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Why F#?

(batsov.com)
438 points bozhidar | 6 comments | 01 Apr 25 12:34 UTC | HN request time: 0.402s | source | bottom
1. jxjnskkzxxhx ◴[01 Apr 25 15:37 UTC] No.43548069[source]▶
Does anyone else find interesting that people who write blog posts saying "my favourite language is X", it's never a mainstream language..?
replies(4): >>43548191 #>>43548314 #>>43550667 #>>43557687 #
2. pantsforbirds ◴[01 Apr 25 15:46 UTC] No.43548191[source]▶
My favorite language is Python, but I wouldn't write a blog post about it because no one would care.
replies(1): >>43548199 #
3. jxjnskkzxxhx ◴[01 Apr 25 15:47 UTC] No.43548199[source]▶
My favourite language is also python, and I would love to read your blog post on why your favourite language is python :-)
4. siknad ◴[01 Apr 25 15:56 UTC] No.43548314[source]▶
New mainstream languages are rarer than new better (in some way that can be favorable) languages.
5. mrkeen ◴[01 Apr 25 19:47 UTC] No.43550667[source]▶
Successful language designers select for what's popular, not what's good.

C++ intersected the mass of C programmers with the new OO fad, and kept all of C's warts. Had Stroustrup made C++ better, he wouldn't have an army of adopters who already knew C. Maybe merit will win out in the long run [1]? I'm not hopeful.

Java needed to be close enough to C++, and C# to Java. And Brendan Eich joined Netscape to "put Scheme in the browser".

[1] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/02/c_creator_calls_for_a...

6. iLemming ◴[02 Apr 25 15:20 UTC] No.43557687[source]▶
> people who write blog posts ... never a mainstream language

Don't you find it amusing that food critics usually write about little-known or new restaurants and never do any fast-food chain reviewing?