From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: (from majordomo@localhost) by pauillac.inria.fr (8.7.6/8.7.3) id CAA22276; Thu, 29 May 2003 02:33:06 +0200 (MET DST) X-Authentication-Warning: pauillac.inria.fr: majordomo set sender to owner-caml-list@pauillac.inria.fr using -f Received: from concorde.inria.fr (concorde.inria.fr [192.93.2.39]) by pauillac.inria.fr (8.7.6/8.7.3) with ESMTP id CAA22258 for ; Thu, 29 May 2003 02:33:05 +0200 (MET DST) Received: from mail-dub.microsoft.com ([213.199.128.160]) by concorde.inria.fr (8.11.1/8.11.1) with ESMTP id h4T0X4H01346; Thu, 29 May 2003 02:33:04 +0200 (MET DST) Received: from dub-imc-01.europe.corp.microsoft.com ([65.53.196.35]) by mail-dub.microsoft.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC(5.0.2195.5329); Thu, 29 May 2003 01:33:03 +0100 Received: from 65.53.196.35 by dub-imc-01.europe.corp.microsoft.com (InterScan E-Mail VirusWall NT); Thu, 29 May 2003 01:33:03 +0100 Received: from tvp-msg-03.europe.corp.microsoft.com ([157.58.40.125]) by dub-imc-01.europe.corp.microsoft.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC(5.0.2195.5329); Thu, 29 May 2003 01:33:03 +0100 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft Exchange V6.5.6895.0 Content-class: urn:content-classes:message MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Subject: [Caml-list] Those recent reports regarding F# Date: Thu, 29 May 2003 01:33:02 +0100 Message-ID: <92FC642DD24AC94AA356906BD9FCD2D8C74A3E@tvp-msg-03.europe.corp.microsoft.com> Thread-Topic: Those recent reports regarding F# Thread-Index: AcMled0aAQEZOj0TQd+IHuA/HGgE9g== From: "Don Syme" To: Cc: "Xavier Leroy" X-OriginalArrivalTime: 29 May 2003 00:33:03.0371 (UTC) FILETIME=[DD7CA5B0:01C32579] X-Spam: no; 0.00; dsyme:01 caml-list:01 demonstrate:01 ml-like:01 foundational:01 unexpected:01 compiler:01 ocaml:01 caml:01 speculative:96 dependent:03 subset:03 moscow:03 group:04 syme:04 Sender: owner-caml-list@pauillac.inria.fr Precedence: bulk Dear Caml-list, As one of my projects at Microsoft Research I have developed an implementation of a subset of the OCaml language for the .NET platform. This implementation is called F#, and also comes with some relatively minor extensions to allow the programmer to access .NET libraries. There have been some utterly speculative (and entirely off-the-mark!!) internet press reports about this project in the last few days (e.g. see internetnews.com). As a result I thought it wise to add the following clarification to the F# website and to post it to this list. -------------- Clarification regarding recent press reports about F#: Despite reports suggesting otherwise, F# is a relatively small research project designed to demonstrate that it is possible to easily implement ML-like languages for use on the .NET Framework. There are no current plans to commercialize F#, and the source code for the F# compiler is due to be published in June 2003. F# is public, on-going research, and Microsoft Research regularly and openly collaborates with universities on programming languages. There has been a long tradition of implementing ML-like languages within research laboratories as these have been widely accepted as foundational languages for programming language research, including the Caml project (encompassing both Caml-light and OCaml), Moscow ML, Dependent ML and many other extensions to Standard ML. The implementations have often proved useful in practice, and are good for teaching the foundations of programming. -------------- The best thing that I can see having come out of this is that ML-like languages and OCaml in particular have been given an unexpected publicity boost. As you all know I think OCaml is a great programming language and implementation, and if the fact that a small research group at Microsoft Research takes this class of languages seriously somehow helps their uptake then that's a very good thing in the long run. Best wishes, Don Syme Microsoft Research, Cambridge ------------------- To unsubscribe, mail caml-list-request@inria.fr Archives: http://caml.inria.fr Bug reports: http://caml.inria.fr/bin/caml-bugs FAQ: http://caml.inria.fr/FAQ/ Beginner's list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ocaml_beginners