DelegateEvents use DynamicInvoke under the hood and so can be slow when trigged frequently.  As we have an existing model which requires an event interface, this was was causing our F# implementation to be a bit slower than the C# we were comparing it to.  Thankfully, F# allows you to implement your own eventing via ...

The more I use F# the more I want to write my every day production C# code in a functional way.  To this end, I’ve written a few higher order extension methods as the need arose.  I wanted to take a moment and share them with you.  I think that in seeing an implementation of these functions in C#, what they do becomes easy to ...

Recently I’ve been working with some local search techniques and wanted to share my Steepest Ascent Hill Climbing solution. The general idea of Steepest Ascent Hill Climbing is that in each iteration of the hill climbing process you apply a set of transforms to your input data and select the best result via a fitness function.  This result, ...

Over this past week at PDC I was lucky enough to see some fantastic sessions and spend time with members of the F# and greater Visual Studio language teams.  Naturally, these experiences have left me both floored and swimming in new ideas.  This edition of Discoveries This Week includes both the very best of what I saw at PDC 2009 and ...

F# events are popping up all over the place and so I’ve included a separate section for them today.  As far as posts go I’ve stumbled across immutable queue and range libraries,  a post on the underlying implementation of discriminated unions, using the reactive framework and finally, a Microsoft research project: F7 Refinement ...

A couple of months ago I was talking to Lou Franco, the head of our Software Engineering department and fellow functional programming enthusiast, about the possibility of using F# for projects in the future.  Being business minded, he replied that he would need a compelling reason to bring F# on board.  This presentation is dedicated to ...

I’m back from my three week vacation and am just about buried in fascinating functional programming links.  I’ve managed to get through most of them and have selected the best of these for this very special welcome back edition of Discoveries This Week.   CUFP (Commercial Users of Functional Programming) 2009 Videos “Functional ...

With the start of our F# User’s Group this next Monday and New England Code Camp 11 last weekend, things have been extremely busy this past week.  Meanwhile, the F# sociocosm is growing at a rapid pace.  This week we have a talk by Don Syme, a look at F# quotations, and finally, some discussion on Seq.unfold.   Chris Bowen’s Post, ...

This week we have MapReduce, WebTools and yet another F# to C# language comparison.  I spent yesterday at a seminar led by Michael de la Maza.  He, Talbot Crowell and I will soon be starting a F# user’s group in Boston, Massachusetts.  I’m interested in any comments you might have.  Please feel free to send me an email if you ...

This week I have a very diverse set of topics:  First, using the functional programming concept of folds in C# to reimplement much of LINQ.  Then a bit of reflection on F# Grammar Parsers.  Finally, some community discussion on real world F# applications.   Blog – Matthew Podwysocki’s Functional C#, Fun With Folds In this ...