F# for the W(in|eb): Type providers and FunScript with Tomas Petricek

F# for the W(in|eb): Type providers and FunScript

In this talk, we'll look at two exciting open-source projects from the F# community and we'll put them together to build REST and HTML5 based web applications using all the goodies of F# including static typing, asynchronous workflows, type providers and nice tooling.

We'll look how to work with CSV, XML and JSON data using the F# Data library ( http://fsharp.github.io/FSharp.Data ). These can be useful outside of the web, but the main topic for this talk is the Web, so we'll focus on calling REST APIs in a simple and type-safe way. We'll also have a quick look at an experimental type provider that automatically imports an entire REST API described using Apiary.io ( http://www.apiary.io ).

Next, we'll move from developing and calling server-side to the client. We'll look at FunScript ( http://funscript.info ) which is a light-weight F# library that lets you easily develop single-page applications running as JavaScript. Expect some elegant F# code using asynchronous workflows to express user interaction and type providers to call REST services, but all running live as JavaScript on your phone!

About Tomas

Tomas Petricek is a long time F# enthusiast, using F# since the early Microsoft Research versions. He has been a Microsoft C# MVP since 2004, and together with Jon Skeet wrote Real-world Functional Programming which explains basic functional concepts using C# 3.0 (teaching F# alongside) and which shows several appealing real-world uses of F# and functional techniques. He also contributed to the development of F# during two internships at Microsoft Research in Cambridge.

Tomas is also a founding member of the F# Software Foundation (http://fsharp.org/foundation.html), whose mission is to promote, protect, and advance the F# programming language, and to support and facilitate the growth of a diverse and international community of F# programmers.