F# - Tutorial

F# is a programming language that provides the much sought-after combination of type safety, performance and scripting, with all the advantages of running on a high-quality, well-supported modern runtime system. F# gives you a combination of

1. Interactive scripting like Python,
2. The foundations for an interactive data visualization environment like MATLAB,
3. The strong type inference and safety of ML,
4. A cross-compiling compatible core shared with the popular OCaml language,
5. A performance profile like that of C#,
6. Easy access to the entire range of powerful .NET libraries and database tools,
7. A foundational simplicity with similar roots to Scheme,
8. The option of a top-rate Visual Studio integration,
9. The experience of a first-class team of language researchers with a track record of delivering high-quality implementations,
10. The speed of native code execution on the concurrent, portable, and distributed .NET Framework.

The only language to provide a combination like this is F# (pronounced FSharp) - a scripted/functional/imperative/object-oriented programming language that is a fantastic basis for many practical scientific, engineering and web-based programming tasks.

F# is a pragmatically-oriented variant of ML that shares a core language with OCaml. F# programs run on top of the .NET Framework. Unlike other scripting languages it executes at or near the speed of C# and C++, making use of the performance that comes through strong typing. Unlike many statically-typed languages it also supports many dynamic language techniques, such as property discovery and reflection where needed. F# includes extensions for working across languages and for object-oriented programming, and it works seamlessly with other .NET programming languages and tools.

Purpose of F#

"F# is meant to bridge the best of the functional, imperative, object-oriented and typed-classed languages." That sounds great, but .NET already supports a myriad of languages

For every language - so the thinking goes -- there should exist a subset of problems that it specifically, and optimally addresses. According to Microsoft, a subset of problems exist that aren't optimally solved by an existing language--and that subset is made up of simple, yet subtle problems.

Tutorial at Learn F#