Exercise - Set up your F# development environment

  • 5 minutes

In this exercise, set up your F# development environment by installing the .NET SDK, Visual Studio Code, and the F# Ionide extension.

Install .NET SDK

To get started writing code with F#, install the .NET SDK.

  1. Download and install .NET SDK for your operating system.
  2. Verify that the .NET SDK has installed successfully

    1. Open the terminal

    2. Enter the following .NET CLI command

      dotnet --version

    3. The following output is similar to what displays in the console. Your version might be different, but as long as the version information is output to the console, it means everything is installed correctly.

      5.0.302

Install Visual Studio Code & Ionide F# extension

Once you have the .NET SDK installed, install Visual Studio Code and the Ionide extension.

  1. Download and install Visual Studio Code for your operating system.
  2. After you install Visual Studio Code, open it.
  3. Select the Extensions icon from the Activity Bar to open the Extensions view.
  4. In the Extensions view, search for Ionide for F#.
  5. Select Install.

Screenshot of the Visual Studio Code extensions view that displays the F# Ionide extension install page with a box around the Install button.