Small Firm Template Firm Name Anti-Money: Fill & Download for Free

I’m talking 90s up to now. In short, sexism, less political correct behavior, larger bonuses, less risk/legal/assurance control, in general ‘more fun’.It wasn’t a complete surprise. Put men, with excess money, in a adrenaline driven atmosphere and you’ll eventually end up with escorts and drugs. Especially if you went to Eastern European countries for a deal, don’t be shocked you either had escorts at the hotel bar, or in your hotel room. Bucharest was typically one of those cities. Men are weak. Back then, you didn’t have much executive female investment bankers either.In Amsterdam, drugs, escorts, it was more or less standard rather than rare. I still remember a partner giving a junior a 50,-, simply for a shag with a prostitute around the corner. And I’ve seen it happen more than once, but that first time, is something you’ll never quite forget. Drugs in Amsterdam was also extremely common. And everyone did it. Obviously not wolf of wall street style, in the office, but when folks went for a party after having worked on a lengthy deal.Internet, specifically, social media has not helped either. People are now all worried about getting caught. I’ve seen people getting fired, simply due to being seen with drugs (smoke a joint, oh my lord!).Nowadays, 2019, you can’t snort a line of FMPH without some puffed up lady bothering you, ‘hey sir, what is that?’. And you’ll get reported. But that is the excessive part of spectrum, touching a lady like a pat on the shoulders, can already get you reported to HR. Young personnel has a much bigger attitude than 10 or 20 years ago. People often give you shit about ‘back then it was better’. Well, back then it was better. Bonuses are not as great as they used to be. The amount of people who have to sign off bonuses are much more abundant than others. The real excess money isn’t in M&A, tech has it much better.Hookers, strip clubs, back then it actually happened in the clubs or hotels. Nowadays, these thing mostly happen in some of the folks their private (second or third) homes to avoid being seen. And therefore debauchery has really gone from bad to much worse.Political correct behavior has besmirched the financial industry. And that has been happening for years. And that is so funny, because in the midst of all of this, with such a strong political correct climate (#MeToo, Boo-fucking-hoo), ‘us’ the people, voted for extreme anti political correct leaders, such as Trump, Boris Johnson, etc. Talking about contradiction eh? We pretend to be politically correct, enforce it, yet we vote for a large sack of lard tub jelly as president, who is the epitome of ‘anti political correct’. Grab em’ by the pussy eh? Trump?But don’t get me wrong. I know plenty of enough decent investment bankers, who worked since the 90s, and if you’d ask them if they’d seen any of this debauchery, they would honestly answer with no. And they wouldn’t be lying. If you look in the right direction, you’d never see any of this. You could easily avoid all of this. Just go home after work. But for the ones who didn’t, debauchery and dirty behavior was directly around the corner.The practicality of the work has changed, but also due to the fact that the nature of businesses have changed. You have younger millionaires, with famous-start ups, who don’t react the same as a senior executive of a mature S&P500 firm.From a day-to-day activity, pitch books, well, most firms use templates with a bit of programming (Python) can be automated. But the nature of the job, these processes, they can’t be automated. Only to a small extent. Interpretation still remains the most important part. Number crunching means fuck all, if you can’t put 1 and 1 together.In my time, I still had to manually cut/paste numbers from a printed sheet, into Excel, and then make it into a table to put into PowerPoint. That doesn’t happen anymore.Can you imagine how mind numbing that is? A printed sheet with numbers, where you have to manually cut/paste the figures into a spreadsheet?And back then, the seniors would laugh at your face as they remember the times working with Lotus 1–2–3. There was another tool being used back in the 80s, I’ve forgotten it’s name.If you live your life well, as investment banker, ‘traveling consultant’, between 1990–2010, it was more towards rock & roll than today’s role, which is more bureaucratic than ever.I’ve been asked to help with interviews a year ago. I was flabbergasted that..ethnic minoritiesfemalesHad preference over white/caucasian males.Reverse racism? I don’t know what the fuck it is, but my balls dropped when I had that discussion. I’ve said it here millions of times. Merit over anything. Whether or you are a smurf, or albino from Kenya. I don’t care who you are, what you are, as long as you can do your duties.The idea that ‘ratio’s’ need to be maintained is the definition of fucking idiotic behavior. And i’m totally OK to be challenged on that.Do explain to me why 50%/50% ratio’s in senior management between men/females should be enforced. Why not 45%? Why not 55%? By definition one should look at supply of females versus males to begin with.

F# was so easy to pick up we went from complete novices to having our code in production in less than a week.Jack MottO’Connor’s OnlineCase studyAs an experiment to evaluate functional programming as a production tool we developed a new multi level caching system for our website in F#. Because F# can use existing C# libaries so easily we were able to proceed rapidly using popular packages such as StackExchange.Redis and ProtoBuf-Net. In less than a week we had a flexible caching system in production, complete with an administration page and performance statistics tracking.We also found that it was straightforward to use our new F# module from within our existing C# code, and that the F# code deployed to and ran as an Azure app service without any special configuration. Adding F# to the code base was completely painless.The developers on our team are all intrigued by F# and eager to learn more. As well, we find that at college recruiting events, prospective students are very excited to hear that we are using a functional language in productionThe F# code is consistently shorter, easier to read, easier to refactor and contains far fewer bugs. As our data analysis tools have developed … we’ve become more productive.KagglepermalinkAt Kaggle we initially chose F# for our core data analysis algorithms because of its expressiveness. We’ve been so happy with the choice that we’ve found ourselves moving more and more of our application out of C# and into F#. The F# code is consistently shorter, easier to read, easier to refactor, and, because of the strong typing, contains far fewer bugs.As our data analysis tools have developed, we’ve seen domain-specific constructs emerge very naturally; as our codebase gets larger, we become more productive.The fact that F# targets the CLR was also critical - even though we have a large existing code base in C#, getting started with F# was an easy decision because we knew we could use new modules right away.The use of F# demonstrates a sweet spot for the language within enterprise softwareSimon CousinspermalinkI have written an application to balance the national power generation schedule for a portfolio of power stations to a trading position for an energy company. The client and server components were in C# but the calculation engine was written in F#.The use of F# to address the complexity at the heart of this application clearly demonstrates a sweet spot for the language within enterprise software, namely algorithmically complex analysis of large data sets. My experience has been a very positive one.At Credit Suisse, we’ve been using F# to develop quantitative models for financial productsHoward MansellCredit Suisse (at time of writing)source: CUFP Workshop, 2008, permalinkBuilding valuation models for derivative trades requires rapid development of mathematical models, made possible by composition of lower-level model components. We have found that F#, with the associated toolset, provides a unique combination of features that make it very well suited to this kind of development. In this talk, I will explain how we are using F# and show why it is a good match. I will also talk about the problems we have had, and outline future enhancements that would benefit this kind of work.The abstract to a talk at the Commercial Users of Functional Programming workshopThe performance is phenomenal. We can now re-calculate the entire bank portfolio from scratch in less than a second and the response-time for single deal verification calculation is far below 100 milliseconds.Jan Erik Ekelof, http://M.Sc.Head IT-architect and lead developer Counterparty RiskHandelsbankenpermalinkI first evaluated F# back in 2006 - 2007 for the purpose of math oriented high performance applications within Financial Risk. I got in spring 2009 a mission to implement a new Real-time Counter-party Risk system covering all possible present and future deal types within the entire bank. The effort was started with only three resources, me as architect and lead developer and two colleagues – one risk expert and one high performing developer. Our first intention was to use C#, but I did a quick proof-of-concept with F# implementing a low level TCP/IP-communication to an existing risk-system. This showed us and our management that F# could give us a real productivity boost due to its support for multiple paradigms and functional concepts together with an impressive support for multi-threading.Our first delivery is approaching rapidly and F# has proved itself as a real life-saver. We started off using C# in many places but have since then moved almost entirely into F# due to its ability to reduce the amount of code required and its simplicity when developing massive parallel computations. The performance is phenomenal. We can now re-calculate the entire bank portfolio from scratch in less than a second and the response-time for single deal verification calculation is far below 100 milliseconds(the original demand was 200 milliseconds to make the application usable for electronic markets). Although some gains are to be attributed to how we have built our calculation models, F# made it possible for us to implement our algorithms and techniques with very little code and with a huge similarity to the original mathematical models and regulations (which is important for verification of correctness). We have also been able to use the support for Async-workflows producing code that is simple and clear and easy to understand but still runs in parallel when required.The present application contains 35 to 40.000 lines of F#-code and an equal amount of C#-code. However, our estimate is that the F# code contains at least 80% of the functionality (which is pretty amazing!). Our experience shows us that the number of code lines shrinks with a ratio of 1/2 to 1/4 by just porting functionality from C# to F# (not counting single character or empty lines in the C#-code). We have by remodeling increased the ratio to the area of 1/5 to 1/8, where the remodeling involves replacing object oriented constructs with functional ones (and actually removing mutable states). One example from last week was a limit-utilization module written in F# but using an object-oriented approach containing +300 lines of code. I rewrote it to below 70 lines of code just by shifting paradigm (and the rewrite made it much easier to understand and verify)!The benefits of functional programming in F# have given us a great advantage over our slow moving competitors.Bayard RockpermalinkAt Bayard Rock we work hard every day in the pursuit of new approaches towards anti-money-laundering. Before adopting F# there were often months of turnaround time between development of an idea and actually testing it on real data in our production environment. F#’s succinctness and composability allows us to rapidly iterate on ideas while the type system acts as a safety net. On top of this, it has the advantage of being a first class member of the .NET ecosystem and so integrates seamlessly with our Microsoft stack systems. This means that instead of months we can often see our ideas come to life in just days.The benefits of functional programming in F# have given us a great advantage over our slow moving competitors. After three years of using F# our products have consistently gotten significantly better each year without sacrificing stability. Our clients often are amazed by how we can quickly adapt to unique challenges and how we can find the bad guys hiding in their data much more effectively than anyone else. Little do they know that it’s largely thanks to our secret weapon, F#.Grange Insurance parallelized its rating engine to take better advantage of multicore server hardwareGrange InsurancepermalinkFor nearly 75 years, Grange Insurance has offered competitive products and services to policyholders in more than a dozen U.S. states. To maintain its well-earned reputation and standing, the company decided to enhance its rating engine—a software tool for rating policies and performing what-if modeling, impact analyses, and other vital activities. Working with the Sophic Group and using the Microsoft Visual Studio Team System development environment and F# programming language, Grange Insurance parallelized its rating engine to take better advantage of multicore server hardware, and in so doing garnered significant performance benefits. Processes that used to require hours now take just minutes, enabling the company to trim time-to-market by weeks and making it far easier for independent agents to sell and service Grange products.Large insurance company developed an entire pension quote calculator entirely in F# in under 100 days with no prior F# experience at all…Large insurance companysource 1, source 2,permalinkOne of the world’s largest insurance companies have F# code in production, are starting several more projects in F#. We are currently consulting for this company (£2.5bn profit) who have migrated some of their number crunching and business logic to F# and are so happy with the results (10x faster and 10x less code vs their Visual C++ 6) that they are proposing to migrate 1,600,000 lines of code to F#. In particular, their developers found F# easy to learn and use.… my predecessor developed an entire pension quote calculator (typically scheduled to take 300-400 man days) entirely in F# in under 100 days with no prior F# experience at all. Performance is 10× better than the C++ that it replaces because the new code avoids unnecessary copying and exploits multicore parallelism. Part of my job here will be to give basic F# training to around 20 people and bring a few people up to expert level.In answer to “Can you give any evidence for 10x performance gain over C++?”. The insurer’s C++ code is a simple manual translation from very inefficient Mathematica code that suffers from several pathological performance problems mainly centered around excessive copying. The F# rewrite does not have these problem. The 10x performance gain was verified by the client.Our risk and analytic capabilities (…) are entirely written in F#Lawrence AustenChief Risk Officer at Trafigurasource, permalink…work directly with Trafigura’s Chief Risk Officer/Head of Quantitative Analysis, cranking code and rapidly extending our risk and analytic capabilities, which are entirely written in F#.Trafigura Limited engages in the supply and offtake of crude oil, petroleum products, liquefied petroleum gas, metals, and metal ores and concentrates worldwide. Its solutions include trading, financing, hedging, and logistical support….The F# solution offers us an order of magnitude increase in productivty…GameSysYan CuiLead Server Engineersource, permalinkF# is becoming an increasingly important part of our server side infrastructure that supports our mobile and web-based social games with millions of active users. F# first came to prominence in our technology stack in the implementation of the rules engine for our social slots games which by now serve over 700,000 unique players and150,000,000 requests per day at peaks of several thousand requests per second. The F# solution offers us an order of magnitude increase in productivity and allows one developer to perform the work that are performed by a team of dedicated developers on an existing Java-based solution, and is critical in supporting our agile approach and bi-weekly release cycles.The agent-based programming model offered by F#’s MailboxProcessor allows us to build thread-safe components with high-concurrency requirements effortlessly, without using locks and sacrificing maintainability and complexity. These agent-based solutions also offer much improved efficiency and latency whilst running at scale. Indeed our agent-based stateful server for ourMMORPG has proved a big success and great cost saver that we’re in the process of rolling it out across all of our social games!Using F# for cross-platform mobile development (Android, iOS) saves development timeJames MooreSenior Software DeveloperDigium, IncpermalinkWe wanted to develop our Android and iOS applications using as much shared code as possible. We built a reactive architecture using F# actors (aka mailbox processors) to build a very robust multithreaded system that was easily portable between Android and iOS.Our F# actors (shared across iOS and Android) expose .Net IObservables that are consumed by UI systems written for the native platforms. Dividing the system in that way allowed for testable multithreaded code that would have been difficult to write in other .Net languages.For a machine learning scientist, speed of experimentation is the critical factor to optimize.Patrice SimardDistinguished EngineerMicrosoftpermalinkI wrote the first prototype of the click prediction system deployed in Microsoft AdCenter in F# in a few days.For a machine learning scientist, speed of experimentation is the critical factor to optimize. Compiling is fast but loading large amounts of data in memory takes a long time. With F#’s REPL, you only need to load the data once and you can then code and explore in the interactive environment. Unlike C# and C++, F# was designed for this mode of interaction. It has the ease of use of Matlab or Python, both of which I have used extensively in the past. One problem with Matlab and Python is that they are not strongly typed. No compile-time type checking hurts speed of experimentation because of bugs, lack of reusability, high cost of refactoring, no intellisense, and slow execution. Switching to F# was liberating and exhilarating. 2 caveats: Not every problem fits that model. With a bit of discipline, such as avoiding massive parallelism for as long as possible, the model goes a long way. The second caveat is that the cost of learning F# is steep. For me, it was 2 weeks of decreased productivity. It has proven a worthwhile investment.As a machine learning practitioner programming in F#, I constantly switch between two activities: 1) writing prototype code (highly interactive ugly code with throw away results, functions, and visualizations) and 2) upgrading prototype code to library standard (fast, generic, reusable). When I go back to writing prototypes, I build on top of the newly upgraded functions. In F#, the cost of switching between these two modes is minimal: often nothing needs to be done other than adding comments and deleting deprecated functions.This means that most of the time is dedicated to experimenting and the majority of the code is close to shipping quality. Some people can do this in C# or Matlab, but I find that F# excels at it.I started F# with deep suspicions regarding efficiency. My first test was to link F# with C++/CLI and check performance of calling SSE/AVX optimized code. As hoped, F# is comparable to C# when it comes to speed. You have the same flexibility to link with well optimized code. The inline generics are truly magical: same IL in the linked DLLs, but the functions expand to specialized fast code when you instantiate them. Compromises between intuitive code and efficient code still need to be made. I found that “for” loop, “tail recursive” loop, or Parallel.For with ThreadLocal loops, are faster than a succession of piped IEnumerables (seq in F#). F# does not hamper one’s ability to write ugly fast code. Rest assured.Several people in the machine learning group in Microsoft Research have switched to F# for the reasons above. The world is slowly moving toward functional programming with good justifications: the code is cleaner and easier to debug in a distributed environment. Among the available functional languages, F# is a compelling option.We see great potential for F# to be used as a scripting language in CAD; it fits very well for computational design challenges in the construction industry.Goswin RothenthalDesign EngineerWaagner BiropermalinkIn recent years many Architects have discovered that they can greatly enlarge their design repertoire by the use of parametric design, programming or scripting. Architects can now quickly and easily explore new geometries previously unseen in Architecture. Besides being designed in a novel way these geometries can also be exactly represented and reasoned about in terms of structural feasibility and manufacturing constraints. These facts take new geometries out of the dreams of Architects and make them real candidates for construction.One such project is the Louvre Abu Dhabi by Jean Nouvel. Waagner-Biro was awarded the construction contract for the Dome. For the cladding of this dome more than 450´000 individual cutting and drilling patterns of custom aluminium extrusions had to be described and automated. The sheer scale and complexity of the cladding on the dome required us to re-evaluate our parametric design approach. I developed an F# application to represent and organize all cladding elements of the dome. It includes a small geometry kernel and an adapted version of the Half Edge Data Structure to efficiently query the neighbourhood of each element. I used Rhino and its .NET API to host the F# DLL for drawing and visualisation. This application enabled us to have an integrated workflow from the main geometry setout all the way down to the manufacturing data in a single parametric model. This project was the first use of F# at Waagner-Biro for a large scale project. The switch to F# from dynamic scripting languages helped to reduce development time and execution time. The strongly typed environment, algebraic data types and immutable data helped to avoid a whole range of bugs and fits well the domain of generating static 3d geometry. I see great potential for F# to be used as scripting languages in CAD, especially since most big CAD packages already offer a .NET API.(Image credits: Jean Nouvel Architects)The results speak for themselves.Matt BallLiz Earle Beauty Co. LtdpermalinkAs a business we actively seek improvement every single day. This is the same for our IT systems, so we have been searching for a means to do that in our in-house software systems.The F# type system has allowed us to do this - by eliminating null references, increasing type safety and creating rich domain models that help us express hard-and-fast business rules in a way that we can really lean on the compiler; while actually reducing our total lines of code (and noise!). Doing so has reduced both our requirement for expensive bug hunts in our production systems, and the overall cost of maintaining unnecessary code complexity.We have been evaluating F# for a year now, and have components in our production systems that have been bug-free since deployment. The results speak for themselves.…we have decided to use F# as our functional language to have automatic integration with rest of the system…EMEA-based Security Solutions CompanypermalinkWe develop security product to protect critical infrastructure (e.g. Oil Refinery, Airport, etc) for countries across the globe…. In core of our product there are prediction algorithms. We use different modeling and theorems (Monte Carlo, Action, etc) to implement the prediction components. … Since we are rewriting our next generation product using .NET, we have decided to use F# as functional language to have automatic integration with rest of the system. … We also have advanced machine learning components (Artificial Intelligence) and functional languages are the best fit to write AI stuff. We are planning to use F# as the primary programming language in this area because of its interoperability with .NET.With its new tools, the bank can speed development by 50 percent or more, improve quality, and reduce costs.Large Financial Services Firm, Europesource, permalinkA large financial services firm in Europe sought new development tools that could cut costs, boost productivity, and improve the quality of its mathematical models. To address its needs, the bank deployed F#, the .NET Framework, and Visual Studio. It will soon upgrade to Visual Studio 2010 and then integrated F#. With its new tools, the bank can speed development by 50 percent or more, improve quality, and reduce costs.F# encourages Reason Driven Development that leads to virtually bug-free codeBoston-based Financial Services Firm, Fixed IncomepermalinkWe are using F# because it considerably increases speed of software development which is crucial for a small company with limited development resources. The most enjoyable feature of this language is that the developer can reason about the code instead of relying only on unit tests. I would say the language encourages Reason Driven Development methodology which leads to virtually bug-free code. F# as strongly typed functional language ideally fits for tasks our software solves – Fixed Income securities trading optimization. It is also very important that F# computation engine could be seamlessly integrated with other parts of .NET-based software product.At a major Investment Bank, we used F# to build an Early Warning Indicator System for Liquidity RiskStephen ChannellCepheis LtdpermalinkEarly Warning Indicators is a standalone dashboard application to monitor real-time market movements and highlight potential risk for further analysis. EWI subscribed to real-time equity, Forex and commodity prices and needed to calculate Red/Amber/Green status in real-time for tolerance breaches and to generate dashboard reports as needed.The business wanted the flexibility to define formulas using Excel expressions, but spreadsheet components could not cope with the data-rate without conflation and management didn’t want a solution that relied on an Excel template and IT change control to add new indicators.F# was chosen for development productivity, performance of a cell framework implemented using computation expressions; ease with which Excel expressions could be parsed as a DSL and .NET integration with QALib, Market and timer-series data.Post implementation review highlighted that (given resource and time constraints) functionality would have been sacrificed without F# and its associated tooling.I keep being surprised by how compact and readable F# is…London-Based Asset Management CompanypermalinkWe have set up a complete risk management system that combines several data sources, presents them in a … WPF user interface, and does a LOT of calculation behind the scenes. When the calculation requires a proper algorithm (i.e. anything that is more complex than a simple for loop), our choice has been F#. I have to say I keep being surprised by how compact it is and, nonetheless, how readable it is even when I’m reading code that I hadn’t looked at or thought about for six months.The efficient use of functional programming throughout the R&D cycle helped make the cycle faster and more efficient.Moody Hadi (CME Group)permalinkThe credit markets have varying pockets of liquidity. Market participants would like to understand how the liquidity of their set of entities changes relative to the overall market. A liquidity scoring model is needed to provide these metrics across the entire CDS universe. Functional programming and specifically F# was used in order to provide the market with a fast and accurate solution. … The research and development cycle was made faster and more efficient by the effective use of functional programming.The efficient use of functional programming throughout the R&D cycle helped make the cycle faster and more efficient. Less time was spent on translating requirements, miscommunications etc and more on producing a fast and accurate solution quickly.Since programmers can understand your quant code they can focus on their core competency – developing fast and reliable production code. The development exercise becomes catered towards optimization, performance tuning and error handling (i.e. making the code reliable) Functionality is not lost from the prototype due to miscommunication or rather crude documentation/requirements, which saves time in testing. Mass regression testing is easy with precise precision level differences between the prototype and the production system.F# allows you to move smoothly in your programming styleJulien Laugel, http://eurostocks.comsource, permalinkI’ve been coding in F# lately, for a production task. F# allows you to move smoothly in your programming style… I start with pure functional code, shift slightly towards an object-oriented style, and in production code, I sometimes have to do some imperative programming. I can start with a pure idea, and still finish my project with realistic code. You’re never disappointed in any phase of the project!I have now delivered three business critical projects written in F#. I am still waiting for the first bug to come in.UK-based Power CompanySimon CousinspermalinkI am both a C# dev and an F# dev. I can only offer subjective anecdotal evidence based on my experience of delivering projects in both languages (I am too busy delivering software to do anything else).That said, the one stat in the summary that I find most compelling is the defect rate. I have now delivered three business critical projects written in F#. I am still waiting for the first bug to come in. This is not the case with the C# projects I have delivered. I will continue to monitor and report on this. It might be that I am just on a lucky streak, but I suspect that the clarity and concision of F# code contributes greatly to its correctness.F# proved ideal for the complex data machinations required to build the models from raw Excel input.A Fortune 100 ManufacturerSupplied to FSSF,permalinkWe developed a ClickOnce F# / WPF application that scores and ranks thousands of models of part-supplier combinations using Microsoft Solver Foundation (MSF). Agents can chose from the highest scoring combinations to optimize purchasing decisions. F# proved ideal for the complex data machinations required to build the models from raw Excel input. Also, the MSF supplied F# functional wrapper is a great way of using Solver Foundation from F#.Type providers made working with external data sources simple and intuitive.Jon CanningProperty To RenovatepermalinkEvery day we analyze data for hundreds of thousand of properties, sourced from XML and JSON feeds. Features such as Options and Type Providers have given us incredibly concise, expressive, and testable code with which to handle them, freeing us to focus on business value.As a developer moving from C#, some of the concepts you read about functional programming can be difficult to grasp and the barrier to entry appears high. However, with just a basic understanding and a helpful and welcoming community, F# has proven to be very productive and has quickly become my language of choice.Around 95% of the code in these projects has been developed in F#Anton Schwaighofer,Microsoftbing Ads Ranking Allocation and Pricingsource, permalinkAround 95% of the code in these projects has been developed in F#. F# allowed for rapid development of prototypes, and thus also rapid verification or falsification of the underlying mathematical models. Complex algorithms, for example to compute Nash equilibria in game theory, can be expressed succinctly. Units of measure reduced the chance of errors dramatically: Prices, probabilities, derivatives, etc. can already be kept apart at compile time.F# is central to Microsoft’s quantum algorithm researchDave WeckerMicrosoft Advanced Strategies and ResearchpermalinkF# is central to Microsoft’s quantum algorithm research. The LIQUi|⟩ simulator (Language Integrated Quantum Operations) presents an extension of F# that presents a seamless integration of classical and quantum operations. The scale and efficiency of the simulator allows it to handle among the largest entangled systems of qubits (quantum bits) ever modeled utilizing a targeted linear algebra package written entirely in F#. In addition, the modular architecture allows users to easily extend the system in any desired research direction. The base library is well over 20,000 lines of code and implements a wide range of modules including circuits, molecular modeling, spin-glass systems, quantum error correction, machine learning, factoring and many others. The system runs in client, server and cloud environments. It is also designed to be used as an educational tool and we have found that bringing new users up to speed is a quick and painless process.F# is the night vision goggles I need when I go into the dark and attempt to solve previously unsolved problems.Professor Byron CookMicrosoft, permalinkI’m one of the first users of F#, since 2004. In my work (e.g. SLAM, Terminator, Zapato, T2, etc) I find that F# is the night vision goggles I need when I go into the dark and attempt to solve previously unsolved problems. Everything becomes simple and clear when expressed in F#.F# will continue to be our language of choice for scientific computing.Dr. Andrew PhillipsHead of Bio Computation GroupMicrosoft Research,permalinkI lead the Biological Computation group at Microsoft Research, where we are developing methods and software for modelling and analysis of biological systems. We have been using F# in our group for the past 7 years, and it’s the language of choice for all of our software development. In particular it forms the basis of our software for programming computational circuits made of DNA, for programming genetic devices that operate inside cells, and for programming complex biological processes in a modular way.The functional data structures and static type-checking that F# provides are ideally suited for developing these domain-specific languages, and the Visual Studio integration is superb for debugging and source control. The integration with .Net is seamless, and allows us to incorporate efficient numerical and visualisation libraries written in C#. It also allows us to take advantage of the full suite of .Net UI components.Our languages are specified with a formal syntax and semantics, which are rigorously analysed prior to their implementation. Programming in a functional language like F# brings the implementation much closer to the formal specification, which is important for ensuring accurate simulation and probabilistic analysis. Correct implementation of the semantics is critical, since even small coding errors can give rise to divergent predictions, which can in turn compromise biological experiments. F# is a great language for writing clean, concise code, which is statically typed within a professional development environment that supports a wealth of libraries. It will continue to be our language of choice for scientific computing.In our engineering group at Microsoft we use F# for several projectsMicrosoft Engineering TeampermalinkIn our internal engineering group at Microsoft, F# is used for several important tools: * analyzing feedback on the web to look for compatibility-related issues, * a static code analyzer to detect compatibility regressions in a product, * a delta-debugging tool to help root cause regression analysis in product builds.My team chose F# for its functional paradigm, maturity, and ease of interoperation with the .NET frameworkDylan HutchisonMicrosoft Research (intern), Stevens Institute of TechnologypermalinkWith an idea for a new domain specific language, my team chose F# for its functional paradigm, maturity, and ease of interoperation with the .NET framework. I wrote the language primitives in F#’s arsenal of data types (records, discriminated unions, a couple classes at the top level), implemented operations on the types using its hierarchy of modules, and turned our operations into a working demo in F# Interactive, all in about 10 days.I jumped for joy each time my code executed correctly on the first pass, and in the few cases it did not, debugging through Visual Studio felt natural and quick. As for .NET, integrating with Microsoft Excel was easy by importing the necessary DLLs, though Excel posed challenges beyond F#’s reach. Finally, I can verify that F# delivers a sense of correctness and safety, stronger than other languages I worked with in the past. It is reassuring to know your code will execute exactly as you intend.The simple, well-designed and powerful core of the language was perfect for introducing the fundamental concepts of functional programming.Michael R. HansenAssociate Professor, Technical University of DenmarkpermalinkProducing an F#-based book on functional programming has been a fantastic experience.Using this material in an F#-based courseintroducing the fundamental concepts of functional programming has been a delightful experience as well. The simple, well-designed, yet powerful, core of the language was perfect for that purpose and, to our surprise, the transition from using SML to using F# actually made the tooling easier for students no matter which platforms they used.Furthermore, F# with it rich runtime environment has proved to be an excellent programming platform in research applications and in a more advanced course aiming at showing the role of functional programming in a broad variety of applications ranging from computer science applications to more real-life applications. In the first version of this course, given together with Anh-Dung Phan, the students completed three projects in three weeks: One being an interpreter for a rich imperative programming language, another being implementation, application and analysis of a functional pearl, and the last being a curriculum planning system for studies at the Technical University of Denmark.Solving a number of programming problems using the language convinced me of the supreme qualities of F#Hans RischelFormer teacher of computer science at the Technical University of DenmarkpermalinkI was approached by my former colleague Michael (Michael R. Hansen) in autumn 2010 where he proposed that we should write a new textbook on functional programming - now using the F# programming language. To begin with I was quite sceptical about using a programming language appearing as part of a Microsoft program package. Solving a number of programming problems using the language convinced me, however, of the supreme qualities of F# - and we embarked on the project of getting acquainted with F# and writing the textbook.Michael and I spent considerable time solving traditional programming problems in F#. A combination of functional and imperative F# with an occasional pinch of OO gives a very pleasing platform for program development - once you have found your way through the wilderness of MSDN documentation (newcomers to the MSDN world may benefit from the MSDN library documentation found on the web-site of the book). All of Chapter 10 and part of Chapter 11 present program examples using this programming style.Computation expressions look esoteric to begin with, but they are actually rather useful. We spent much time trying to get this concept down to earth, with the purpose of making it accessible to simple-minded people like ourselves. The reader may judge how far we succeeded by studying Chapter 12 of the book.Writing this textbook with Michael has been an exciting experience.F#’s powerful type inference means less typing, more thinkingDon SymePrincipal Researcher, MicrosoftEclipse Summit Europe 2009, source, slide 49permalinkF# was used on Microsoft’s AdPredict project for adCenter. This was a 4 week project with 4 machine learning experts involving a model with 100million probabilistic variables and processing 6TB of training data in real-time. 2 weeks of CPU time were used during training. Benefits includedQuick Coding - F#’s powerful type inference means less typing, more thinking, Agile Coding - Type-inferred code is easily refactored, Scripting - “Hands-on” exploration, Performance - Immediate scaling to massive data sets, Memory-Faithful - Mega-data structures on 16GB machines,Succinctness - Live in the domain, not the language, Symbolic - Schema compilation and “Schedules” and .NET Integration - Especially Excel, SQL Server…The AI is implemented in F#…Microsoft, Path of Govideo source,permalinkPath of Go is powered by three technologies…: an AI capable of playing Go, the F# language, and TrueSkill to match online players. The AI is implemented in F# and meets the challenge of running efficiently in the .net compact framework on Xbox 360. This game places you in a number of visually stunning 3D scenes. It was fully developed in managed code using the XNA environment.…the core logic is written in F# wherever possible…Andrea D’IntinoYellow blue softpermalinkYellow blue soft is a truly international Micro-ISV: We are a small, dynamic and international team who is wondering why file-management is lagging 30 years behind and no one seems to care or even notice. We do. We love what we’re doing and most importantly we love listening to you! Visit our blog to know more about us and join our forum to become part of our sparkling community.The tabbles are special containers that you can use to categorize any kind of file and document as well as folders and bookmarks. Using Tabbles you can quickly categorize, find, sort and share your documents, in a totally new way.When F# is combined with Visual Studio… productivity goes through the roof!Prof Nigel HorspoolUniversity of Victoria, Canadasource, permalinkF# programs tend to be much shorter than their equivalents in other languages. The fewer lines of code required, of course, the higher the productivity. When F# is combined with Visual Studio, which provides help with remembering the methods attached to different data types and how to use those methods, productivity goes through the roof!…That’s the reason we have chosen F# for our undergraduate functional programming class…Prof. Peter SestoftIT University of CopenhagenpermalinkF# has a beautiful, simple but expressive language at its core, and many powerful features built around that core language. It can draw on all the power of the .NET libraries, and runs on Windows, MacOS and Linux. That’s the reason we have chosen F# for our undergraduate functional programming class as well as our undergraduate programming language class (link)F#…levels the playing field between beginners and experienced programmers.Prof. Susan EisenbachImperial College, United Kingdomsource, permalinkFunctional languages are ideal for teaching clear thinking, for solving problems amenable to code solutions and it levels the playing field between beginners and experienced programmers. The first programming language taught has a substantial influence on what language students use when they have a free choice. F#, once it is platform independent, has the potential to become the first programming language.F#…made it trivial…Prof David WalkerPrinceton Universitysource, permalinkOur graduate course on Parallelism this Fall is full, even though it assumes no experience with functional programming or F#. The students are preparing the courseware themselves, and one of the topics we are studying is functional reactive programming (FRP) with continuous, time-varying behaviors. F#, with its rich graphics libraries, made it trivial to construct a super-fun assignment involving purely functional and interactive animation of a mock solar system.We recommend teaching F# because it is an extraordinary and flexible tool for teaching different areas of Computer ScienceAntonio CisterninoUniversity of Pisa, ItalypermalinkAt the University of Pisa we use F# for teaching UI programming, a fundamental course in the third year curriculum. In 2014 two more courses (Programming I & II) will use F# and Try F#.We use F# for teaching because it fits teaching both fundamentals and technology thanks to rich programming environment and libraries to access all system resources (such as UIs). Moreover, F# feels like a dynamic language thanks to F# interactive even if it is a statically typed language. Our students use F# on Windows, Mac and Linux. Try F# is a particularly valuable tool for teaching because it has a quite sophisticated editor with interactive evaluation and the ability of sharing saved files with students.I’ve also used F# for teaching programming for scientists at Scuola Normale Superiore, a PhD course at ITU Copenhagen and to graduate students in biomedical engineering.We recommend teaching F# because it is an extraordinary and flexible tool for teaching different areas of Computer Science. The language is rich and its functional nature allows to easily define the appropriate subset for teaching particular concepts. I use it to teach entire classes by typing code and evaluate interactively discussing the results of a single evaluation. It is also a great tool for teaching programming to scientists and engineers: I found that its mathematical roots in lambda calculus are more readily grasped by non-programmers, and interactive evaluation recalls environments such as Matlab and Mathematica very popular in these communities.F# is very popular among my students for the programming projectsSimão SousaUniversity of Beira Interior, PortugalpermalinkI teach and use OCaml and F# in my lectures (Theory of Computation, Formal Languages and Compiler Design, Formal Methods, Applied Cryptography), and F# is very popular among my students for the programming projects. Most of the students that are supervised by me (undergraduate, master but also PhD) use F# as the underlying programming language. This is even more the case now since part of our research directions includes working on cloud/distributed systems.F# and its programming environment leverage with no doubt the ability and the productivity of my students. This is, in my opinion, for two main reasons. First, F# allows the student, but also the researcher like me, to focus on the key aspects of his creation, while, secondly, enhancingtechnologically the work done in a so remarkable and facilitated way. Once drawn in paper and pencil, an algorithm is naturally implemented in F# and easily deployed in whatever is its execution context.I am definitively a strong believer of F# and amazed by the language and its community.I evaluated F# and it and found that for certain tasks it was better than C# in terms of performance while maintaining suitable readabilityAtalasoftsource, permalinkI evaluated F# and it and found that for certain tasks it was better than C# in terms of performance while maintaining suitable readability and for certain tasks, it leant itself better to certain algorithms (OctTree based color quantization stands out). …we were able to heavily leverage inline functions in F#……Since each of these are inlines, the F# optimizer can actually do something useful with the code. By using F#, we were able to address this cost by using inlining, code profiling, scanline caching, memoization and other techniques. In many cases we ended up with code that ran in equivalent time to C++ code or in some cases faster.We would recommend F# as an additional tool in the kit of any company building software on the .NET stack.Michael Newton, Senior Developer15below Ltd, permalinkHistorically, our code base has been written in a mix of C# and VB.NET Shop. F#’s excellent interoperability with the rest of .NET allows us to use it for components where it’s particular strength’s shine without having to discard or rewrite our existing code.Whether it’s driving the build and continuous integration system (due to scripting being a first class citizen in the F# world) or writing rock solid infrastructure components (due to the easy use of functional paradigms via features such as computational expressions, type inference and discriminated unions) we have found our F# code to be concise, easy to write and reliable to use. It is a perfect fit for many components within our messaging based architecture.We would recommend it as an additional tool in the kit of any company building software on the .NET stack.“Speed. I am speed.” works for F# like a charm.Sync.TodaypermalinkWe felt our C# Sync.Today 2013 started to become a huge monster with all the C# scripting, hooks etc. At the same time it was not really providing us with the flexibility we needed to fulfil our customers’ requirements. Instead of just another round of refactoring we decided to start moving to F# with Sync.Today 2015. Since both languages share the same common CLR, we did not throw everything away. We just started to simplify more and more because the F# code has much less lines (we had 146831x “{ or }”, 56555x “Blank”, 2770x “Null checks”, 56194x “Comments” and finally 223502 “Useful lines” and now we have 30602 lines with an order of magnitude more features and benefits ) Since we are processing a lot of information, but without complex computations etc., Orleans became the distributed computing library we build the solution on. It is using mixed C# + F# code now, which is perfect for us and allow us to run both on-premise and in Azure.Bohdan … shows F#’s use for performing aggregations over large datasets, taking advantage of cpu and io parallelismBohdan SzymanikpermalinkBohdan Szymanik, CTO at Kiwibank, is keen to show how he’s been using F# for analysis tasks within the bank. He’ll provide an intro to the language then show its use for performing aggregations over large datasets, taking advantage of cpu and io parallelism, and data presentation through charting and image generation.I am using F# to develop an API for data encryption using fully homomorphic encryption.Vitor PereirapermalinkI am currently using F# to develop my undergraduate final project. The project consists in developing an Application Programming Interface that allows one to encrypt data using fully homomorphic encryption and I found in F# the ideal programming language to develop it.Besides all the benefits of the functional paradigm for this type of work, F# interoperability with the .NET platform allows the construction of powerful implementations that other functional languages do not allow so easily.I really hope that, in the future, I keep working in Cryptography using F# as the main programming language for my projects. I am also preparing a hands-on presentation about F# and Cryptography to be presented at an event in Microsoft Portugal, which I will surely enjoy!I can tell you, F# really saved us a ton of effort.Giuseppe Maggiorepermalink, sourceI am the lead developer of Galaxy Wars, and I can tell you, F# really saved us a ton of effort. Monadic coroutines alone I believe are the reason why we manage to ship the thing on time…I am using F# to develop an API for data encryption using fully homomorphic encryption.namigop (Erik Araojo)permalink, sourceI’ve written two commercial apps in F#, WcfStorm.Rest and WcfStorm.Server.The UI part was in C# and the library part was in F#. In my experience it is fun language to code in.everyone gets really amazed when they try F# and experience its imense expressive powerMário PereiraMicrosoft Student Partner (MSP)Faculty of Sciences, University of OportopermalinkI have been a Microsoft Student Partner (MSP) for three years, which offered me the opportunity to be in touch with most portuguese faculties and their students, getting the change to be a bit of an evangelist for Microsoft technologies. I chose to spent my MSP experience giving introductory seminars to F# and functional programming using F#. So far, I have given these presentations on most portuguese faculties and also at Microsoft portuguese headquarters. The result is always the same: everyone gets really amazed when they try F# and experience its imense expressive power, its delightful syntax and realize they can do functional programming (which is oftenly taken as something boring and complicated) on a familiar and confortable environment. Currently, along with a fellow portuguese MSP, (following the success of previous presentations and in response to the many requests for new sessions on F#) I’m preparing an hands-on session on the use of F# for Cryptography, to be presented on a future event at Microsoft Portugal.Personally, F# offers me a solid and trustable ground to develop reliable and complex applications on a confortable and succinct way, impossible to achieve with other languages and paradigms. With no doubt, I can say I’m a huge fan of F# and I’m always eager to get in touch with every new feature the language has to offer.…your code is less error-prone…Dariosource, permalinkYou can formulate many problems much easier, closer to their definition and more concise in a functional programming language like F# and your code is less error-prone (immutability, more powerful type system, intuitive recurive algorithms). You can code what you mean instead of what the computer wants you to say ;-) Furthermore you can have F# and C# together in one solution, so you can combine the benefits of both languages and use them where they’re needed.I’d recommend F#… learning another language is one way to become a better programmer.Antonio Hayleysource, permalinkI’d recommend F# to a die hard C# developer just because learning another language is one way a programmer can get out of a local maxima and become a better programmer. And F# isn’t just a different set of semantics on top of the same syntax as most imperative languages are, it’s a totally different programming style. All the more to expand the capabilities and understanding of a programmer.…We use F# in oceanographic research to connect multiple visualizations together in time and space…Rob Fatland, Microsoft ResearchpermalinkWe use F# in oceanographic research to connect multiple visualizations together in time and space, which is map-plane location and depth. We began by building our Narwhal Developers Library for Layerscape in C# with emphasis on visualizing flow lines and understanding drift experiment data. These data are quite complex, involving physical ocean state and measurement of microbial metabolic processes, consolidating remote sensing and passive drifters, and adding to all this current measurements with the tracks of autonomous robots. Our technical term for the visualization challenge is ‘horrible’.To cope with the horrible we began adding F# scripts; and this has been extremely productive, particularly in morphing ideas about data exploration into real tools quickly. Our most interesting achievement to date is to wire a chart into a 4D visual environment. The set-up is like this: The scientist sees two views of the data: First color coded structure in a curtain plot of time versus depth (chlorophyll coded as color for example), and second this same data time-boxed in the dynamic Worldwide Telescope (WWT) visualization engine. F# is used to wire them together: Left click (and drag) in the chart to scroll the WWT clock back and forth. Right-click + drag in the chart to select a subset of the data which is then used to construct a new (small) advection visualization. Because the selected pieces are small and chosen interactively we get around the horrible problem of seeing everything at once. It is like seeing an entire forest and making all but a few curious trees vanish. So F# has been a great way to make rapid progress, and fun to learn as well.…I have to say I love the language…Jared Parsonssource, permalinkOver the last 6 or so months, I’ve been working on a Vim emulation layer. This is the first major project I’ve ever done with F# and I have to say I love the language. In many ways I used this project as a method of learning F# (and this learning curve is very much evident if you look through the history of the project). What I find the most amazing about F# is just how concise of a language it is. The Vim engine comprises the bulk of the logic yet it only comprises 30% of the overall code base.There is a noticeable interest in the developer community in Russia towards F#.Dmitry SoshnikovAssociate Professor, Moscow Aviation Technical UniversitypermalinkI do some samples in F# for the lectures and the book, but all that is within a single-user VS 2010 Pro installation. Right now we have a set of slides on functional programming with F# in Russian in the curriculum repository, and the video-course of functional programming using F# available in the largest Russian Internet-University (Национальный Открытый Университет "ИНТУИТ"). The course is being taught in 2 universities. There is a noticeable interest in the developer community in Russia towards F#.F# rocks… building out various algorithms for DNA processing here and it’s like a drugDarren PlattAmyris Biotechnologysource, permalinkWith F#… we have written a complete genome re-sequencing pipeline with interface, algorithms, reporting in ~5K lines and it has been incredibly reliable, fast and easy to maintain.F# rocks - we’re building out various algorithms for DNA processing here and it’s like a drug. Just implemented a suffix tree in 150 lines that can index 200,000 bases a second ;) We have probably 10-20K lines of code for many scientific applications ranging from a full genome sequencing pipeline that reconstructs and annotated yeast strains, to simulators for various processes and design tools for building DNA sequences/constructs. There are lab located apps that grab robot log files and move them to databases and a tool for viewing a huge collection of DNA sequencing data.F# has been phenomenally useful. I would be writing a lot of this in Python otherwise and F# is more robust, 20x - 100x faster to run and for anything but the most trivial programs, faster to develop.The UI work is especially gratifying, because state of the art for a lot of genomic data display is still PNG images embedded in JavaScript and with F# I can render half a million data points on a web page without jumping through hoops.With Units of Measure I started labelling the coordinates as one or zero based and immediately found a bug where I’d casually mixed the two systems. Yay F#!Many attributes of the F# programming language make it an ideal choice for …the exponentially growing volumes of molecular analysis dataDr. Robert BoissyAssistant ProfessorUniversity of Nebraska Medical CenterpermalinkI am involved in bioinformatics and computational genomics as a faculty member at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC). In an academic medical center like UNMC there are heavy demands on my time and a wide range of different types of research projects that I can end up working on. I have used the F# programming language on both the .NET and Mono frameworks for several of these projects, including one that involved a very productive collaboration with IntelliFactory and the use of WebSharper.You can visit the resulting web site and read the freely available peer-reviewed scientific publication that describes the importantinfectious disease research that this F# software development project facilitates. I am always interested in opportunities to work with professional software development enterprises whose teams include developers with F# expertise, because I believe that many attributes of the F# programming language make it an ideal choice for the development of software solutions that integrate Electronic Health Record (EHR) data and the exponentially growing volumes of molecular analysis data that can now be obtained from individual patients (e.g., personal genome DNA sequencing data).There’s an exciting future for F# in this huge, emerging, data-rich health care market.I could not recommend F# highly enough – I insist that you try it!Ben LynchThe Doctors LaboratorypermalinkThe Doctors Laboratory is the largest independent provider of clinical laboratory diagnostic services in the UK. We use F# for the majority of our in house development, from ETL tasks, via reporting scripts to full web applications.F#’s idiomatic development style, starting with a script in the REPL, before moving functions into a more structured project, makes it trivial to explore different approaches, refactor &c. before committing to a particular approach. It also makes developing more enjoyable and direct – there’s no need to get all the boiler plate/plumbing in place; you can just create a script and start coding. The compiler’s type inference system also means quicker coding, with less ‘cruft’. Features such as pattern matching and discriminated unions also lead to leaner, more expressive and transparent code.Type providers mean data can be accessed in a few lines, and there are a wealth of community driven OSS projects available here for a heterogeneous range of data sources. If you need to access a data source not supported by existing providers, then the community positively encourages getting involved to provide one yourself, as in fact we did with the MSACCESS provider for the SQLProvider type provider. The community is first rate in terms of providing support in forums like Stack Overflow, gitter, etc. Other community projects such as Paket (dependency management) and FAKE (build too) make build automation a breeze, too.F# terse syntax made the final code look really similar to the algorithm we wrote at firstGreen Eagle SolutionspermalinkAt Green Eagle Solutions, we develop control systems for renewable energy plants. Thus, it’s crucial for us to test our software in a real-time environment where are all the other actors (protocols, weather conditions, legacy software) come into play.Beforehand, we used Python to quickly build simulators to test our components. With F# we have now all the advantages of a dynamic language, while keeping the static typing safety we are used to. The fact that we don’t need to leave Visual Studio and being able to seamlessly use all the APIs we have developed in C# are also a big plus.We have also started to use F# directly in our components to implementing the core logic, while leaving C# to networking tasks. We’ve taking advantage of this language mix to create a dependency injector which recompiles the F# logic at runtime whenever the script changes for quick development iterations, but loads a precompiled .dll when deployed in production. The double nature of F# as a scripting and a compiled language really shines here.F#’s terse syntax made the final code look really similar to the algorithm we wrote at first in formal language. Also, we’ve come to really appreciate the numerous metaprogramming libraries in the F# ecosystem: we particularly like FSharp.Formatting and have started to adopt the literate programming style to integrate as much as possible the code and the documentation and prevent them losing sync.F# makes is easy to spend your time answering interesting questions about the domain and less time answering questions about the language.Jamie DixonCoderCary, North CarolinapermalinkI did a public records request in my town of Cary, North Carolina. The dataset included appx 25,000 traffic stop records for 2012. Using F#, I did some basic statistical calculations to determine that when you are driving is much more important than where you are driving in terms of getting stopped. In fact, the term ‘speed trap’ is a misnomer. In addition, the data supports the notion that there is a monthly quota of tickets being given. You can read the entire analysis hereAlso, I created a KNN classifier using the date/time of the stop and determined that when you get stopped impacts weather you get a verbal warning versus an actual ticket. You can read the entire analysis hereFinally, I did a public records request in the county in which I live: Wake County North Carolina. The dataset included appx 5,000 health inspection scores for 2012. Using F#, I did some basic statistical calculations to determine that there is little variance of when a restaurant gets inspected and their final score. An interesting offshoot is that some particular restaurants scored lower across all inspectors - except when head inspector did the inspection, then they actually scored better. There might an inherent cultural bias by the inspectors. You can read the entire analysis hereF# was great because I spent less time figuring out how to answer my question and more time actually answering the question. The type providers made consuming and integrating hetrogenous datasets a snap and the pattern matching feature reduced the complexity of the code by an order of magnitude (compared to C#). Finally, by using unit tests and immutable data types, I have a bug-resistant code base that can be extended to other scenarios.The power and flexibility of the language lets us ship features faster, with fewer bugs.Marty DillReminder HeropermalinkAll of our back-end data processing and parsing is done in F#. The power and flexibility of the language lets us ship features faster, with fewer bugs. Regressions are virtually nonexistent, and the functional nature of the language makes it easy to ensure that our code is testable.Our first iterations were written in C#, but after switching to F#, we saw a drastic reduction in code size, along with an increase in readability. We’ll definitely be sticking with F# for all of our future projects.With F# I can develop libraries in a fraction of the time.Mauricio SchefferpermalinkI’ve been using F# libraries in otherwise mostly C# / VB.NET Shop web applications. Thanks to the conciseness of F#, I can develop these libraries in a fraction of the time, then I consume them from C# and VB.NET Shop just like any other library.Furthermore, F#’s succint syntax and REPL make it an excellent scripting language and good for data exploration. Thanks to F#’s interoperability the scripts can easily use domains and libraries written in C#. You never need to start from scratch or have to reinvent things.Language features like record types, discriminated unions and type inference also make F# a great language for prototyping. I often prototype new business domains in F# with a few simplified use cases to refine it. The simple syntax allows me to focus on developing the domain and iterate more quickly. Then, when company policy requires it, I translate it to C# which is usually a straightforward process that ends up with many times more lines of code (yet still perfectly maintainable).F# is a powerful language and it is great to do cross platform development with it.Can ErtenCodingday, Vector CodepermalinkVector code is a code generator for iOS and OsX generating code in Objective C, Swift and C#. It works with vector graphics, parses and runs SVG. It is developed with F# on a Mac.F# is a first class language for Mac OsX. Thanks to the open source compiler, Mono and Xamarin, I was able to build a vector drawing, code generator software with F#. It is really amazing experience! The tooling is great and keeps improving. The compiler and the language are basically the same which is fantastic!F# is a powerful language and it is great to do cross platform development with it. I used heavily quotations for generating code in different languages on vector code. Powerful type system and static compilation meant that, once the application compiled without errors and warnings, it will just work and generate complete code. It did, and now at the App Store.F#’s language features not only made it a no-brainer for our project, but allowed us to produce composable, deterministic, and concise code.Stephen KennedyReadifypermalinkI was consulting at engagement for a large multi-national organization that produces financial software where the need to rewrite the component that deals with importing data from various flat-file formats was identified. The component needed to handle complex business logic and user defined mapping.F# was chosen over C# as it provided a large number of language features related to mapping out of the box. Code quotations, discriminated unions, partial application, matching, and active patterns were used extensively. Having objects immutable by default made the logic very deterministic and easy to maintain / follow.I was incredibly happy with the results, particularly with the declarative nature I could use to describe the various mappings, and their relationship with other mappings. This should make it much easier for other developers and the business analysts to figure out what logic is executed when a particular mapping occurs. The core logic saw a big reduction in code size, however, the real saving was in the entity specific mapping logic which saw the lines of code required go down by more than 90 percent!F# is definitely a language I will be recommending to clients going forward.Many languages are evolving to be ready for the future … F# is already there.Alex HardwickeSurgepermalinkWhen starting to work with Microsoft’s “Modern” WinRT apps, I started by taking the obvious route and used C#. This worked, and I wrote good, functional apps. Despite this, modern programming with C# has problems. I encountered these when writing my BitTorrent app, Surge, and eventually rewrote the app using F#. Doing this gave me better performance, fewer bugs and better user satisfaction.Users expect performant software with an always responsive UI, and frequently expect the apps to work with and display large amounts of data. This leads to us, as developers, working with complex data structures, detailed lists, and to use techniques like parallelism and asynchrony. C# has gained support for these over time, through things like Linq and async/await, but these are poor imitations of the original F# implementations and have flaws.Using a modern, functional language that provides first-class support for things we need in modern development is a no-brainer. Immutability-first as a programming technique has fixed more bugs and bad code in my applications than almost anything else I’ve ever looked at, and it’s something C# will never gain.It’s not just C#, either. Many languages are evolving to be ready for the future, adding features that support the needs of a modern programming language, but F# is already there.F# allowed us to mix Domain-Driven Design, Functional Programming and Azure to deliver a high quality web application.Jorge FioranellipermalinkThe site http://amancai.com.au was built combining F#, Domain-Driven Desing, The Official Microsoft ASP.NET Site MVC and Azure. F# was an excellent choice as it allowed us to keep the code lean and very functional while having full access to the BCL, Azure and third party libraries.Using F# Type Providers also helped us to improve our productivity and find problems early during the development process.I personally enjoyed the experience of building the entire system using F#, I believe its “functional-first” approach is excellent for building a wide range of applications.Programming in F# feels like writing out ideas rather than codeMaria GorinovapermalinkWhen I started working on the T2 temporal logic prover, I knew little about termination analysis and formal verification. F# made it easy to dive into these concepts and boosted my productivity by allowing me to write clean, concise, and accurate programs. Its functional nature, clear syntax and type inference is combined with the flexibility to write in an imperative style and use the .NET framework. This combination powerfully bridges the gap between thinking about a concept and implementing it. Programming in F# feels like writing out ideas rather than code.

If we go back to AG Gaston or further to Mary Ellen Pleasant—-which would take us to the beginning of the Civil War and then the beginning of the 1900s, those two, he having garnered wealth to the value of 130$ million+ by his death right before 2000 and her well over $30 million prior to 1900. These two are some of the larger, documented names that acquired real wealth.I’ll further define wealth as not simply money but mastering the capitalistic system and controlling one’s resources, developing and producing resources for others.The problem with Black people is that race based exclusion, control and detrimental acts against wealth accumulation have continued, undeterred for about 300+ years. Like any other human being operating within an economic system, on a level playing field, we can achieve as well as the next. But our field in America pointedly hasn’t been level.Unfortunately what this means is that a percentage of us get to participate because of mitigating factors in our upbringing—-generally social class or intense ambition and strategic planning (like the case of AG Gaston starting with his mother making lunches for miners, turning those pennies and dimes into insurance policy payments/payouts and building a huge insurance company for Blacks and then a bank and then housing, schools and assisting in bankrolling MLK and the Civil Rights Movement in the South.)If you mark the population before 1950 at about 18 million Blacks in America, then Gaston born years beforehand amassing such a fortune, was one in a million. He literally used ingenuity to collect pennies and dimes and convert it to something that Black people needed—-insurance and burial money through weekly collections—-the pyramid concept of a thousand of us pay into a system and only a dozen take out, so the system, with weekly payments is constantly replenishing itself when a beneficiary cashes out. What made his system work was it was anti-system to the White insurance system that refused to insure Black people…because insurance inheritance is one of the handful of ways to generate, guarantee and gain wealth that will move an entire generation.Example: The Power of InsuranceGrandma and Grandpa die and leave $10,000 to $100,000 in multiple policies to several of their children and grandchildren, a million dollars or more can suddenly be infused into a family. This is one of the strategies Whites have used for centuries to maintain large infusion into the family line.When you can infuse substantial cash into your family your descendants can buy homes (the largest tangible piece of wealth most families acquire);send children and grandchildren to higher education insuring that they are skilled to work higher level/paying jobs;investing in the stock market (another f the traditional ways of acquiring and amassing wealth—buy and hold Microsoft or AT&T or Apple or Berkshire Hathaway)’or lastly, invest in a business, it doesn’t have to be Disney or Pixar, you create, maybe just a grocery store, a restaurant, a discount store, a hardware store, that stays in the family for 50–100 years and keeps churning out a living and support system (in the form of potential refinancing the mortgage/value of the business on the owned building) .AG Gaston And ResourcesNow AG Gaston was able to do all four states of further wealth creation for his immediate family, grandchildren, nieces and nephews—-in fact it was the deal he and his wife made to assist all family members. With his investments and business building he then had the capital to take on prevailing Systemic and Structural Racism——which was Jim Crow/Unequal Rights, somewhat addressed by the Civil Rights Amendments.When MLK/The Movement needed funding, helping, bail money, etc. it was Gaston who they called. When they needed places to stay, particularly in places like Birmingham to launch protests and strategize from, it was Gaston who owned the local Blacks only hotels. When they need administrative staff, it was Gaston’s wife, Minnie, a powerhouse of ability in her own right, and he, who had started a business college that trained thousands of Black men and women, so there were qualified people to permeate the states’ offices and help strategically, even if that was merely typing up a thousand notices for voter registration. Their school created a skilled, educated workforce of thousands of Blacks.So…What Happened?The question then becomes post-1960s, what happened to the Movement if we were steadily building wealth (wealthy folk) who were focusing their money on race integrative/enhancing?One thing was that the CRA is watered down. In order to get it passed LBJ explained to MLK that he could include race but it couldn’t be the sweeping race doctrine that he originally proposed—-in order to keep the South connective and supportive, in many ways reiteration of Abraham Lincoln—-or culmination of that work..This caused fractures in the Movement. Many wanted MLK to not agree to the CRA and others like Whitney Young had been meeting with White significant White businessmen (spearheaded by Gaston who flt this was the better way—-replicate his systems on a national scale) to negotiate very specific kinds of inclusions on a Federal level to the CRA. Job training, scholarships, vocational training. Whitney wanted less ephemeral rights and more specific programs. MLK thought they should take what they could get in the CRA as a first step. So they did. Which fractured the Movement, which is where Black Militarism rose from.The psychic problem was that at that time to maintain movement of teh masses, who weren’t mass educated, they had to stay on brand tract of rights, rights, rights, which everyone of every education level who was brown could understand. MLK felt that it would fracture them farther if “school/jobs” was the push because many people were already employed and it would be a longer protracted, uninsured of an outcome fight. Take the best deal, even if you’re not happy about it’s watering down because it took so much to get that deal. Gaston and Young felt, as businessmen that the CRA wasn’t the best deal, it was the—-let’s end all of this uproar deal. Remember Viet Nam was happening at the same time so the country is in a protracted war (from 1955 to the mid 1970s) which is hugely unpopular and civil unrest at home after a President’s assassination. LBJ wanted this done to get an accomplishment under his belt and a headache solved.MLK then saw that the issue wasn’t race alone, it was also poverty, which is what the more militant were trying to convey. MLK then goes on to start an anti-poverty push and that lead to his assassination.But what he left behind wasn’t just a Movement with fractured leadership but also a Movement with fractured purpose and a fractured, pseudo empowered populace. MLK’s destiny within 20 years of the CRA was to become the first Black President (he would've been the natural supplanting to Jesse Jackson in the 1980s.) Jackson was tapped after MLK’s death to replace him to try and keep the Movement cohesive and alive by the MLK team/family.There were a few leaders, through the Black Panthers, the Black Liberation Army, SNCC, NAACP but most importantly 10 years from the CRA, without Whitney Young’s job/education plan, there weren’t enough Black men and women of educated leadership. And a huge victory had been achieved, it’s easy to get people riled up for a fight, it’s harder to get those same people, now including another younger generation riled up for another CRA level fight.CRA succeeded because it was so bad being brown in America then that anything was an improvement when ratified but once CRA passed, the educated particularly could get jobs, mainly with the government at first, but they could “go” somewhere now where Jim Crow/segregation had kept them out of jobs and fields, Your educated leadership is pacified because they will gain first.Look at the above of Black Earnings. We, as a mass, haven’t substantially moved as you would have a group move. There should be a slight dip during the 2008 Recession but we haven’t moved AND we’ve more than doubled in population. But our educated 30–40% have been able to snake their way up the ladder through time, patience, access, opportunity and ambition.The Racial Wealth Gap: The Picture TodayNow, the fun and ugly part, The Racial Wealth Gap, which is so well illustrated here but Thomas Shapiro goes into deeply in his works as well as on YouTube below:After watching this, having taught all up and around this particularly to Black and Latino students, to try and get them to understand the elements to countermand the Gap, I cried. I was literally sobbing watching this for two reasons:I potentially have a better than good chance of circumventing this—-like a spaceship pilot who can skim the rim of a black hole and through fortitude, education, push from parents and grandparents, mentorship, understanding finance and capitalism—-skip out—-like a flat stone. I can keep adjusting myself.But 40–60%o f both Blacks and Latinos won’t.That Movement fracturing, where is was not a Federal mandate or easing in some way beyond simple Affirmative Action (which worked better for women, White women because an employer could choose. White woman or Black person? Who is a White male going to be more culturally comfortable with which will give the company the Federal check mark of having complied?) —-free college, mandatory job programs at competitive salaries, something to propel the Black generation of the 1950s to 1970s to the next level, yes artificially, but propel them all the same, has therefore robbed not just that generation of advancement and stability but also their children and therefore their children’s children.What I do with a handful of Black/Minority students who are from a direct line of poverty is:I give an intensive financial workshop using the Playbook for Life from the Hartford Institute. It’s a 30 page book let that explains everything from a checking account, to budgeting, to a mortgage, to car leases to life insurance. Similar to how there used to be black books that were printed and given to hundred of thousands of Blacks about how to deal with police encounters (I also include this in the back of all of my non-fiction works, website and blog.The more advanced students I have attended a First Time Home-buyers Program through teh Abyssinian Development Corporation. $35, two weekday night classes where lawyers, appraisers, bankers, insurance specialists explain the steps of home ownership. Then the program works with individuals for 2 years to receive a grant of between $20k to $40k for a down payment for their first home. (The program is Federal so my mother took advantage of it when she and my stepfather bought their last home, though she missed teh classes, she’d already solidified teh deal so they got $7,000 for the down payment.)They also open up play accounts with The Hollywood stock Exchange where they are given $2 million dollars in play money to use in a live, continuous stock exchange about entertainment folk and productions. Instant education in stock market finance. We also play games like Monopoly and Rich Dad Poor Dad’s Cash Flow 101 and 202.One student remarked on a newly built luxury skyscraper here in Manhattan and I arranged a tour for 15 of us. In order to move social classes you must concretely see teh next level. Not on TV but in reality. And what we learned was that it was a fantastic lobby, the amenities were great but the apartments were small and boxy. We also learned that 20% of the apartments are reserved for low income residents of NY. The luxury look of the building doesn’t always answer who lives there. The catch is of course that it’s the lower floors but still a good building.Interested in a car? We go to the car dealership as a field trip. Then I lead them through teh process of renting a car after they get their licenses. Which means that yes, they have to get a basic credit card and learn to manage it.CRedit management from the Playbook for life and long term planing.We pointedly discuss retirement plans and the interest from compound interest.More importantly we work o their creating insurance vehicles for themselves and children, grandchildren. Getting their parents insured. If they save $100k over 20 years, that’s enough for a home or to start a business they understand when they leave a job. But imagine if they get insurance vehicles for themselves and their parents, aunts and uncles and pay for it themselves. If someone dies at the end of that 20 year period, another $100k. Or 10 years in. Reinvest and now after 20 years you’re holding $250k. Now simply repeat into the next generation as they hit 18, already being insured as children. Instead of morbidly thinking this is a death bet, what it is is a financial replacement. For teh 5 years around my mother’s terminal time I spent about $125k traveling back and forth, helping financially and most importantly in lost wages during that traveling and in relocating for the last 2 years. Without a financial plan to shift that “loss” I would be like most where death/medical loss crippled me, an only child, and my stepfather. There are a dozen and a half ways to mitigate end of life expenses, if you go in planning it 20 years prior.The above discussions and intensive financial lessons to students informs them about the road ahead and even if they just store everything in a box in their closet—-when the time comes they can whip out information and references about how something works.Unfortunately about 10% of us get this immediately, another perhaps 25% learn it but the vast numbers of Black people have never received a thorough financial education, at least to a group of family members who could turn and educate the rest. This was Whitney Young’ point about education.This of course tumbles back into Wealth and Power. Say 25% did the above, practiced over a decade and got it right for their personal lives. And then we slowly shifted. Instead of being a locked voter bloc, and 20 million of us are a bloc, we went from Democratic to Independent. And secure, not having to be beholden, begging or depending upon morality from others, we as Independent voters could turn to both Republican and Democratic politicians and say: “What have you for us lately?” And then voted to the best option, not the familiar party.I made a point of when elected to my Community Board taking students along to see how we hashed out micro governmental issues. Showed them the sub committees I was on. Introduced them to the educated Black and Latino populace.But most importantly I drag students before and now to Columbia, to events, to political arenas so that we get comfortable with, not simply serving or avoiding the wrath, of White people. Psychological too many Blacks and Latinos default to our public game face with White people and therefore can’t face them, challenge them, question them, question and challenge ourselves.Can You See It Today?Yes, there is are two divisions here in NYC amongst Black men—employed & okay and employed & unemployed and not okay. The two divisions are based upon the other support systems Black (and Latino) men have received from their parents coming into the 21st century.Assured PovertyThe less education you have and teh burden of children before you have solid advancing skills, hampers and yes, even destroys Black and Latino men who are trying to do the right thing. If I have to work 60 hours at a 40 hour job but that includes my commute then I can’t devote another 20 hours a week to advanced schooling. What happens if you follow family tradition and have children before 25 or 30? Another thing I lead students through. Wait and you’ll be better off, don’t wait and poverty is on the horizon because you may not advance fast enough before you’re carrying others. The Brookings Institute points out that poverty is nearly 100% from lower education, children before 30 and lack of unified marriage. What if you’re not told, taught this?Averting Poverty by Conscious Design and KnowledgeNow the above video with Shapiro shows that it isn’t Educational Achievement alone that makes the greatest impact in a Black person’s life. It’s Access/Opportunity AND Home-Stock-Business Ownership.Back to Gaston, he was able to provide this for himself and then to others but others who gained even a fraction of his wealth haven’t known—-oh, this cross curriculum is what you do, in these multiple areas. Our focus has been “get a job!” & maybe additionally “go to school-college!” But currently only 25% of Black men do vs 40% of Black women vs 70% White and Asian.Which means our FAMILY wealth structures are not as strong because of families are potentially imbalanced in terms of social class, resources, education. (This also means that if there are 15 of us and 2 of us educate and progress to good jobs in fealty we’re constantly turning and helping teh other 13, which drains our resources and abilities or cuts our bonds. Imagine if that paradigm were reversed—-13 of us helping 2 others? That’s essentially the White paradigm from family and the overall Privilege System.Which means more pointedly, even if you combine same sex couples, our Black and Latino soldiers are not fit for battle with what they need—-not simply Educational Achievement but more importantly to shift Structural Systems: Access/Opportunity AND Home-Stock-Business Ownership.Does This Change Over Time?If we need wealth to change a community, a mass group of millions, because the wealthy will infuse their wealth into jobs, resources, need for education, the Black community is slightly ahead of the Latino community but drastically lagging behind White and Asian for our relative numbers (our 13 vs 2 formula again.)A percentage of us will shift, move, advance, skim out of the gravity of the racism/structural black hole of systemic racism in America. That percentage will have the resources and protection from their education, mentors, wealth, home ownership to avert themselves from Structural Racism. They, we, I, will occupy a position of exception.We’re literally, as our population crests 50 million, based upon the numbers, going to become the Talented Twenty Percent as an expansion of duBois’s Talented Tenth Proposition a century ago, of forward, progressive, resourced and educated Blacks.Simply by calculating that in 1900 Blacks held half of 1% of all wealth in America and 100 years at the turn of the century, we still hold half of 1%, means that we’re treading water.Is Black Wealth the counter to systemic/structural racism?Yes, it is but only a small number of us will achieve its lower ends, Middle Class Wealth —-$1 million or more in net worth/assets—- by death/beneficiary in insurance. Or Transcendent Wealth: $10s of million to billions over a lifetime that’s passed on for multiple generations.Oh, we’ll be at the table but the table will have over 25 seats and we’ll occupy maybe 2, maybe 4, a vast majority will be Asian and East Indian, but a chunk, maybe 10 will be White. Therefore in Western society for at least two more generations until we partner deeper with Asian firms and African firms and resources, wealth will be exclusively the province of majority, over 80%, White and therefore we won’t be able to shift structural systems with just please towards morality. We lack the financial power to add a sledgehammer of shutting down governmental systems, private businesses, malls, towns because we’re too diffused in education and profit from rebellion. Poor people literally can’t last out the financial droughts embargoes on a racial level would take as they did in teh 1950 and 1960s. A segregated Black and Latino populace meant more money was held in our communities to balance out protesting, now our collective wealth is too diffused.Civil Rights Movement-Phase 2 (2020 and Beyond)That will have to be our inner community design template specifically looking at the Racial Gap factors and teaching each other and mentoring each other (a 3 to 5 year commitment) to change.#KylePhoenix#TheKylePhoenixShowIf White people liked Black and Latino people as much as they like our culture and us on their sports teams, this would all go away in a few years.