My organization finally upgraded to MS Visual Studio 2010 this year. One of the big new features that Visual Studio 2010 offers is the F# programming language.
I understand that F# offers a functional programming paradigm, similar to Lisp. Unlike Lisp though, F# is compiled into managed code for the .net framework.
Right now, I work in database-driven web application development. Right now, I'm working with an n-tier application with SQL code on the back end and a C#.net AJAX web application on the front-end. I would like to know if F# offers anything that would be particularly useful for this type of development.
Best Answer
F# doesn't really do anything that C# cant. They all ultimately compile down to the same CLR so there is no single technology that would be amazingly useful to you. You can even call F# from C# and vice versa.
Depending on the problems your designing F# could provide simpler and more concise code.
Functional languages also lend themselves very well to unit testing. That and that fact that there is much less mutable data means your code if written well will have much less bugs.
I can say from personal experience learning some F# can really improve your C# skills and help you think of problems in a new way.
Learning functional programming concepts can also really help your Javascript (which is itself a functional language).