Learning F#

It's bloody hard work, but I reckon it'll be worth it. Whether or not F# becomes a fully fledged component of the core Visual Studio suite, its future as a development project looks exciting.

An extract from Don "Mr F#" Syme's blog (my emph.):

Some possible projects include:

• Continue to develop F# as a tool for the machine learning community.For example, you might attempt to apply automatic differentiation techniques to F# quotations and then use .NET runtime code generation to produce a user-friendly powerful general and efficient treatment of automatic and/or symbolic differentiation in the context of .NET. Alternatively, you could work on some other joint project between the F# and machine learning groups at MSR Cambridge. * Working on planned design extensions such as a comprehension notation or mixins.
  

• Further designing and developing support for LINQ in F#

• Formalizing and robustly specifying some aspects of the existing F# design (using both informal and formal techniques).

• Developing F# connections to .NET numerical and visualization components, and/or designing and developing alternatives to these components where necessary.

Possibly a future Microsoft response to Google's drive to build the first true AI. Machine learning is hot again and F# will be a key tool.