Mission Statement
F# is a programming language that runs predominantly on dotnet.
The larger F# ecosystem (compiler/tooling/frameworks) consists out of open-source software.
When dealing with open-source software it is important that it is sustainable and future-proof.
Otherwise, as an enterprise, you cannot justify choosing F# over any other language
when there are no guarantees that the language will sustain the test of time.
It is important that the F# ecosystem stays healthy and can attract new companies that will use F# in their production code. When companies make money using F#, money can flow back into the F# ecosystem. As it stands today, we believe a more targeted effort is required to achieve balance in this flow.
The Messiah problem
F# is known to face a “Messiah problem”. One individual or organisation is carrying the weight of a popular project. Said project has no sustainable funding and thus is completely at the mercy of the individual or company. This is not healthy and can lead to burn-out situations with the maintainers. Any popular project should not be abandoned when one individual or organisation does not have the bandwidth or energy to respond.
More companies should get involved in popular projects and earn a seat at the table. The prosperity of an open-source project should be influenced by the commercial user-base. It should be normalized that companies actually contribute back to their most-widely used projects.
There is no need in playing the waiting game for that matter. Don’t wait until a project lost its sole maintainer to step up and take responsibility.
Giving back
To make a substantial difference in a project (be it solving a bug or adding a feature) actual code needs to be written. Being able to code, the skill every software developer possesses, is the one thing we are after in our endeavour. We need people that use F# for developing commercial software, to do some of that coding on open-source projects.
Why people in the enterprise landscape? Because they can reliably contribute during working hours. That is the effort we are seeking companies to do. Let your brilliant engineers work on the tooling they use on a daily basis. Let us sharpen the saw and make everybody more productive in F#.
By all means, we do not wish to exclude any other F# enthusiasts, but our main focus group are developers coding in F# for a living. Companies should give back to the open-source language that is making them money. They can easily do that by granting some time to contribute to F# open-source.
Who are we?
We are a group of independent individuals, not tied to any organisation, with an ambition to see F# grow.
What brought us together is our aspiration to make an actual difference in the F# open-source landscape.
United we can take this F# ecosystem to the next level. By hand-ons collaboration and targeted efforts.
Enter the hive
The world of open-source software can be quite overwhelming to get your feet wet in. There is a lot to learn and you might not be confident that you can contribute actually code changes. Just like when starting a new job, you need to learn a new codebase. An open-source project is no different. You can read more about this experience in Edgar’s testimonial. And that is why we want to invoke our collective hive-mind to help people get started. We want to guide you as best as we can to scratch your own itch in the open-source space.
What to contribute?
Literally anything (within reason 😸) you want to see improved in your daily F# experience. Be it a compiler feature, tooling improvement, performance increase, … There is so much work left to do in the F# eco-system and there for sure is something we can do that will rock your boat.
Convincing your boss?
In practical terms, you should see this initiative as two things: educational and an attempt to improve daily productivity.
There is a lot you can learn from pair/mob programming with seasoned F# developers from all over the world. The diversity of backgrounds can broaden your perspective and genuinely make you better at your job.
Being able to solve outstanding problems that hinder your day-to-day flow, will reward itself over time.
If you need more help to convince your boss, you can refer to our incitation letter or reach out to us and we would happily chime in.
Testimonials
Explore the experiences of individuals who have contributed to open-source projects within the F# community.