Are you ready for the Functional? Matthew Podwysocki has blogged about F#, a functional programming language. He provides, in fact, a nifty introduction. His initial ‘F# 101′ post warns: You must first understand the differences between imperative and functional programming, in order to work with F#.

F# arose from MS Research. It runs on Microsoft’s Common Language Runtime and the .NET Framework. Check out the SearchWinDevelopment.com F# Programming Fast Guide for more background on the language.

Also noteworthy on Podwysocki’s site is a post informing that the second Alt.NET conference opened for registration. The event is set for April in Seattle. Oops, the set is open to a limited number of registrants - a subsequent Podwysocki post informs that registration has closed. Must be a lot of fans of Alt in Seattle.

The folks in Microsoft Research have been trying out ideas in functional programming for quite a while. Not too long ago, Microsoft moved to begin to include aspects of F# in Visual Studio.

If you want a good starting point for a any F# research you may have considred, take a look at SearchWinDevelopment.com. The site has pulled together a valuable set of F# resources.

Functional programming emerged to some extent with the original version of Lisp. Its potential benefits include mathematical programming style and a strong type system. Microsoft’s interest in F# portends a general movement which could see ever more languages being supported by the CLR.