Standalone F# installer - f#

I know this question has been asked before, but none of the answers help me in any sort.
I would like to know a way of installing F# on a computer that has no internet connection (visual studio is already installed on the target computer, but only C# components). Do you know if it's doable ?
Thanks!

If you only need to support .NET Core, then you get everything F#-related just be requiring .NET Core with your Visual Studio installation. This includes the compiler, FSI, and templates. The only thing you'll have missing is the old-style F# templates that don't use the .NET SDK.

Related

Is it possible to develop f# using Visual Studio Express 2015 for Desktop?

I have been doing some programming in VB.NET on Visual Studio Express 2015 for Desktop. I recently started looking into F# and like the functional paradigm. As a result I have been trying to find a way to use VSE2015 as my IDE for F#. However, I have hit some problems. First of all, it has been difficult to find out if it is officially supported. The .NET blog suggests that it is (at least version 3.1.1, and the announcement for 4.0 RTM does not mention otherwise), but when I try to install F# Tools (4.0) it seems to choke on some components called VWD and WD(?). 3.1.1 seems to install OK, but then I still can't open any F# projects (fsproj). When I try to install FSharpVSPowerTools, it tells me that my platform is not supported.
Am I trying to do something that is not possible? Have I missed some steps? Any pointers would be appreciated. Thanks.
(Incidentally, I can't use the Community edition because of the licensing restrictions)
Edit: I have tried VS Code, but it works differently from VSE, and I would have to do a whole more learning. In addition, I want to use the VS template for creating XLL's. Edit 2: it has been pointed out that you can reference excel-dna in VS Code, but setting it up is not as straightforward as in VSE2015 (at least for VB.NET and C#.NET.

Is F# in general and the F# plugin for MonoDevelop maintained for Linux?

I would like to play around with F# on my Linux box, but I struggle to find up-to-date versions of the relevant files. The F# cross-platform packages are from 2010 and the plug-in seems to be for Monodevelop 2.4 (I have 2.8 installed, which is not the newest anyway...). Is the project still alive? Am I looking at the right place?
F# cross-platform package is pretty outdated. Depending on which Linux distro you're using, F# may be distributed with Mono 2.10.x (check Mono homepage for details). Otherwise, you should build F# compiler from source for latest version.
The original F# binding does not work with MonoDevelop 2.8. Fortunately, the F# binding is being actively developed by Scott Stephens under a Google Summer of Code project. There are first positive sights as being mentioned here. For discussion, you can post on F# Open Source Community Group or ask questions here.
The F# addin for Monodevelop is still developed as of 2014 and is available from addins.monodevelop.com.

Metro style Apps with F#?

In the Build 2011 keynote and demos, they were always talking about C++, C#, Visual Basic and JavaScript. Can't I build Metro style Apps with F#? Or is it safe to say that if it works with C#, then it works with F# as well?
Or is it eligible to say if it works with C# then it works with F# as well?
Yes, that's how it is supposed to work. In addition to javascript and C/C++, any CLS compliant language that runs on top of the CLR will have access to the WinRT API.
Unfortunately in the VS 2011 Express edition you don't get tooling support but I guess this will be added progressively or to other editions:
Don talks about this a little around 7:40 into his talk.
http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/BUILD/BUILD2011/SAC-904T
I had the same question and created a blog post: Create a Metro App in F# (NOT)
There are a few issues:
You cannot reference ordinary .NET dll’s (even in C#). They have to
be have recompiled with a “reference” to the WinRT. Because of this
you cannot reference the F# dll. I think this will be solved when F#
3.0 get released (source: Understanding F# slide from Don Syme at
build).
The ability from F# to create Metro apps. This has to be
built by the F# team. This is an open question. This is the all-F#
approach (In WPF it is today possible but not recommended).
Tool support for creation Metro front-end projects. This will be not the case for the
F# 3.0 release. (source: Understanding F# slide from Don Syme at
build).
Using Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview (Full, not Express), I was able to reference and run F# code from a C# Metro style application with the following caveats:
You will get a build warning saying that the project can't be referenced, even though Visual Studio will still allow you to add it.
You must remove all references to all DLL's in the F# project, including FSharp.Core.
By following these steps it is possible to run F# code from a C# Metro style application, but it is nearly impossible to write any useful code in F# without references to the core language libraries. Let's hope they update the libraries to be WinRT compatible soon.
The question has been answered here:
Windows 8 and F#
Although you cannot create and design Metro apps directly in F#, you can still create so called Portable library in F# with all Models and ViewModels and use it in another Metro projects. It's not ideal, but it works.
I ported my stock chart library for .NET3.5-4.0 to Portable library,it works quite well on Metro with C# Metro application and some my Metro UI bridge.
I'm convinced that I can use F# to make Metro application in many parts.

Where can I get the F# Compiler and FSI v4.0?

I know I can download the "April CTP" to get F# 2.0 for .NET 2.0. But I need FSC and F# Interactive for .NET 4.0. On a machine with VS 2010 installed, it ends up in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft F#\v4.0. Is there a redistributable for this?
If you installed Visual Studio 11 Beta or Visual Studio 2012, I recommend you check the following path, where you will find Fsi.exe and Fsc.exe.
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\F#\3.0\Framework\v4.0
Others have provided good answers; I'll summarize and add one more bit (2nd bullet):
We don't have any polished story here yet. We're working on one.
In the case of the compiler, you may be able to get by with the fsc.exe in the April CTP (it is capable of referencing .NET 4.0 assemblies and building .NET 4.0 assemblies, even though the compiler itself runs on 2.0). (Note that for building project files, you might also need the right Microsoft.FSharp.targets imported; I haven't worked all that through...)
If you were to copy the right assemblies and targets files from a VS2010 install to another machine, that would work, but offhand I don't know if that violates the VS license.
The existing downloadable "redist" does only contain FSharp.Core.dll.
(possibly see also this for a similar discussion but no extra info, as well as this Connect request)
The redistributable, for the F# runtime, is available at the following link, but unfortunately doesn't include the compiler or F# interactive:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=5f0a79f8-925f-4297-9ae2-86e2fdcff33c&displaylang=en
If you already have VS2010 installed on the machine there shouldn't be no need to install it, as the compiler, fsi, and F# runtime will be installed with VS. It should be just a matter of adding the directory containing the compiler to the path, so the shell can find it (if you want to use the compiler/fsc from the command-line).
This is an old question, but I came across it and thought that I'd add an update for people who find it through Google:
The current version of the F# CTP (April 2011) includes both .NET 2.0 and .NET 4.0 binaries, including FSI.exe. On my install...
.NET 2 = C:\Program Files (x86)\FSharp-2.0.0.0\bin\
.NET 4 = C:\Program Files (x86)\FSharp-2.0.0.0\v4.0\bin\
I think that there is no standalone installation of F# for .NET 4.0 (similar to the standalone installation for .NET 2.0). The reason probably is that F# for .NET 4.0 is simply meant to be distributed only as part of Visual Studio 2010 and not separately (just like other core Visual Studio languages).
If you need to use fsi.exe and fsc.exe for .NET 4.0 on a machine that doesn't have Visual Studio installed, you'll probably need to copy them together with the referenced libraries. This shouldn't be that difficult - you only need assemblies from "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft F#\v4.0" together with FSharp.Core.dll (which should be added to the GAC) and (I think) also ISymWrapper.dll (but I'm not quite sure where this is located).

F# on/in SharpDevelop?

Is there an F# compiler (plugin?) for SharpDevelop? I use SharpDevelop on my netbook for hobby development and it would be cool to program in f# on it.
If you install the F# compiler, SharpDevelop 3.0 automatically supports it. (Oh well. At least people will get a good answer now.)
On Windows, I settled on Visual Studio Shell and the May F# CTP.
There's a rather old (Aug 2008) F# Plugin for MonoDevelop. Read more on its Wiki page.
For the F# compiler, download the xip file from the F# May 2009 CTP page. there are certain known issues with running it on Mono, just search for "F# Mono" for more info.
Now Visual Studio 2010 supports F#. However, that doesn't include the Express editions, so if you're looking for F# IDEs for free, then there's a MonoDevelop plugin (which needs v2.6 IIRC), you can install Visual Studio Shell Integrated and add FSharp to that, or SharpDevelop.
Of these, I'd probably recommend the Visual Studio Shell over the others as it seems to have the best integration between the editor window and the F# Console window. However, if you're interested in doing things cross-platform, then look at MonoDevelop, as you can make sure that something will work on Mono.

Resources