hubFS: THE place for F#

What is the general consensus on the readiness of F# to be used commercially?

In particular using components written in F# as part of a larger project written in C#?

At my current workplace I've been pushing for the adoption of functional languages. Due to various political reasons (and a few minor technical reasons), it appears that F# is the language we'd most likely adopt.

This is still viewed as highly risky by many people in the company and what I'm often asked is what would happen if Microsoft were to drop F#. Would development of F# continue elsewhere?

Ivan

As I explained in the recent Channel 9 video, the commercial adoption of languages is very context dependent.  There are many potential appropriate and sensible commercial uses of F# (e.g.  to crack spreadsheets and perform non-trivial financial calculations, or to do server-side analysis of game data, as done at Microsoft).  However you can easily think up examples where it would not yet be sensible to use F#, e.g. line-of-business applications better done in C# or VB, to name but one example.

At this stage, it's fair to think of F# as one of a portfolio of tools in the broader context of .NET.  Certainly your company should feel comfortable with using .NET and understand what its related technologies do and dont give you.  You should also plan to be able to write any particular part of your code in C# or VB.  In this context the use of F# becomes a little clearer: the functional programmers and more mathematically-oriented people in your org will value it and be able to write interoperable components using it. 

We also encourage potential commercial users to make sure they invest properly and get copies of VS2005 to use with F#, as it does make a big difference to the development experience.

Of course the license makes the exact terms of use clear. 

There is no current "community longevity" plan, though we are discussing it internally at Microsoft Research.  We understand that's a really legitimate concern. If you would find a more liberal license potentially useful please put your case in an email to me (dsyme, AT microsoft.com)  and I will pass it along.

Thanks
Don

 

I think this question it is important for many programmers.
Earlier I professionally worked on VisualC ++ (6 years)
Has then studied more effective means of programming and began to work on Python+C (5 years).

Now I have seen, that .NET very good platform for multilanguage development. Advantages of joining of several languages in one project.
Seriously I think to proceed(pass) on VisualStudio 2005. Unfortunately IronPython for the present it is not so good at present time. In it(him) there are problems.
Probably I shall pass on F sharp.

About F sharp write, that it(him) will estimate mathematics. I think F sharp it will be well perceived(recognized) by many programmers.
Functional programming does(makes) programs more beautifully and more shortly. At present time F sharp the most advanced functional language for .NET.

It would be desirable to be confident, that Microsoft in the future will develop and support F sharp.