Don Syme

Australian computer scientist

Don Syme is an Australian computer scientist and a Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research, Cambridge, U.K. He is the designer and architect of the F# programming language, described by a reporter as being regarded as "the most original new face in computer languages since Bjarne Stroustrup developed C++ in the early 1980s."^[1]

Earlier, Syme created generics in the .NET Common Language Runtime, including the initial design of generics for the C# programming language, along with others including Andrew Kennedy^[1]^[2] and later Anders Hejlsberg. Kennedy, Syme and Dachuan Yu also formalized this widely used system.^[3]

He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge,^[1] and is a member of the IFIP working group on functional programming. He is a co-author of the book Expert F# 3.0.^[4]

In the past he also worked on formal specification, interactive proof, automated verification and proof description languages.^[5]

In 2015, he was honored with a Silver Medal from the Royal Academy of Engineering.^[6]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Syme, Don. "Interview with Don Syme", Simple Talk, 19 January 2010.
^ Kennedy and Syme, http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=378797 "Design and implementation of generics for the .NET Common language runtime"
^ Kennedy, Syme, Yu http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=964005 "Formalization of generics for the .NET common language runtime"
^ Syme, Don et al. "Expert F# at Apress", Apress, November 2012.
^ Syme, Don. "Don Syme at Microsoft Research", 19 January 2010.
^ "Microsoft researcher Don Syme honored with Silver Medal from Royal Academy of Engineering".

External links

Don's Weblog on F#
InfoQ Interview with Don Syme, 27 March 2009
F# at Microsoft Research

ML programming

Software

Implementations,
dialects

Caml	OCaml° Eff F*° F#° JoCaml° Reason°
Standard ML	Alice° Extended ML MLton° Standard ML of New Jersey° (SML/NJ)
Dependent ML	ATS°

Concurrent ML
Futhark°
Lazy ML
MacroML
Ur°

Programming tools

Alt-Ergo°

Astrée

Camlp4°

FFTW°

Frama-C°

Haxe°

Marionnet°

MTASC°

Poplog°

Semgrep°

SLAM project

Theorem provers,
proof assistants

Coq°
HOL°
- HOL Light°
Isabelle°
LEGO
Logic for Computable Functions
Matita°
Twelf°

GeneWeb°

Community

Designers	Lennart Augustsson (Lazy ML) Damien Doligez (OCaml) Gérard Huet (Caml) Xavier Leroy (Caml, OCaml) Robin Milner (ML) Don Sannella (Extended ML) Don Syme (F#)