out of musical notes soon... by Wingman+5 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Will D flat be the same language as c#?

    1. Re:There going to run out of musical notes soon... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      In music theory, F# is as far as you can get from C.

  2. F is for Fun? by gad_zuki! · · Score: 4, Funny

    Sure, when everything works out. Something tells me F will mean something completely different when youre getting compiler errors or crashes.

    1. Re:F is for Fun? by Dirtside · · Score: 4, Funny

      F# is an abbreviation -- the language's full name is F#$@!

      --
      "Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
  3. Re:.NET Framework by daveime · · Score: 5, Funny

    I hope chapter 1 contains directives on when and when not to use fixed width fonts.

  4. Time to change by thetsguy · · Score: 3, Funny

    WTF#