Is it possible to install F# on Windows XP?

-2

For my "Interface Programming" exam at the university I must bring a project in F# with Windows Forms (it's mandatory, I can't use another framework or language). The problem is that I have a Mac. I already tried running F# and Windows Forms with Mono, but it doesn't work well (or at all). I also tried to partition the hard drive and install Windows, but I ran into some problems and cannot partition the drive.

My Mac is not powerful enough to run Windows 10 inside a virtual machine, so I was wondering if it is possible to run F# and Windows Forms on Windows XP inside a VM.

If you have other suggestions I'm all ears.

Gerardo Zinno

Posted 2019-06-18T01:10:24.463

Reputation: 209

I don't know the answer to your question but what mac do you have? I run Windows 10 on 2006 Macbook Pro and it works fine. Perhaps you should consider persevering with the Boot Camp option and open a separate question if you are having partitioning issues. – lx07 – 2019-06-18T07:06:30.270

I don't know but A) There is a visual studio for Mac B) you can look into what visual studio runs in XP and if that visual studio supports F# C) You can ask your parents to get you a really cheap laptop that can run wndows 7.. you should be able to find one for $150 or less. $150 is nothnig compared to college fees so i'm sure they'll be ok with that. And it's a bit of a one off payment not like loads of $40 books every semester. – barlop – 2019-06-18T12:35:14.563

1a macbook is a nice bonus, but you'll struggle donig a computing course iif you don't have a windows computer! – barlop – 2019-06-18T12:36:42.707

@barlop college fees are 300€ – Gerardo Zinno – 2019-06-18T14:35:36.057

@GerardoZinno That's cheap but that's still a semester I guess, and a laptop with windows 7 will last years. And a budget laptop with windows 7 will still not be much money for anybody that is working. Seems worth it for college(which is worth a lot even if you don't pay a lot!) – barlop – 2019-06-18T17:50:02.923

Current Visual Studio Code versions require at least Windows 7. However, it seems that older versions also supported Windows XP. I found Visual Studio Code version 1.14.2, which the documentation claims runs in Windows XP. Unfortunately, I cannot test this claim.

– harrymc – 2019-06-18T20:52:13.973

mono does not support windows forms, it only winforms only works on windows. you have to use GTK, QT or or Avalalon – MichaelEvanchik – 2019-06-19T14:26:03.283

Answers

0

Run Ubuntu 18.04 from a virtual machine or from a live USB by following the instructions in this answer. Then open the terminal and install the F# compiler using the following command:

sudo apt install fsharp mono-complete
sudo snap install monowinformsspy

The fsharp package contains an F# compiler targeting the CLI runtime.

Visual Studio Code is a full-featured code editor that has F# support via a choice of several F# extensions in the Visual Studio Code Extensions Marketplace. To install Visual Studio Code open the terminal and type:

sudo snap install vscode --classic

Once you start programming on the Ubuntu platform you'll probably use it again and again, because Ubuntu is a versatile OS and many programming language compilers and other programming packages can be installed from the default Ubuntu repositories.

For WinForms you will need to install MonoDevelop1 from the official MonoDevelop website. MonoDevelop is a cross platform IDE for C#, F# and more.

In Ubuntu 18.04 open the terminal and type:

sudo apt install apt-transport-https dirmngr
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv-keys 3FA7E0328081BFF6A14DA29AA6A19B38D3D831EF
echo "deb https://download.mono-project.com/repo/ubuntu vs-bionic main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mono-official-vs.list
sudo apt update

karel

Posted 2019-06-18T01:10:24.463

Reputation: 11 374

You'll have a bad time trying to use winforms with Visual Studio Code. – T. Sar – 2019-06-24T18:54:46.997

Asked: 2019-06-18T01:10:24.463

Viewed: 98 times

Active: 2019-06-24T21:55:09.073