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When it runs on the JVM, call me. In the meantime check out Scala.

When the JVM is fixed, call me. In the meantime check out Mono.

how is the mono VM better than the JVM? in particular, the JVM is at least 2x faster for most benchmarks.
Scala is also very close in speed to Java, due to the heavy use of type inference.

Tail calls are essential in this context (functional programming). Like .NET, Mono fully supports tail calls. The JVM does not support tail calls. Moreover, there are workarounds for the JVM but they are all so ugly, invasive and inefficient that languages like Scala don't implement them.

scala has tail-end optimisation but only if the recursion is back to the same function. so, for instance, it wouldn't optimise for mutually recursive functions. agreed, it's not ideal, but it's not a showstopper for scala which is a mixed paradigm language.

Honestly don't like F# because it runs on .NET? Scala is cool and everything but it seems like functional programming with object oriented training wheels.