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Why F#?

(batsov.com)
445 points bozhidar | 1 comments | 4/1/2025, 12:34:00 PM | HN request time: 0.421s | source
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rockyj ◴[4/1/2025, 1:08:00 PM] No.43546371[source]▶

I did try F#, but I was new to .NET ecosystem. For 1 "hello world" I was quite surprised by how many project files and boilerplate was generated by .NET, which put me off.

I am all for FP, immutable, and modern languages. But then where are the jobs and which companies care if you write good code?

Now everyone wants languages which are easy to use with AI, while reducing workforce and "increased productivity". I have been programming for 20 years and know 4-5 languages, in India it was worse but in EU at-least I can make a sustainable living by writing Java / TypeScript. I cannot even find jobs with Kotlin + TypeScript which pay well, forget getting jobs in Elixir / Clojure / F# (there maybe a handful of opportunities if I will relocate for around 70K/year). That is why I have mostly given up on learning niche languages.

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8s2ngy ◴[4/1/2025, 2:02:00 PM] No.43546914[source]▶

I understand your perspective. I like to view niche languages as a medium for learning. For instance, I enjoy using Rust in my personal projects—even if many of these projects may never be released—because the lessons on immutability, functional programming constructs, and trait-oriented programming significantly enhance my day-to-day work. Therefore, I believe that learning niche languages, even in the absence of a robust job market, is worthwhile.

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jen20 ◴[4/1/2025, 2:13:00 PM] No.43547025[source]▶

I'm not sure I'd call Rust a "niche language" any more (perhaps in ~2018) - it's in common use across many big technology companies.

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homebrewer ◴[4/1/2025, 2:47:00 PM] No.43547427[source]▶

It is extremely niche outside of this bubble.

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mmoskal ◴[4/1/2025, 6:15:00 PM] No.43549836[source]▶

According to Stack Overflow developer survey [0] Rust is at 12.5%, roughly a half of C# or Java and a quarter of Python. Also more than twice Ruby. So definitely not niche.

[0] https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2024/technology#most-popular...

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1. trott ◴[4/2/2025, 4:34:00 PM] No.43558534[source]▶

> According to Stack Overflow developer survey [0] Rust is at 12.5%, ... So definitely not niche.

The annual survey is very popular in the Rust community. Its results are often used for advocacy. Participation by Rust developers is very high. So what you have is a classic case of a selection bias.