Within the .NET ecosystem, F# is often mentioned as a promising alternative to C#, but its practical value in C#-centric codebases is not well understood. Claims about improved code quality and maintainability are common, yet empirical evidence is limited. This assignment investigates the real-world impact, costs, and trade-offs of adopting F# alongside C#.

💡Areas of Interest: Functional Programming, .NET, C#, F#, Software Quality

Most .NET developers write code in the imperative C# programming language. But C# is not the only programming language that .NET supports. Although C# is the industry standard because of its maturity, tooling, and community support, F# is a functional alternative that promises cleaner syntax, stronger null-safety, and improved maintainability. Community blogs and Microsoft documentation claim it can enhance code quality and reduce defects, but such claims are largely anecdotal and lack empirical support. Moreover, little is known about the practical trade-offs of adopting F# within C#-centric codebases, especially in terms of integration cost, developer learning curve and long-term value.

Currently, there's no structured, empirical study validating these benefits and trade-offs in a realistic C#-centric development context. For developers and teams considering adoption, it's unclear what F# truly delivers, how expensive integration is, and whether it pays off in practice.

The Assignment

Your research should evaluate the practical impact and integration cost of F# in a C# codebase. You will conduct a literature review on claims about F# benefits and interoperability. You will then research the validity of these claims in real-world projects. Examples of metrics you could research are:

• Cyclomatic complexity

• Number of lines of code

• Efficiency

• Compiler errors

• Interoperability issues between C# and F#

• Build/test durations

• Cost of educating C# developers to write good F# code

You could also supplement this with qualitative data via interviews or surveys with .NET developers.

In other words, the goal of your thesis is to move from bold claims to academically founded and reliable decision criteria for companies evaluating whether adopting F# is worthwhile.

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