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F# vs Julia: What are the differences?
<Introduction> F# and Julia are both powerful programming languages with unique features and strengths. Understanding the key differences between the two can help developers choose the right tool for their projects.
Purpose and Paradigm: F# is primarily a functional-first language that runs on the .NET platform, whereas Julia is designed for high-performance numerical and scientific computing with a focus on speed and ease of use.
Syntax and Expressiveness: F# follows a more traditional ML-style syntax with indentation-based structure, while Julia adopts a more flexible syntax with support for multiple dispatch, which allows for more expressive and concise code.
Tooling and Ecosystem: F# has strong integration with Visual Studio and extensive support for Microsoft tools and libraries, making it a popular choice for .NET developers. On the other hand, Julia has a growing ecosystem of packages and tools specifically tailored for numerical computing, machine learning, and data science.
Performance and Compilation: Julia is known for its high performance through just-in-time (JIT) compilation, allowing it to rival the speed of low-level languages like C and Fortran. F#, being a managed language, may not offer the same level of performance optimization in certain scenarios.
Community and Adoption: F# has a mature community and is widely used in enterprise applications, particularly within the finance and domain-driven design sectors. Julia, on the other hand, is gaining popularity in the scientific and academic communities due to its performance and versatility.
Learning Curve and Accessibility: F# might be easier for developers coming from a C# or functional programming background to pick up, whereas Julia's dynamic nature and emphasis on numerical computing may present a steeper learning curve for those not familiar with scientific computing concepts.
In Summary, Understanding the differences in purpose, syntax, tooling, performance, community, and learning curve can help developers make an informed decision between using F# and Julia for their projects.
Hi there. I want to expand my coding toolset. So I want to learn a second backend language besides Kotlin. Kotlin is fantastic. I love it in every aspect, and I think I can never return to Java. And also why should I? It is 100% interoperable with java and can co-exist in every project.
So my question here is. Which language do you think will bring me more joy? I think F#; it is more like Kotlin. Then C# (it's more or like 100% java). But, let's say I learn F#. Is it 100% interoperable like Kotlin? can they live side by side? Can I, then, apply to .NET jr jobs after a while, for example, or is C# the holy cow? I would like to learn .Net.
If it is the worst and only C# is acceptable, then which language should I learn? Dart? Go?
animefanx1,
First let's get your questions sorted: Which language do you think will bring me more joy?
This you will have to decide for yourself, I am a long time C# developer and have seen it grow into a very compelling platform. The language and I'd compare it more to Kotlin than Java (by a long margin). More on .NET in a bit.
say I learn F#. Is it 100% interoperable like Kotlin?
You can have 100% interop with a caveat, your F# libraries have to implement certain guidance in order to be referenced from C#. Some (dare I say most) of the differences between F# and C# are predicated on language constructs that are not available in C#. For instance F# functions that return Unit.
can they live side by side?
Yes.
Can I, then, apply to .NET jr jobs after a while, for example, or is C# the holy cow?
I don't know if I take your meaning, but let me say this: Learning either C# or F# will likely force you to understand concepts such as garbage collection, primitive types, etc. which apply to all .NET languages, thus a lot of the effort you put into .NET is bound to pay off regardless of your choice.
If it is the worst and only C# is acceptable, then which language should I learn? Dart? Go? You can't go wrong with any of these and I venture to say whether you select C#, F#, Dart or Go as your next adventure, your willingness to learn will take you to try other languages, some which mey not even exist yet!
PS1: .NET is an end to end environment now. With the introduction of Blazor and Razor pages one does not need JavaScript or other browser scripting languages, it even interops with JavaScript. PS2. Microsoft is working on unifying .NET. Soon there will be only one version: .NET 5! Caveat: Some features such as WinForms will still be specific to the windows environment but all of those are likely things you don't need in Mac or Linux
Exceptional decision to go with Kotlin. For the other story, go full with C#. "is C# the holy cow? Yes it is.". Specially now when netCore is crossplatform and you can build asp.net core applications on Windows, Linux and macOS via Visual Studio Code which is also multiplatform. Nothing will beat C# in the near future. Also, at the end of 2021 Microsoft will release Net 6.0 which will include MAUI.
"For those new to .NET MAUI (standing for .NET Multi-platform App UI), Microsoft says it's "the evolution of Xamarin.Forms extended from mobile to desktop scenarios with UI controls rebuilt from the ground up for performance and extensibility."
So, C# all the way sire!
I think you can learn go instead C#. C# is cool, but Golang also cool. It can run on any OS without specific software. C# can run on linux too but it's only the .NET Core as I know. But golang is flexible. So try it and decide what do you think about Golang
After writing a project in Julia we decided to stick with Kotlin. Julia is a nice language and has superb REPL support, but poor tooling and the lack of reproducibility of the program runs makes it too expensive to work with. Kotlin on the other hand now has nice Jupyter support, which mostly covers REPL requirements.
Pros of F#
- Pattern-matching53
- Makes programming fun again42
- Type providers38
- Delightful32
- Frictionless30
- Static type inference26
- Composable21
- Ml syntax19
- REPL17
- Succinct17
- DDD10
- Making invalid states impossible9
- Great community7
- WebSharper7
- Language support for units of measure7
- Functional Programming6
- Powerful6
- Beautiful Code5
- Compact5
- Multiplatform5
- Functional paradigm5
- Computation Expressions5
- Open source5
- Less bugs5
- Productive5
- Allow use JS and .NET libraries4
- Object oriented features4
- Fun to write4
Pros of Julia
- Fast Performance and Easy Experimentation25
- Designed for parallelism and distributed computation22
- Free and Open Source19
- Dynamic Type System17
- Calling C functions directly17
- Multiple Dispatch16
- Lisp-like Macros16
- Powerful Shell-like Capabilities10
- Jupyter notebook integration10
- REPL8
- String handling4
- Emojis as variable names4
- Interoperability3
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Cons of F#
- Microsoft tend to ignore F# preferring to hype C#3
- Interop between C# can sometimes be difficult2
- Hype1
- Type Providers can be unstable in larger solutions1
Cons of Julia
- Immature library management system5
- Slow program start4
- JIT compiler is very slow3
- Poor backwards compatibility3
- Bad tooling2
- No static compilation2
