Microsoft’s Functional Programming Platform for .NET
F# is a new Microsoft .NET Framework programming language that aims to combine type safety, performance, and scripting with the robust Common Language Runtime. More specifically, it is a scripted/functional/imperative/object-oriented programming language that is capable of performing complex scientific and engineering computational activities in an efficient manner.
F# aims to provide the following:
- interactive scripting like Python,
- the foundations for an interactive data visualization environment like MATLAB,
- the strong type inference and safety of ML,
- a cross-compiling compatible core shared with the popular OCaml language,
- a performance profile like that of C#,
- easy access to the entire range of powerful .NET libraries and database tools,
- a foundational simplicity with similar roots to Scheme,
- the option of a top-rate Visual Studio integration,
- the experience of a first-class team of language researchers with a track record of delivering high-quality implementations,
- the speed of native code execution on the concurrent, portable, and distributed .NET Framework.