F # Compiler and Version Version Number

Question

I am unable to figure out which version of the F # Core runtime library should be used in conjunction with the Mono platform (.NET 3.5).

• Installed with Microsoft.Net 4.5 comes with two versions of the FSharp Core runtime, 2.3.0.0 and 4.3.0.0. I assume that the first one is for use in the .NET framework 2.0 and later, and the second is only for .NET 4.0 or later. Is this assumption correct?
• Since FSharp is now open source and available on Github, I can check the last tag, build it and use the FSharp.Core DLL that it creates in my project. What I don't know is how does the version number in the FSharp source file relate to the closed source code included in the .NET package?
• The open source compiler version is now 3.0.25, and the closed source compiler seems to be 4.0, I am confused:
  • How does the FSharp.Core Runtime version (also 3.0.25) from the open source project relate to the closed version 2.3.0.0? Since the number 3.0.25 is much higher than 2.3.0.0, I assume that the open source version is much newer, but I'm not sure, because I do not know if version numbers can be compared.
  • NuGet, on the other hand, offers FSharp.Core 2.0 and 4.0, which seems pretty old. Why is the new version not yet uploaded to NuGet?

Answer 1

You combine two different version numbers; not that I blame you, although I understand how this can be confusing if you are new to F # and / or .NET.

• Correctly. Version 2.3.0.0 for FSharp.Core is intended for use with .NET 2.0 (and 3.0 and 3.5, which are (mostly) extended versions of .NET 2.0); version 4.3.0.0 is for .NET 4.0 and 4.5.
• The latest version of F # is F # 3.0. This is the version that ships with Visual Studio 2012. NOTE: . Here 3.0 is the language version that has nothing to do with the version of the .NET Framework that you want to run. The F # repository on GitHub uses version tags (i.e. .25 part 3.0.25), so it’s easier to say whether you need to upgrade to a newer version; changes usually just build scripts, installers, etc. - but rarely, these are changes to the F # compiler and / or library.
• If you create the code from the F # GitHub repository, and the compiled assembly FSharp.Core has version 3.0.25, please open a new problem in Github about this - it should have the same version numbers as the "true" F # libraries from Microsoft. The only difference should be in the public key with which the subscriptions are signed.
• I don’t know why the new versions are not on NuGet - it was probably just forgotten. Now I will open a question about this to make sure they are added as soon as possible.