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POWhat is F# lacking for OO or imperative?
 

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  1. POWhat is F# lacking for OO or imperative?
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    <p>Many times I hear that F# is not suited to particular tasks, such as UI. "Use the right tool" is a common phrase. </p> <p>Apart from missing tools such as a WinForms/WPF/ORM designer, I'm not sure what exactly is missing in F# -- honestly! Yet, particularly with UI, I'm told that C# just does it better. So, what are the actual differences and omissions in F# when using it imperatively? </p> <p>Here is a list I came up with:</p> <ul> <li><p>Lots of missing tool support</p></li> <li><p>F# is still beta</p></li> <li><p>Your developers don't know F#</p> <ul> <li>I'd like to not consider those points, as they aren't really intrinsic to F#</li> </ul></li> <li><p>Mutables need "mutable" or need to be ref, ref needs ! to dereference</p></li> <li><p>Mutables assign with &lt;- and ref uses := ( they're both 1 more character than just = )</p></li> <li><p>val needs DefaultValueAttribute to get a default value</p></li> <li><p>F# doesn't emit implicit interfaces </p></li> <li><p>Protected members are more difficult to deal with</p></li> <li><p>No automatic properties</p></li> <li><p>Implemented virtual members on abstract classes require two definitions</p></li> <li><p>Quotations-to-LINQ-Expression-Trees produces trees slightly different than C#/VB (annoying for APIs that expect their Expressions in a specific format)</p></li> <li><p>No stackalloc</p></li> <li><p>F# doesn't have the ?: conditional operator</p></li> <li><p>Pointers might be considered more cumbersome in F#</p></li> <li><p>Delegates/events might possibly be considered more cumbersome (I'd argue they're easier, but at a minimum they're different)</p></li> <li><p>No automatic type conversions (like int to float, or implicit casts)</p></li> <li><p>No special syntax support for Nullable (C#'s ? type annotation and ?? operator, as well as using operators on nullables.)</p></li> <li><p>No automatic upcasting to common base class or boxing (ex: let x : obj = if true then 1 else "hi" // this won't typecheck)</p></li> <li><p>Values can't be discarded without a warning ("ignore" to get around it)</p></li> <li><p>Doesn't have C-style syntax :)</p></li> </ul> <p>To the question: Which of these are a hindrance to writing imperative or OO code? Why (short examples)? Which ones did I miss? What are the best workarounds, and why are they not enough?</p> <p><em>Please note</em>, I'm not talking about writing so-called idiomatic F#, and I'm certainly not talking about functional programming. I'm more interested along the lines of "If I were to force myself to write UI or imperative/OO code in F#, using F# OO/imperative features and class types, what hurts the most?"</p> <p><strong>Bonus</strong> If you don't know F# but use C# or VB.NET and think it's a better tool for some situations, please indicate the specific language features and syntax you find appealing. </p>
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    1. COIt almost sounds like you want F# to be C# or VB. You will be wasting lotsa time writing in an imperative style.
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    2. COPlease don't get me wrong. Many of the things in the list I love an I think they are positive. No, I'm interested in the differences that C# and VB.NET share that make them better at such tasks. Not general "oh it wasn't _designed_ for that", but hard "lack of protected members means F# just can't cope on x y and z frameworks".
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    3. COThe designer shouldn't be a big problem, as you can use the others dll's. Generally only a issue in small projects.
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