F* (programming language)
 | |
| Paradigm | multi-paradigm: functional, imperative, formal verification |
|---|---|
| Designed by | Microsoft Research, MSR-Inria, and Inria |
| Stable release | 0.9.2.0 / February 1, 2016 |
| Typing discipline | static, strong, inferred, dependent types, formal verification |
| OS |
Cross-platform (Windows, OS X, and Linux) |
| License | Apache 2.0 License |
| Website |
www |
| Influenced by | |
| F#, OCaml, Standard ML, Fine, F7, F5, FX, HTT, Trellys, Zombie, Dafny | |
F* (pronounced F star) is an ML-like functional programming language aimed at program verification. Its type system includes polymorphism, dependent types, monadic effects, and refinement types. Together, these features allow expressing precise specifications for programs, including functional correctness properties. The F* type-checker aims to prove that programs meet their specifications using a combination of SMT solving and manual proofs. Programs written in F* can be translated to OCaml or F# for execution. Previous versions of F* could also be translated to JavaScript.
The latest version of F* is written entirely in F*, and bootstraps in OCaml and F#. It is open source (under the Apache 2.0 License) and is under active development on GitHub.
References
Swamy, Nikhil; Hriţcu, Cătălin; Keller, Chantal; Rastogi, Aseem; Delignat-Lavaud, Antoine; Forest, Simon; Bhargavan, Karthikeyan; Fournet, Cédric; Strub, Pierre-Yves; Kohlweiss, Markulf; Zinzindohoue, Jean-Karim; Zanella-Béguelin, Santiago (2016). "Dependent Types and Multi-Monadic Effects in F*". 44nd ACM SIGPLAN-SIGACT Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages.
External links
- F* Homepage
- F* source code on GitHub
- F* tutorial
- A fully abstract compiler from F* to JavaScript (outdated)