As of now - F# needs more work w.r.t. support for [<Struct; IsByRefLike>] types and byref<'T>s. There's a reason ref lifetime analysis in Roslyn is quite a sophisticated part of its implementation even if most developers aren't aware of it.
F# has other cool features like `inline` bindings and [<IlineIfLambda>] function attributes but I found it more difficult to work with for systems programming when attempting to stay within safe constructs.
With that said - F# is an incredible language, but for systems programming you are likely to get better results in C#. I hope eventually someone contributes subsequent spec and compiler work to change this (and if you think you have time and could try it - please do! it's a nice small community).
F# has other cool features like `inline` bindings and [<IlineIfLambda>] function attributes but I found it more difficult to work with for systems programming when attempting to stay within safe constructs.
But if you don't need byrefs, ref structs and spans, then regular pointer-based or even array-based code is quite pleasant to write, for example https://benchmarksgame-team.pages.debian.net/benchmarksgame/...
With that said - F# is an incredible language, but for systems programming you are likely to get better results in C#. I hope eventually someone contributes subsequent spec and compiler work to change this (and if you think you have time and could try it - please do! it's a nice small community).