This seems to depend on Silverlight and so doesn't work on my system. (Actually, I'm just guessing that it needs Silverlight--the page explaining why it doesn't work also doesn't work. Either way, it doesn't work.)
You should check out OCaml on the browser[1]. This takes advantage of js_of_ocaml, which is a very good OCaml to JavaScript compiler. You can also try running OCaml with access to the browser apis[2], which is pretty cool.
The reason the dependency exists is because silverlight includes the .net compiler and, in addition to literally executing the code on the client, is used for a lot of the IDE sugar, like Intellisense. Additionally, you don't just get the f# language here but also access to a lot of the standard .net libraries. So while I agree it's annoying that the dependency exists, it's not an arbitrary requirement to do accomplish something that could have easily been replicated in another technology
Sure, but what makes the whole "in a browser" genre interesting is that (usually) you don't need special dependencies to get started. If I need Silverlight and the whole .NET compiler, why not just tell me to download Visual F# Express Edition to get started?
Because silverlight takes all of 15 seconds to download and install, and Visual F# is an hour+ to install, plus a couple hundred megabytes of additional assets?
I don't do windows development, and I've never installed any of the Visual <insert proprietary language here> environments, but I cannot believe that Visual F# takes over an hour to install. Is this true?
I guess it's an effect/payoff tradeoff. All the same, it's an annoying reminder of how Silverlight helped in a very small way to tarnish the web for Linux and Mac users.
I anticipated "works for me" comments, I have no doubt experiences vary. I've installed Moonlight dozens of times in both Firefox and Chrome. I've used Silverlight on my MBA. I can absolutely say they are second class compared to Windows with Linux being unusable for anything interactive Silverlight and I can say for certain that the Azure portal was often unstable or annoying to deal with in Mac in the pre-HTML5-Azure portal era.
Well, if you're going to dismiss anecdotes, you probably shouldn't provide your own. (OS X Silverlight always seemed to work okay for me, too).
That said, the Azure portal never seemed to work that great for me, even if I was running Silverlight on a Windows box. The HTML5 portal actually seems worse, to me, though.
Sorry, I wasn't trying to dismiss them, I was saying that while Silverlight for Mac works for somethings, it doesn't work for plenty. Further, not a single person in this thread has defended interactive Silverlight in Linux because Moonlight has never been but a joke.
I don't know how you can find the new portal to be worse. That Silverlight portal was one of the single worst thing I've ever used in my life. The HTML5 portal is quite nice, it uses the same endpoints the VS extension uses, giving them a single point of entry for management actions. I'm happy with the management portal now but am already aware of the CLI tools too.
It doesn't have all the great learning resources that tryfsharp has but I believe tryfs.net works by sending the code for compilation on the server so you don't need silverlight:
You should check out OCaml on the browser[1]. This takes advantage of js_of_ocaml, which is a very good OCaml to JavaScript compiler. You can also try running OCaml with access to the browser apis[2], which is pretty cool.
[1]: http://try.ocamlpro.com/
[2]: http://try.ocamlpro.com/js_of_ocaml/