Editing F Sharp (programming language) (section)

===Language evolution===
F# uses an open development and engineering process. 
The language evolution process is managed by [[Don Syme]] from [[Microsoft Research]] as the [[benevolent dictator for life]] (BDFL) for the language design, together with the F# Software Foundation.
Earlier versions of the F# language were designed by [[Microsoft]] and [[Microsoft Research]] using a closed development process.

F# was first included in Visual Studio in the [[Visual Studio#2010|2010 edition]], at the same level as [[Visual Basic (.NET)]] and C# (albeit as an option), and remains in all later editions, thus making the language widely available and well-supported.

F# originates from Microsoft Research, Cambridge, UK. The language was originally designed and implemented by [[Don Syme]],<ref name="historyMSR">{{cite web |url=https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/project/f-at-microsoft-research/ |title=F# Historical Acknowledgements |website=[[Microsoft]]}}</ref> according to whom in the fsharp team, they say the F is for "Fun".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.networkworld.com/article/2271225/software/the-a-z-of-programming-languages--f-.html |title=The A-Z of programming languages: F# |last1=Edwards |first1=Kathryn |date=23 December 2008 |website=[[Network World]] |publisher=IDG |access-date=8 August 2016 |archive-date=13 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181113210720/https://www.networkworld.com/article/2271225/software/the-a-z-of-programming-languages--f-.html |url-status=dead}}</ref> 
Andrew Kennedy contributed to the design of units of measure.<ref name="historyMSR"/> The Visual F# Tools for Visual Studio are developed by Microsoft.<ref name="historyMSR"/> The F# Software Foundation developed the F# open-source compiler and tools, incorporating the open-source compiler implementation provided by the Microsoft Visual F# Tools team.<ref name="fsharporg"/>

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Summary of versions
|-
! F#<br/>version
! Features added
|-
! 1.0
|valign="top"|
* Functional programming
* Discriminated unions
* Records
* Tuples
* Pattern matching
* Type abbreviations
* Object-oriented programming
* Structs
* Signature files
* Scripting files
* Imperative programming
* Modules (no functors)
* Nested modules
* .NET interoperability
|-
! 2.0
|
* Active patterns
* Units of measure
* Sequence expressions
* Asynchronous programming
* Agent programming
* Extension members
* Named arguments
* Optional arguments
* Array slicing
* Quotations
* Native interoperability
* Computation expressions
|-
! 3.0<ref>{{cite web|last=McNamara|first=Brian|title=More About F# 3.0 Language Features|url=http://blogs.msdn.com/b/fsharpteam/archive/2012/07/19/more-about-fsharp-3.0-language-features.aspx|access-date=September 7, 2014|publisher=Microsoft}}</ref>
|
* Type providers
* LINQ query expressions
* CLIMutable attribute
* Triple-quoted strings
* Auto-properties
* Provided units-of-measure
|-
! 3.1<ref>{{cite web|last=McNamara|first=Brian|title=Announcing a pre-release of F# 3.1|url=http://blogs.msdn.com/b/fsharpteam/archive/2013/06/27/announcing-a-pre-release-of-f-3-1-and-the-visual-f-tools-in-visual-studio-2013.aspx|access-date=September 7, 2014|publisher=Microsoft}}</ref>
|
* Named union type fields
* Extensions to array slicing
* Type inference enhancements
|-
! 4.0<ref>{{Cite news|title=Announcing the RTM of Visual F# 4.0|language=en-US|url=https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/dotnet/2015/07/20/announcing-the-rtm-of-visual-f-4-0/|access-date=2017-03-08}}</ref>
|
* Printf on unitized values
* Extension property initializers
* Non-null provided types
* Primary constructors as functions
* Static parameters for provided methods
* Printf interpolation
* Extended #if grammar
* Tailcall attribute
* Multiple interface instantiations
* Optional type args
* Params dictionaries
|-
! 4.1<ref>{{Cite news|title=Announcing F# 4.1 and the Visual F# Tools for Visual Studio 2017|language=en-US|url=https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/dotnet/2017/03/07/announcing-f-4-1-and-the-visual-f-tools-for-visual-studio-2017-2/|access-date=2017-03-08}}</ref>
|
* Struct tuples which inter-operate with C# tuples
* Struct annotations for Records
* Struct annotations for Single-case Discriminated Unions
* Underscores in numeric literals
* Caller info argument attributes
* Result type and some basic Result functions
* Mutually referential types and modules within the same file
* Implicit "Module" syntax on modules with shared name as type
* Byref returns, supporting consuming C# ref-returning methods
* Error message improvements
* Support for 'fixed'
|-
! 4.5<ref name="blogs.msdn.microsoft.com2"/>
|
* Versioning alignment of binary, package, and language
* Support for 'Span<T>' and related types
* Ability to produce 'byref' returns
* The 'voidptr' type
* The 'inref<'T>' and 'outref<'T>' types to represent readonly and write-only 'byref's
* 'IsByRefLike' structs
* 'IsReadOnly' structs
* Extension method support for 'byref<'T>'/'inref<'T>'/'outref<'T>'
* 'match!' keyword in computation expressions
* Relaxed upcast with 'yield' in F# seq/list/array expressions
* Relaxed indentation with list and array expressions
* Enumeration cases emitted as public
|-
! 4.6
|
* Anonymous record types
|-
! 4.7<ref name="blogs.msdn.microsoft.com.4.7">{{Cite web|url=https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/announcing-f-4-7/|title=Announcing F# 4.7|date=23 September 2019}}</ref>
|
* Implicit yields
* No more required double underscore
* Indentation relaxations for parameters passed to constructors and static methods
* 'nameof' function
* Open static classes
|-
! 5.0<ref name="blogs.msdn.microsoft.com.5.0">{{Cite web|url=https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/announcing-f-5/|title=Announcing F# 5|date=10 November 2020}}</ref>
|
* FSharp.Core now targets netstandard2.0 only
* Package references in F# scripts
* Support for Jupyter, nteract, and VSCode Notebooks
* String Interpolation
* Support for nameof
* Open Type declarations
* Enhanced Slicing
* F# quotations improvements
* Applicative Computation Expressions
* Improved stack traces in F# async and other computation expressions
* Improved .NET interop
* Improved Map and Set performance in FSharp.Core
* Improved compiler performance
* Improved compiler analysis for library authors
|-
! 6.0<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/fsharp/whats-new/fsharp-6|title=What's new in F# 6 - F# Guide|date=10 March 2023}}</ref>
|
* Tasks
* Simpler indexing
* Augments to "active patterns"
* Overloaded custom operations in computation expressions
* “as” patterns
* Indentation syntax revisions
* More implicit conversions
* More implicit upcast conversions
* Implicit integer conversions
* First-class support for .NET-style implicit conversions
* Optional warnings for implicit conversions
* Formatting for binary numbers
* Discards on use bindings
* InlineIfLambda optimizer directive
* Resumable code
* More collection functions
* Map has Keys and Values
* More intrinsics for NativePtr
* More numeric types with unit annotations
* Informational warnings for rarely used symbolic operators
|-
! 7.0<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/announcing-fsharp-7/ |title=Announcing F# 7 |date=8 November 2022}}</ref>
|
* Static abstract members support in interfaces
* Making working with SRTPs (statically resolved type parameters) easier
* Required properties checking
* Init scope and init-only properties
* Reference assemblies support
* F# self-contained deployments & Native AOT
* Added support for N-d arrays up to rank 32.
* Result module functions parity with Option.
* Fixes in resumable state machines codegen for the tasks builds.
* Better codegen for compiler-generated side-effect-free property getters
* ARM64 platform-specific compiler and ARM64 target support in F# compiler. Dependency manager #r caching support
* Parallel type-checking and project-checking support (experimental, can be enabled via VS setting, or by tooling authors)
* Miscellaneous bugfixes and improvements.
|-
! 8.0<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/announcing-fsharp-8/|title=Announcing F# 8| date=14 November 2023}}</ref>
|
* _.Property shorthand for (fun x -> x.Property)
* Nested record field copy and update
* while! (while bang) feature <ref>{{Cite web |url=https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/simplifying-fsharp-computations-with-the-new-while-keyword/ |title=Simplifying F# computations with the new 'while!' keyword' |date=20 September 2023}}</ref>
* Extended string interpolation syntax
* Use and compose string literals for printf and related functions
* Arithmetic operators in literals
* Type constraint intersection syntax
* Extended fixed binding
* Easier [<Extension>] method definition
* Static members in interfaces
* Static let in discriminated unions, records, structs, and types without primary constructors
* try-with within seq{}, [], and [||] collection expressions
* Recursive calls and yield! within exception handler
* Tail call attribute
* [<Struct>] unions can now have > 49 cases
* Strict indentation rules
* New diagnostics from the compiler
* Switches for compiler parallelization
|-
! 9.0<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/fsharp/whats-new/fsharp-9|title=What's new in F# 9| date=12 November 2024}}</ref>
|
* Nullable reference types
* Discriminated union .Is* properties
* Partial active patterns can return bool instead of unit option
* Prefer extension methods to intrinsic properties when arguments are provided
* Empty-bodied computation expressions
* Hash directives are allowed to take non-string arguments
* Extended #help directive in fsi to show documentation in the REPL
* Allow #nowarn to support the FS prefix on error codes to disable warnings
* Warning about TailCall attribute on non-recursive functions or let-bound values
* Enforce attribute targets
* Updates to the standard library (FSharp.Core)
* Developer productivity improvements
* Performance improvements
* Improvements in tooling
|}