According to the relevant sources, F# is to be productized as a bona-fide language, not just a 'research project'.

I worry as others do that F# will shoot over the heads of too many of us programmers... with PLinq coming to C# mainstream we'll probably avoid needing to think about it all together...

And i fear Steve Thompson has a point with his response:

"likelihood of the average .Net programmer picking up this language is vanishingly remote"

but i disagree on principle with his statement that:

"...syntax a huge obstacle to understanding the fundamental..."

I've seen too many dyed-in-the-wool programmers argue that VB.net or C# is fundamentally superior to C#/Vb.net on such shallow basis.

I'm convinced that syntax is tangential for anyone who *uses* a language in anger. The human brain is far more maleable. After you tackle a few languages we learn to think in a meta-language far richer than what we merely type. (Yeh, 'Why' - I'm throwing down the damn gauntlet to your ridiculous claim, that Ruby is 'the language of our thoughts'.. grow up Why! Get a better set of lungs you wheezing freakazoid! just kidding i love your work, even you're so damn wrong. Yet admirable and funny.. and wrong! damn you, wrong!)

(new sub theory, regarding the age-old question, which is better a terse or a verbose syntax? -- in the early days of learning to program, a verbose syntax is better, but later a terse syntax is better. Hence, more experienced programmers appreciate terse syntax even in languages that are new to them. An ideal language, meanwhile, would allow for both, without causing disadvantrage either group. This is impossible, of course, hence language wars are inexorable.

One respondent, clearly a Pythonista, said, somewhat naïvely:

"This looks like Microsoft's solution to Python."

A fairer comment would've been: 'This looks like Microsoft's response and extension to O'Caml' -- which it is.

Enough on F#... let me say:

if your application has Ugly Corners You Wish to Beautify:
Consider F#.

If you have thoughts too beautiful for your day job:
Consider F#.

If you pose parallel solutions to problems posed in serial:
Consider F#.

If you... want to...

then please...

Consider F#!!!

(ps. It doesn't stand for Fortran.net.)