Introduction to using F# on Windows in E-Bar

F# compiler, F# Interactive and Visual Studio 2010 have been installed on Windows in E-Bar. If you use Visual Studio 2010 for the first time there, remember to choose F# as the default development environment. The guideline focuses on using F# Interactive to test and run programs. Using F# compiler and creating F# application are beyond scope of this guideline.

If you are a Visual Studio advanced user, you may select File > New > New Project > Visual F# > F# application to create a new F# project. However, the recommended way to start is creating a new F# file and testing it with F# Interactive as follows:

• Create a new F# file by selecting File > New > File > F# Source File and save it in your preferred location.
• Write some code, select the code fragment you want to run, right click and choose Send to Interactive.

If you want to open an existing file, select File > Recent Files or select File > Open > File and browse its folder.

First exercise: save this program on your H-drive, open in with Visual Studio 2010 and run it in the interactive environment.

Phan Anh Dung, August 31, 2011