F# support

[voronoipotato]

I'm not using this issue to push the creator to support F#. This is for the F# community to figure out if this is something that any of us are interested in working on testing/implementing. Also to track what needs to be done or changed to get it working. I personally think the zero version could be very compelling for F#.

Considerations

• What things do we expect to never work in zero
  • is that a dealbreaker or are there workarounds?
• Since .net interop isn't needed in zero should we use rust style struct unions?
• What subset of F# language features would give a usable experience?
• How does interop work in zero?
  • How to use C/C++ ?
  • If OCaml interop is good and bidirectional it would allow for broader use of both F# and OCaml.
  • What kinds of inspirations from OCaml can we use for the zero implementation.

[graysuit]

Its like rewriting code to add support for F#. Even if added, then folks for more, like visual basic, J#... and alot of bugs and harder to concentrate. lol

Instead I suggest developers to do something like dnspy does. It de-compile .net byte code, and then generates equivalent code in C# and VB. Even code becomes more readable if pdb symbols are present.

So bflat can do following way:

1. de-compile assemblies (using dnlib or mono.cecil)
2. convert that il to c# (which dnspy does)
3. use that c# code in bflat to generate executables

That way you don't need to fight different language packs. Any .net executable whether C#, VB, F#, IronPython etc can be converted to native code without really need to add support for each. Just sharing some thoughts, rest author know well.

[voronoipotato]

VB should have no issue exclusively running C# libraries, you need language support F# because the F# core library is different from the C# core library. The IL support is probably how we will do it, though you should not need to compile to C#. The good news is it will not lead to more bugs in the C# code since it is completely separated and will be maintained by F# devs. VB is the only other big language that may want to compile to native and their language is in most respects extremely similar to C#. It probably isn't going to be much work for them to add it if they put their mind to it.

[whb07]

The way forward with F# is to create a library project and pull it in on your C# executable.

I tested a simple function using this method

[DamianReeves]

The way forward with F# is to create a library project and pull it in on your C# executable.

I tested a simple function using this method

Do you mind sharing what you have? Would love to see an example.