Simplest Visual Studio That Supports C# and F#

Question

What is the simplest version of Visual Studio (professional, enterprise, or other) that I could purchase that supports C# or F# development?

It looks like F# is downloadable from Microsoft for no charge and comes in configurations that would allow .Net and non-.Net development with or without Visual Studio. Am I missing something?

Is the same true for C#? That is is it downloadable without cost?

Thank you.

Answer 1

The simplest single version of Visual Studio which supports both developing in F# and C# is professional.

It's possible to install multiple free versions of the Visual Studio shell to allow you to develop C# and F# locally

• C# via Express SKU
• F# via Free Tools + Isolated Shell

This won't give you a single IDE though for developing in both languages.

Answer 2

C# is downloadable without cost as either part of the Windows SDK (which provides a commandline compiler csc) or Visual C# Express, which provides an IDE.

F# is available either in commandline form (fsc) or as a Visual Studio plugin, which requires the VS Shell (which is freely downloadable) or a full (non-Express) Visual Studio.

This means that you must purchase at least VS Professional to open both types of projects in the same editor, but you could also use a combination of VS Express and VS Shell for free.