46 Apples

Introducing F#

2010-03-31T00:45:00.000-07:00

Introduction

The purpose of this article is to introduce you to the F# language - what it is, it's origins, and how it fits into Visual Studio 2010 RC. In the process, I hope to highlight the following:

What exactly is F#?
What is functional programming?
What are the benefits of functional programming?
How to install F#
What is F# Interactive?
The F# Powerpack
and where you can download the required F# tools and libraries from

In the Downloads section of this article you will find links to a presentation I gave on the F# language, as well as a Visual Studio 2010 solution containing sample F# projects and scripts you can run to further clarify what the language is and what it can do.

What is F#?

F# is a multi-paradigm programming language, targeting the .NET Framework, that encompasses functional programming as well as imperative object-oriented programming disciplines. It is a variant of ML and is largely compatible with the OCaml implementation. F# was initially developed by Don Syme at Microsoft Research but is now being developed at Microsoft Developer Division and will be distributed as a fully supported language in the .NET framework and Visual Studio as part of Visual Studio 2010.

F# is a strongly typed language that uses type inference. As a result, data types need not be explicitly declared by the programmer; they will be deduced by the compiler during compilation. However, F# also allows explicit data type declaration. Being a .NET language, F# supports .NET types and objects. But itextends the type system and categorizes types as immutable types or mutable types. .NET objects classify as mutable types (which can be edited in-place), and are used to provide an object-oriented programming model. Immutable types (editing such a type creates a new instance without overwriting the older one) are primarily used for functional programming.

Before we can fully understand what F# is and how it fits into the bigger programming picture, we need to know a little more about functional programming.

What is Functional Programming?

Functional programming means that programs are executed by evaluating expressions. This contrasts with imperative programming where programs are composed of statements which change global state when executed. Functional programming, on the other hand, avoids using state and mutable data.

Functional programming requires that functions are first-class, which means that they are treated like any other values and can be passed as arguments to other functions or be returned as a result of a function. Being first-class also means that it is possible to define and manipulate functions nested in code blocks. Special attention needs to be given to nested functions, called closures, that reference local variables from their scope. If such a function escapes their block after being returned from it, the local variables must be retained in memory, as they might be needed later when the function is called. Usually it is not possible to determine statically the moment of release, which means that an automatic memory management technique has to be used.

Functional programming is based on the simplest of models, namely that of finding the value of an expression. This we meet in our first years at school, when we learn to work out expressions like 8+(3-2) by evaluating the two halves, 8 and (3-2), and adding the results together. Functional programming consists of our defining for ourselves functions like + which we can then use to form expressions.

We define these functions by means of equations, like

addD a b = 2*(a+b)

which we use to calculate the value of an expression like addD 2 (addD 3 4). We evaluate this using (1) to replace occurrences of addD with their values, so that we can write down a calculation of its value

addD 2 (addD 3 4)
=
2*(2 + (addD 3 4))
= 2*(2 + 2*(3 + 4))
= 32

As well as using (1) to calculate, we can read it as a logical description of how the function addD
behaves on any values a and b; on the basis of this we can reason about how it behaves. For instance, for any values a and b,

addD a b = 2*(a+b) =
2*(b+a) = addD b a

This equation holds for all possible input values, in contrast to the information we gain from testing a function at a selection of inputs.

On top of this simple model we can build a variety of facilities, which give the functional approach its distinctive flavour. These include higher-order functions, whose arguments and results are themselves functions; polymorphism, which allows a single definition to apply simultaneously to a collection of types; and infinite data structures which are used to model a variety of data objects.

The Miranda language also has support for larger-scale programming, including user-defined algebraic types, such as lists, trees and so on; abstract data types and modules. These contribute to separating complex tasks into smaller sub-tasks, making the components of systems independent of each other, as well as supporting software re-use.

Benefits of functional programming

Functional programming is known to provide better support for structured programming than imperative programming. To make a program structured it is necessary to develop abstractions and split it into components which interface each other with those abstractions. Functional languages aid this by making it easy to create clean and simple abstractions. It is easy, for instance, to abstract out a recurring piece of code by creating a higher-order function which will make the resulting code more declarative and comprehensible.

Functional programs are often shorter and easier to understand than their imperative
counterparts. Since various studies have shown that the average programmer's productivity in terms of lines of code is more or less the same for any programming language, this translates also to higher productivity.

F# Installation

F# is included as part of Visual Studio 2010. It comes with a Microsoft Visual Studio language service that integrates it with the IDE. With the language service installed, Visual Studio can be used to create F# projects and the Visual Studio debugger used to debug F# code. In addition, it comes with a Visual Studio-hosted interactive console that executes F# code as it is being written.

F# can also be downloaded as a seperate installation package for Visual Studio 2010 and 2010, or as a standalone compiler available in the F# CTP release. In addition to this, F# compiler binaries are also available for Mono, Mac, and Linux.

Furthermore, a collection of libraries and tools for use with the F# language is available in the form of the F# Powerpack from CodePlex.

What is F# Interactive

F# Interactive is a command line tool you can use to execute fragments of F# code interactively, making it a convenient way to explore the language.

You can start F# Interactive in Visual Studio by selecting Tools ➤ Add-in Manager and then selecting F# Interactive for Visual Studio in the Add-in Manager dialog box. A tool window will then appear, and you can send text to F# Interactive by selecting the text and pressing Alt+Return.

It is installed by default into %PROGRAMFILES%\Microsoft F#\v4.0 if Visual Studio 2010 is installed.

F# Powerpack

The F# PowerPack is a collection of libraries and tools for use with the F# programming language provided by the F# team at Microsoft.

This is functionality which is not part of the core F# release, but enables some development scenarios with F#. The PowerPack include features such as a basic Matrix library and supporting math types, FsLex and FsYacc tools for lexing and parsing, support for using F# with LINQ-based libraries, and a tool for generating HTML documentation from F# libraries. This functionality, which has previously been available in the F# CTP releases, is now available on CodePlex.

The PowerPack consists of several assemblies and tools which provide functionality in wide range of areas related to F#:

FsLex and FsYacc

PowerPack includes F# versions of these popular lexer and parser generation tools, along with MSBuild tasks to incorporate them in the build process.

F# Documentation generator

FsHtmlDoc.exe, included in PowerPack, can be used to generate HTML documentation from the XMLDoc comments in F# source files.

F# LINQ and Quotations to Expression Tree Bridge

FSharp.PowerPack.Linq.dll connects F# with features introduced in .NET 3.5. It provides converters from quotations to .NET expression trees, and introduces a query operator that allows F# programs to execute queries via LINQ mechanisms.

F# CodeDOM Implementation

FSharp.Compiler.CodeDom.dll contains implementations of System.CodeDom.Compiler.CodeDomProvider for F#. This allows F# to be used with CodeDom consumers, and most importantly to author ASP.NET pages code-behind classes in F#. Not all ASP.NET features work with this CodeDom, and you don't get strongly typed access to page elements, Some sample ASP.NET applications are in the test suite in the source tree.

F# Parallel LINQ Integration

FSharp.PowerPack.Parallel.dll provides F#-style API for parallel operations on sequences that are part in .NET 4.0 as System.Linq.ParallelEnumerable class. The API is akin to F# operations on sequences.

F# Metadata Reader

FSharp.PowerPack.Metadata.dll allows to introspect F#-authored assemblies and analyze F#-specific metadata.

F# Compatibility Helpers

FSharp.PowerPack.Compatibility.dll provides various helper functions for compatibility with OCaml and previous releases of F#.

Downloads

F# INNNovation Powerpoint Presentation (.pptx)
Sample code (demo projects) used in the INNNovation presentation
The Microsoft F# February 2010 Community Technology Preview
- Includes optional Visual Studio 2008 integration for F# development. If you don't have Visual Studio, install the Visual Studio 2008 Shell (free download) prior to installing F#
Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 F# Runtime 2.0 RC
F# for Mono/Mac/Linux (compiler binaries, ZIP)
F# Powerpack

Also be sure to visit the Microsoft F# Research site.

Using the Code

Extract the source archive to your local hard drive.

The enclosed solution was created using Visual Studio 2010 RC, and contains six F# projects, and two F# script files (with an .fsx extension). To run a project, select a project of choice from the solution, right-click the project, select Set as StartUp Project, and hit F5!

To run the F# scripts, open the script file in Visual Studio 2010 RC, select all the code in the source file, and then either send the code to F# Interactive inside Visual Studio, or copy and paste the code into the F# Interactive command line tool.

Passing dates in XAML

2009-10-20T20:34:00.000-07:00

Recently I had the need for an encapsulated, reusable 'About Box' control that I could use throughout a number of Silverlight applications. I then wrote a user control that would serve this purpose. The AboutBox displays application releases that are grouped by the application version, and a list of changes/updates included in that version. An example of this can be seen below:

Although the use and implementation of the AboutBox user control is beyond the scope of this article, one of the features of the AboutBox was to enable the developer to specify a date for a product release item. I made provision for this by creating a DateTime property called Date in the VersionInformation class. However, I encountered a problem when trying to specify a value for this property in the XAML of the page consuming the AboutBox user control

I realized that XAML natively does not know how to convert a string to a DateTime value, and setting the Date property as Date="12 January 2009" would result in an AG_E_UNKNOWN_ERROR XAML parser error when running the application.

Thankfully, there is a way to resolve this. The answer lies in TypeConverter, and the full article can be found at CodeProject

Microsoft announce Visual Studio 2010 dates

2009-10-19T20:53:00.000-07:00

Microsoft have announced that Visual Studio 2010 will officially launch on the 22nd of March 2010, and is promised to be "the most significant release" Microsoft's had of the tools suite and framework "in a number of years."

New features include Windows 7 and SharePoint 2010 tools, drag-and-drop bindings with Silverlight and Windows Presentation Foundation, the inclusion of the Dynamic Language Runtime (DLR) for programming with scripting languages, and support for parallel programming.

Read the full article here.

Apple versus Microsoft: The top 20 stolen ideas

2009-10-13T21:12:00.000-07:00

Both Windows 7 and Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard contain features that originated in the other Operating System. Some features were stolen so long ago that they've become part of the computing landscape, and it's difficult to remember who invented what.

Full article available at InfoWorld.

Silverlight ported to Linux

2009-10-12T21:01:00.000-07:00

Intel and Microsoft have announced a new port of Silverlight to Linux, specifically for the Intel-sponsored Moblin operating system running on Atom-powered devices such as netbooks. The port enables Intel to include Silverlight as a supported runtime in the Atom Developer Program, which will feed an iPhone-like App Store.

Microsoft has already provided Intel with Silverlight source code and test suites. Intel will build an optimized Moblin version of Silverlight, which Microsoft will supply to OEMs.

Read the full article here.

.NET development on the iPhone

2009-10-12T20:40:00.000-07:00

A kit for developers to build Apple iPhone and iPod Touch business applications using Microsoft's .Net Framework instead of the Apple-designated C or Objective-C languages is available from Novell.

Read the full article here.

The kit is available from the MonoTouch site.

Silverlight Message Box

2009-10-08T19:40:00.000-07:00

On the date I launched my blog, I wrote an article on how one might use the Silverlight Toolkit to implement pop-ups.

I have since taken this a step further and written a Message Box pop up user control for Silverlight using the very same framework mentioned in that blog.

An article on how I did this can be found at The Code Project.

PS. Don't forget to vote for the article.

Microsoft WebsiteSpark

2009-10-04T22:32:00.000-07:00

Check out the new WebsiteSpark program from Microsoft. According to Scott Guthrie's blog:

"WebsiteSpark is designed for independent web developers and web development companies that build web applications and web sites on behalf of others. It enables you to get software, support and business resources from Microsoft at no cost for three years, and enables you to expand your business and build great web solutions using ASP.NET, Silverlight, SharePoint and PHP, and the open source applications built on top of them."

Where is the List.Find() method in Silverlight?

2009-09-30T21:13:00.000-07:00

For any .NET developers new to Silverlight, they may find it strange that they are not able to resolve the Find() method when working with Generic collections. This is a very useful method when searching a collection for a particular item.

The Find(*) methods on List were added in version 2.0 of the .NET framework before LINQ. LINQ (which stands for Language INtegrated Query) now provides the First() method, which can be used in a similar way to the List.Find() method.

Since LINQ is available in Silverlight, Microsoft decided not to add the Find methods to List to avoid adding duplicate functionality and to keep the size of Silverlight as small as possible.

LINQ can be used as a replacement for List.Find(Predicate):

using System.Linq;

var list = new List { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 };

int item = list.First(i => i == 2); // same as calling list.Find(i => i == 2);

Announcing the birth of 46Apples!

2009-09-29T05:50:00.000-07:00

Today I am excited to announce that 46Apples is alive and well. Yup, my long-awaited blog is up and running and it is no coincidence that today I give birth to 46Apples, as eight years agotoday we welcomed my precious daughter Micaela into the world.

At 46Apples you will find software development-related articles, source code, demos, and news. The scope of the content will range from the Microsoft .NET framework to Apple’s Cocoa framework. I will be posting articles on both Microsoft and Apple technologies – from Microsoft’s ASP.NET, Windows Forms, WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation), WCF (Windows Communication Foundation) and Silverlight, to Apple’s Cocoa framework, Xcode, Interface Builder, the iPhone SDK, etc.

I have an incredible passion for the above-mentioned technologies, and it is my hope and vision to share my insights and experiences with the software development community in a mutually beneficial manner.

Creating pop ups with the Silverlight Toolkit

2009-09-29T05:45:00.000-07:00

In my first article I will demonstrate how simple it is to create a pop-up window in your Silverlight applications using the Silverlight 3 Toolkit.

This article assumes you have the following installed on your machine:

Silverlight 3 developer runtime
The July 2009 release of the Silverlight Toolkit for Silverlight 3
Visual Studio 2008 SP1

If you don’t have the required Silverlight installs, you can download them from here.

The article also assumes you have some familiarity with working with Microsoft Silverlight projects.

Ok, now that we have the requirements out of the way, it’s ready to get dirty (well, so to speak anyway).

Create a Silverlight project in Visual Studio, and add a reference to the System.Windows.Controls assembly (should be located in your Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Silverlight\v3.0\Libraries\Client directory if you have the toolkit installed).

Now add a new User Control to your Silverlight project (using the User Control template in Visual Studio). For this user control to function as a pop-up window, it needs to be panel-beated a bit. Don’t worry; it’s not as painful as it might sound!

Navigate to the new user control’s XMAL (which, in case you didn’t know, stands for eXtended Markup Application Language). Add an XML namespace definition so that it references the System.Windows.Controls as follows:

xmlns:Controls="clr-namespace:System.Windows.Controls;assembly=System.Windows.Controls"

and then change the opening UserControl tag to read Controls:ChildWindow. Also make sure you change the closing tag to match. Save, and then open the user control’s code-behind file (with the .cs file extension). You’ll notice that the user control currently inherits from the UserControl class. Change this so that it now inherits from the ChildWindow class. You will also have to include a using statement that references the System.Windows.Controls namespace in the user control’s code-behind.
The XAML and code-behind should look something like this:

That takes care of our new pop-up window definition. Now we need to make use of it.

Open your Silverlight application’s start up page (probably MainPage.xaml – did I guess it or did I guess it?), and navigate to the page’s code-behind. Create an instance of the pop up in the page’s constructor, and wire up an event handler for the pop up’s Closed event. After setting one or two properties, it is as simple as calling the pop up’s Show method to, well, show the pop up window. The ChildWindow class the pop up inherits from takes care of setting an opaque background, and animating the visual effect of showing the window (by using the VisualStateManager as you may have guessed).
The code-behind of MainPage.xaml looks like this:

For the purpose of the demo, I have added two buttons to demonstrate obtaining a result from the pop up after the user has closed it. The ChildWindow class provides a nullable bool property called DialogResult that can be used to determine a choice made by the user on the pop up (for example, checking whether the user clicked an Ok or Cancel button).

I have created a demo application that I will make available for download later this week. It covers the functionality described in this article, and although very simplistic, it will give you an idea of how to implement custom pop-up message boxes in your Silverlight 3 applications. The pop up in the demo looks as follows:
Happy coding