... and now I've got to worry about F#!

F# is a programming language that provides the much sought-after combination of type safety, performance and scripting, with all the advantages of running on a high-quality, well-supported modern runtime system: .NET.

Unlike other scripting languages (JScript of VBScript) it executes at or near the speed of C# and C++, making use of the performance that comes through strong typing. Unlike many statically-typed languages it also supports many dynamic language techniques, such as property discovery and reflection where needed. F# includes extensions for working across languages and for object-oriented programming, and it works seamlessly with other .NET programming languages and tools.

Now I don't pretend to understand most of that (although by the second read it started to make sense!) it's a pretty cool language that you can develop using Visual Studio (even the free Express version).

The performance claims are not exaggerated. It can be used to churn through huge amounts of data quickly and (possibly even cooler) write XNA based games for the XBox360.

So much to learn, so little time! I'm glad they skipped D# and E# (they did skip them didn't they... I didn't miss something else important?) or I'd never be able to keep up!

Update: looks like I did miss D and E, though I guess I'm ahead of the game as I did use Z back in the days when I wrote code that ran under CICS (I've still got the manuals somewhere I think - probably in the attic along with my Smalltalk and Prolog ones!)