When comparing F# (via FunScript) vs Earl Grey, the Slant community recommends Earl Grey for most people. In the question“What are the best languages that compile to JavaScript? ” Earl Grey is ranked 29th while F# (via FunScript) is ranked 36th. The most important reason people chose Earl Grey is:
Earl Grey's macro system allows for creating powerful control structures that look just like builtin ones. EG also supports macro libraries which allows developers to provide their macros/DSLs for others to use.
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Pros
Pro Easier transition from other paradigms
Since F# is not a purely functional language, it lends itself to being more easily picked up by programmers that have experience with other paradigms.
Pro Concise syntax
F#'s syntax tends to be terse while remaining very readable and easy to understand without being a chore to write.
Pro Runs on the CLR
Since F# runs on the Common Language Runtime or CLR, it has access to the entire .NET Framework, as well as libraries written in other .NET languages such as C#, VB.NET, and C++/CLI.
Pro Powerful hygienic macros
Earl Grey's macro system allows for creating powerful control structures that look just like builtin ones. EG also supports macro libraries which allows developers to provide their macros/DSLs for others to use.
Pro Pattern matching
Pattern matching is an incredibly powerful tool that, once you've tried, you cannot live without. This is not your average hacked-together pattern matching but a complete and integral feature to the language.
Pro ECMAScript 6 Asynchrony
Earl Grey provides Promises based on ECMAScript version 6 and as many NPM libraries already implement. Earl Grey also provides a promisify
function that converts old-fashioned callback-style asynchrony to promises.
Pro Fully compatible with Node.js ecosystem
Anything available on NPM can be used just as easily with Earl Grey. In fact, everything else can be used too! Earl Grey has interfaces to Browserify, Webpack, and even experimental support for SystemJS. Earl Grey can even be used to generate npm packages that any node-compatible language can use!
Cons
Con Not really cross platform
Though the community sites are touting F# can be cross platform through use of Mono, the reality is that it is more of a hack to replay on larger mono applications in production.
Con Not true static typing
EG gives you the tools to implement your own type-checking inside of argument lists and elsewhere but there's no analysis done at compile-time like other compile-to-js languages.
Con Unfamiliar syntax
While the language shares a lot of DNA with Python, there are still many new (and interesting) features/sugar that may take some time to get used to.
