Why use F#: Conclusion

The "Why use F#?" series

• Introduction to the 'Why use F#' series
  An overview of the benefits of F#
• F# syntax in 60 seconds
  A very quick overview on how to read F# code
• Comparing F# with C#: A simple sum
  In which we attempt to sum the squares from 1 to N without using a loop
• Comparing F# with C#: Sorting
  In which we see that F# is more declarative than C#, and we are introduced to pattern matching.
• Comparing F# with C#: Downloading a web page
  In which we see that F# excels at callbacks, and we are introduced to the 'use' keyword
• Four Key Concepts
  The concepts that differentiate F# from a standard imperative language
• Conciseness
  Why is conciseness important?
• Type inference
  How to avoid getting distracted by complex type syntax
• Low overhead type definitions
  No penalty for making new types
• Using functions to extract boilerplate code
  The functional approach to the DRY principle
• Using functions as building blocks
  Function composition and mini-languages make code more readable
• Pattern matching for conciseness
  Pattern matching can match and bind in a single step
• Convenience
  Features that reduce programming drudgery and boilerplate code
• Out-of-the-box behavior for types
  Immutability and built-in equality with no coding
• Functions as interfaces
  OO design patterns can be trivial when functions are used
• Partial Application
  How to fix some of a function's parameters
• Active patterns
  Dynamic patterns for powerful matching
• Correctness
  How to write 'compile time unit tests'
• Immutability
  Making your code predictable
• Exhaustive pattern matching
  A powerful technique to ensure correctness
• Using the type system to ensure correct code
  In F# the type system is your friend, not your enemy
• Worked example: Designing for correctness
  How to make illegal states unrepresentable
• Concurrency
  The next major revolution in how we write software?
• Asynchronous programming
  Encapsulating a background task with the Async class
• Messages and Agents
  Making it easier to think about concurrency
• Functional Reactive Programming
  Turning events into streams
• Completeness
  F# is part of the whole .NET ecosystem
• Seamless interoperation with .NET libraries
  Some convenient features for working with .NET libraries
• Anything C# can do...
  A whirlwind tour of object-oriented code in F#
• Why use F#: Conclusion