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DCFSharp.Oct2013

Quick Links:

This is the starter code for D.C. area F# Meetup on October 23, 2013. It showcases building simple interactive browser animations with F#/WebSharper by implementing 2D boids, a simple artificial bird flocking algorithm running natively in the browser in JavaScript over Canvas. We hope to get creative tweaking the code over the course of the session.

Highlights

  • JavaScript is the new portable assembly language
  • F# much more fun to work with than JavaScript, no?
  • F# gives types without making you type them..
  • WebSharper makes using F# for both server (CLR) and client (JS) easy
  • Starting from screwed up imperative APIs (Canvas), it is easy to "functionalize" a bit in F#
  • Performance on modern browsers surprisingly good without optimization
  • Can use meta-programming to get more performance
  • Bright future for performant x-platform JS apps: WebGL, asm.js

Requirements

  • Visual Studio 2012/2013 (Express for Web or one of the professional editions)
  • F# 3.0
  • NuGet package manager 2.7+
  • WebSharper (2.5-alpha+)

Building

Restore packages with nuget.exe restore, or by opening the solution in Visual Studio. Unfortunately due to an issue with NuGet, opening in VS requires a studio restart after the packages are restored.

Press F5, the demo should show up in the browser.

Code Walkthrough

  • Vectors2D.fs - simple vector arithmetic with d = 2
  • Shapes.fs - functional "shape" abstraction as an alternative to the Canvas interface
  • Client.fs - entry-point of the app, generating some DOM nodes and behaviors
  • Extensions.fs - helper methods missing from standard library
  • Boids.fs - the boids flocking model
  • Main.fs - server-side boilerplate
  • Main.html - wrapper template for the app

License

All code available under Apache 2.0 license.

Credits

Boids model was created in 1987 by Craig Reynolds, and there is a dedicated homepage by the author.

Conrad Parker has a very helpful pseudocode tutorial to get started quickly.