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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."

4 of 267 comments (clear)

  1. never programmed before??? by madddddddddd · · Score: 0, Troll

    the solar system is a program of physics. a child understanding the program enough to alter a simulation of it makes the claim of the child having no programming experience quite questionable.

    go tell someone else, marketing droid. F# stinks.

  2. functional programming is for autists by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    insane in the membrane :(

  3. F is for FUCK Micro$oft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    http://www.msversus.org/

  4. HAHA Crappy open sores crashes again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    http://flashcrash.dempsky.org/

    Firefox crashes.. IE8, Chrome, Opera, dont. LOL..

    Firefox bloated piece of shit. Yet again OSS community has made another turd..