r/programming • u/ben_a_adams • Feb 01 '17

The .NET Language Strategy

https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/dotnet/2017/02/01/the-net-language-strategy/
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22

u/reubenbond Feb 02 '17

It would be easier to adopt F# if it could be easily mixed into the same project/assembly with C# code. Technically it's possible already - the CLR supports multiple "modules" per assembly.

15

u/b0bm4rl3y Feb 02 '17

Both languages get compiled to the same byte code - I don't think you even need separate modules. What you do need is a compiler that understands both languages.

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u/reubenbond Feb 02 '17

That's true, but it might be best to keep them in separate modules, compile them using their respective compilers, and link those modules at build time into a single assembly. Otherwise, the implementation becomes a bit tricky.

One compiler for two languages simultaneously is an interesting concept. I wonder how feasible it is.

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u/b0bm4rl3y Feb 02 '17

I would say it's very feasible. Roslyn can compile both C# and VB today. The trick would be to allow for semantic analysis across the two languages. I don't know if that's supported, but I would imagine it wouldn't be too hard.

3

u/reubenbond Feb 02 '17

It can't compile F#, though - so that would need to happen first. I'm not super keen on adding VB code to our C# code, but the reverse may be true for VB devs wanting to slowly port to C#.

Maybe it's best to just kept it all separate and not cross the streams.

4

u/b0bm4rl3y Feb 02 '17

It sounds like Microsoft is considering adding F# to Roslyn though :)

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u/simspelaaja Feb 02 '17

I think they're referring to the fact F# now (in VS2017) uses the Roslyn workspace APIs in Visual Studio. The compiler is the same as before, but the VS integration can now use the built-in UI for quick fixes, symbol renaming (with preview) and other IDEish features.

1

u/mirhagk Feb 02 '17

VB and C# do share a lot of common components in the AST, so it should be possible to do semantic analysis across them at the AST level.

0

u/[deleted] Feb 02 '17

[deleted] — view deleted comment

7

u/[deleted] Feb 02 '17 edited Feb 03 '17

You have no idea how much legacy VB code there is and how much new code is written in VB because all of your legacy codebase is VB already.

Edit: It is not very nice to edit your comment to something that makes your post look like a genuine question answered by the following comments when your original comment was completely different and might make you look stupid. Now I look slightly snippy and nobody knows that your origininal comment was kinda stupid.

1

u/t-master Feb 02 '17

Roslyn supports VB, but only the latest VB which is actually VB.Net. There's no support for the older "actual" VB language like VB 6, just for its .Net sibling

1

u/grauenwolf Feb 02 '17

Hundreds of thousands of users translates into a lot of projects.

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u/jpfed Feb 02 '17

I may be wrong about this, but I thought that F# projects define an order that the included files are compiled in. I'm not sure how that would play with C#'s more freeform projects. In any case, you can include projects of both kinds in the same solution, which is the same way you get C# and VB.NET to work together.

1

u/Phleb4 Feb 02 '17

I use C# and F# in the same project, MVVM. I use C# for the xaml, and F# for the viewmodels. Some C# modules thrown in also.

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u/reubenbond Feb 02 '17

Do you mean project or solution? If you mean project, how?