[bunderbunder]

F# is a member of the ML family, but I'd really hesitate to call it the .NET OCaml. It would be similarly accurate to say that Objective-C is the Apple C++.

They belong to the same family, and they both share a common ancestor that is not object-oriented. But their object systems are very different from each other.

[yellowapple]

> It would be similarly accurate to say that Objective-C is the Apple C++.

Well it's not inaccurate. Both of them were designed to make C object-oriented, and they tend to be used for many of the same situations because of that.

A more accurate nomenclature would be ".NET's OCaml-equivalent" or "Apple's C++-equivalent" (much like how C# is characterized as ".NET's Java-equivalent). This falls apart with thorough inspection, of course, but it's good enough for tongue-in-cheek comparisons like this.

[nbevans]

F# has a compiler flag to force it to use OCaml syntax parsing. It basically amounts to just being a strict mode. Because F# has very slightly more forgiving syntax than OCaml; but essentially almost identical.

To call it the .NET OCaml is not too far from the truth. And it was clearly meant tongue in cheek!