F# is a multi-paradigm programming language developed in the 1990s by researchers at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. Unlike the F# language created by Microsoft, this version of F# emphasizes advanced functional programming features and has a stronger orientation towards academic and scientific computing use cases. F# was initially conceived in the early 1990s and the first public release came in 1998. Over the following decade, the language steadily evolved and gained a dedicated following in the UK academic and scientific computing communities, particularly among mathematicians, physicists, and other researchers. While not as widely adopted as some other programming languages, F# has found a strong following in domains such as scientific computing, machine learning and AI, and the creation of domain-specific languages for research and engineering applications.