I am trying to find out if it is possible to replace parts of an older applications built in T-SQL with Visual F#?
Is Visual F# a stable language regarding updates? Ex, the meaning of reserved words change over time? Are some parts of the langue guaranteed to be backwards compatible? Will they remove some standardized functions in the future etc..?
Thank You!
F# is pretty stable language (we use it in production since 2009 when it has version 2.0). Currently it has version 4.0 (previous versions specified here http://fsharp.org/specs/language-spec/). I'm pretty sure that the meaning of reserved words etc. will not be changed.
P.S. In this answer I mean by F# the version of language known as Visual F# and distributed by Microsoft. Generally speaking F# is open sourced and there may be different flavors of language. See more here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/dsyme/archive/2015/10/23/a-letter-about-quot-f-quot-and-quot-visual-f-quot.aspx
The last Type Provider I wrote just after F# 3.0 was released, and I used the ProvidedTypes.fs(i) files that came with the sample pack.
These files are quite old by now, and I wondered if there are more recent versions.
By googling alone I came up with six different versions. Where can I find the current, official version of ProvidedTypes.fs and ProvidedTypes.fsi?
Moreover, I heard that generated types are now easier to implement. Is this funtionality already inside newer versions of those files?
As requested by Nikon, here is the comment promoted to an answer :)
The starter pack is maintained at https://github.com/fsprojects/FSharp.TypeProviders.StarterPack
I want to enforce coding standards for our Delphi codebase.
A few colleagues have suggested Code Healer and Pascal Analyzer. I've had a look at these tools and they aren't suitable.
I was hoping to be able to do the same thing that CheckStyle for Java or StyleCop for C# can do
Some newer editions of Delphi offer Audits and Metrics in the Model view, which can also be configured to set allowed limits. They do not run from command line for build integration afaik so I found them not very helpful.
I know the highly customizable Java (and .Net tools) like PMD, FindBugs and CheckStyle which generate XML or HTML statistic reports, and also integrate very well with build tools (Ant, Maven, Hudosn) - but for Delphi nothing comparable has crossed my road so far.
It seems those 2 are the most used. You can also try:
http://jedicodeformat.sourceforge.net/
The best one is Pascal Analyzer (PAL) by Peganza, which you said you tried and found unsuitable, but did not say why. I will say a bit in its favor: It's Commercial, inexpensive, and so worth it. They recently released version 5, and if version 5 doesn't do what you want, you should tell them what you want, because they have always answered my requests whenever I have mentioned a feature I wish the product would add.
We use it instead of the high-end SKUs of Delphi's metrics because it costs less and does more than the built-in $3000 stuff. I think it costs about $160 us.
I am a happy customer. Here is a sample of some of the metric areas that I like:
convention compliance - class names that don't start with T, exception types don't start with E, class fields not in private, identifiers with goofy names, class visibility confusion or bad order, local identifier/unit outer scope identifier clashes. Inconsistent case, Many many many more!
The weakness is that the output is plain text in a "TMemo" control. Of course, I have found a lot of ways to take that output and write my own small sort/filter utilities to mine even more useful stuff from the reports. A powerful tool that you won't be able to live without once you try it.
I realize you said in your answer that you tried that already, but if it's not what you want, it's already the best LINT like tool for Pascal that currently exists.
If you're into writing your own style checking, you can write a .exe in Delphi to look for bad things being committed. Call that in a pre-commit hook into your repository.
You can examine the differences of a checkin by using SVNLOOK.
ex:
excerpt from pre-commit.bat
SVNLOOK diff -t "%2" "%1" | MyCustomFilter.exe
IF %ERRORLEVEL% == 0 GOTO EOJ
EXIT 1
:EOJ
EXIT 0
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I am curious about what tools are used to build the next version of themselves.
For example, Delphi has long claimed that "Delphi is written in Delphi".
I assume Visual Studio is written using Visual Studio.
What are some other examples of tools that written in themselves?
Interestingly, the VB.NET & C# compilers themselves are written in unmanaged C++ (leading to the C++ team's T-Shirt: "My compiler compiled yours"). The C# team hopes to have a fully managed-C# hosted C# compiler for VS2010.
Bjarne Stroustrup mentioned in The Design and Evolution of C++ that the first C++ compiler was written in C++.
I've just noticed this is also a question in his FAQ:
The first C++ compiler (Cfront) was
written in C++. To build that, I first
used C to write a "C with
Classes"-to-C preprocessor. "C with
Classes" was a C dialect that became
the immediate ancestor to C++. That
preprocessor translated "C with
Classes" constructs (such as classes
and constructors) into C. It was a
traditional preprocessor that didn't
understand all of the language, left
most of the type checking for the C
compiler to do, and translated
individual constructs without complete
knowledge. I then wrote the first
version of Cfront in "C with Classes".
This is off-topic, but strictly speaking, it is an example of a tool which builds itself.
The reprap - an open-source 3d prototyping machine, which recently gave 'birth' to "its first complete working replicated copy".
I love this kind of stuff.
Generically speaking, C compilers are usually written in C... *nix kernels are compiled on *nix, etc.
Also, there's the pypy project which provides a Python interpreter written in Python.
When gcc (the Gnu C compiler http://gcc.gnu.org/) was not available widely, you had to compile it from source, compiling stage1 compiler, then compile stage2 with stage1, till you have your final compiler. I assume it must be the same today.
Here is another example: Mono's C# compiler is self hosting - i.e. it's written in C# and used to compile itself.
Dog fooding refers to the more general practice of a company using its own product internally, especially during its development.
Lots of folks like to look at how Lisp can be implemented in Lisp.
Squeak is a Smalltalk-80 implementation written in itself.
even its virtual machine is written entirely in Smalltalk making it easy to debug, analyze, and change.
Sun's Java compiler has long been written in Java. However, recent work is writing a JIT compiler in Java as well. This is the JVM component that converts Java byte code to native processor instructions.
We use to develop using RealBasic. The IDE is written in itself, or so I've been lead to believe.
ghc, the Haskell compiler, is mostly written in Haskell.
tcc is another self-hosting C compiler for x86 and ARM. Its claim to fame is being, well, tiny (100k or so for preprocessor, compiler, assembler, and linker).
I would assume that pretty much any tool that's part of the typical development process would be involved in its own development, to whatever extent possible. This includes:
certain programming languages, especially compiled ones
IDEs
text editors
version control systems
bug trackers
build systems
If you're on a team building one of these tools, and you're not developing it for a specific niche that doesn't apply to your team, I don't know why you wouldn't use it to build itself. Having developers be users of the product is one of the best ways to find possible improvements.
For the AmigaOS there was a third party Basic interpreter (don't remember the name) for which you could later buy a compiler. The compiler was delivered as source, so you had to use the interpreter to run the compiler to compile itself...
To cite Kent Beck:
...it may seem a bit like performing brain surgery on yourself.
Visual Studio and Team Foundation Server build themselves. It's called dogfooding, a term which if not originating in Microsoft, it certainly likes
Oracle Application Express is a web application development tool that is built in itself.
Eclipse IDE is generally built and developed using Eclipse IDE.
It is fairly typical to have a languages compiler written in its own language. This is called self-hosting or bootstrapping.
Maven2 is built using Maven2.
Ok, it's not built (i.e. written) using itself, as it is a tool to build (i.e. compile) project, but it is using its own code to compile...
I was amazed with JSLint
In short it has been described as Javascript "compiler" using javascript.
I am building an IDE-based code generator, and I am using it to build itself. If fact, as Stroustrup did, I am first building a valid generator model and using a pre-processor to build the final C++ code to compile. Once I have a good working version of the IDE, I'll start using it to build further versions of itself.
It's like giving a new dimension to the meaning of "recursive programming"!
AFAIK does the OpenJDK build itself first with the installed java and afterwards with itself.
Naturally the Jetbrains team uses its own IDE IntelliJ IDEA to develop this IDE.
I assume this is true for most IDE vendors.
As far as I know, when building EMACS from source, all of the ELISP code is bootstrapped. I found that quite noteworthy.
Not quite what you're asking for, but the entire development environment for Revolution http://www.runrev.com is built using Revolution itself, and the source (except for small parts that enforce the license) is completely exposed in source form. So if you don't like the way the dev environment is implemented, you can change it. Find a bug, fix it. You can also easily build additional development tools and integrate them.
Ada and Forth
I gave the Smalltalk-80 answer an uptick. Best, most elegant example I can think of. The question also reminds me of a slightly related problem that used to be popular: write a program that outputs itself. Not the same level of bootstrapping, but a fun little programming puzzle for your amusement. Maybe not possible in all languages?
The old Watcom C/C++ compiler was built using itself.
Kragen Sitaker's Ur-Scheme is a fine example of a small nontrivial compiler written in itself. That page links to several more good sources in that vein.
Are there any support tools like coderush or resharper for F#?
Preview version of FSharpRefactor released in Visual Studio Gallery.
http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/339cbae9-911d-4f99-9033-3c3564676f45
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6-YjUULNCA/
F# Refactor open source project on CodePlex (Apache license).
Take a look at the open-source Visual F# Power Tools project. They've got a rename refactoring, some code generation stuff (eg. record stub generation), graying out of unused declarations, as well as some other things. They're moving pretty fast at the moment, with lots of new features getting added all the time.
There's an effort to support F# in ReSharper via an external plug-in (itself written in F#). You can find preliminary info here.
FSharpRefactor 0.1 (Preview version) Released on the Visual Studio Gallery.
http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/339cbae9-911d-4f99-9033-3c3564676f45?SRC=Home
Not yet, as far as I know. I was also looking for something similar to no success. I suspect as soon as F# hits VS2010 as its integral part, or even a bit earlier, such tools will eventually emerge.
As far as ReSharper is concerned, you may want to drop JetBrains a quick email, it would be interesting to know whether these guys have any plans regarding F#.
Since the push in f# is towards light mode the reformatting possible is likely to be both limited, and hard to implement.
Normally reformatting takes the structural information and uses that to create the textual position. In the case of #light the textual position (of indenting at least) is the structure. As such any reformatting would be at best to sort inter symbol spacing, hardly onerous to do yourself.
I would therefore not expect a commercial product for it at least until the 'proper' integration with the IDE (I do not consider the current CTP proper in this regard since several outstanding bugs with it exist which will not be fixed in 2008)
CodeRush is working in F# editor. At least some code assistance and code templates. But code templates are not defined yet (you have to create your own).