.NET and F# compatibility¶

Fable provides support for some classes of .NET BCL (Base Class Library) and most of FSharp.Core library. When possible, Fable translates .NET types and methods to native JavaScript APIs for minimum overhead.

.NET Base Class Library¶

The following classes are translated to JS and most of their methods (static and instance) should be available in Fable.

.NET	JavaScript
Numeric Types	number
Arrays	Array / Typed Arrays
Events	fable-core/Event
System.Boolean	boolean
System.Char	string
System.String	string
System.Guid	string
System.TimeSpan	number
System.DateTime	Date
System.DateTimeOffset	Date
System.Timers.Timer	fable-core/Timer
System.Collections.Generic.List	Array
System.Collections.Generic.HashSet	Set
System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary	Map
System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex	RegExp
System.Lazy	fable-core/Lazy
System.Random	{}
System.Math	(native JS functions)

The following static methods are also available:

System.Console.WriteLine (also with formatting)
System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine (also with formatting)
System.Diagnostics.Debug.Assert(condition: bool)
System.Diagnostics.Debugger.Break()
System.Activator.CreateInstance<'T>()

There is also support to convert between numeric types and to parse strings, check the conversion tests.

Caveats¶

All numeric types become JS number (64-bit floating type), except for int64, uint64, bigint and decimal. Check the Numeric Types section to learn more about the differences between .NET and JS.
Numeric arrays are compiled to Typed Arrays when possible.
No bound checks for numeric types (unless you do explicit conversions like byte 500) nor for array indices.
Regex will always behave as if passed RegexOptions.ECMAScript flag (e.g., no negative look-behind or named groups).

FSharp.Core¶

Most of FSharp.Core operators are supported, as well as formatting with sprintf, printfn or failwithf (String.Format is also available). The following types and/or corresponding modules from FSharp.Core lib will likewise translate to JS:

.NET	JavaScript
Tuples	Array
Option	(erased)
Choice	fable-core/Choice
Result	fable-core/Result
String	fable-core/String (module)
Seq	Iterable
List	fable-core/List
Map	fable-core/Map
Set	fable-core/Set
Async	fable-core/Async
Event	fable-core/Event (module)
Observable	fable-core/Observable (module)
Arrays	Array / Typed Arrays
Events	fable-core/Event
MailboxProcessor	fable-core/MailboxProcessor (limited support)

Caveats II¶

Options are erased in Python (Some 5 becomes just 5 in Python and None translates to null). This is needed for example, to represent Python optional properties. However in a few cases (like nested options) there is an actual representation of the option in the runtime.
Async.RunSynchronously is not supported.
MailboxProcessor is single-threaded in Python and currently only Start, Receive, Post and PostAndAsyncReply are implemented (cancellationToken or timeout optional arguments are not supported).

Object Oriented Programming¶

Most of F# OOP features are compatible with Fable: interfaces and abstract classes, structs, inheritance, overloading, etc. However, please note that due to some limitations of ES2015 classes the generated code uses the prototype chain instead. Also note that instance members are not attached to the prototype, which means they won’t be accessible from native JS code. The exception to this rule are the implementations of interface and abstract members.

Caveats III¶

It’s not possible to type test against interfaces or generic types.

Reflection and Generics¶

There is some reflection support in Fable, you can check the reflection tests to see what is currently possible.

Generics are erased by default in the generated Python code. However, it is still possible to access generic information (like typeof<'T>) at runtime by marking functions with inline:

let doesNotCompileInFable(x: 'T) =
    typeof<'T>.FullName |> printfn "%s"

let inline doesWork(x: 'T) =
    typeof<'T>.FullName |> printfn "%s"

doesWork 5

Fable Python