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Message from Dean - May 8th 2007
I am currently testing out a new version of the APF Bridge Component - If you notice any errors within this demo store please drop me a line.
List Price: $59.60Amazon.com's Price: $48.49 You Save: $11.11 (19%)Prices subject to change.
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 005.133
EAN: 9780201342758
Edition: 2
ISBN: 0201342758
Label: Addison Wesley
Manufacturer: Addison Wesley
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 528
Publication Date: April 08, 1999
Publisher: Addison Wesley
Studio: Addison Wesley
Alternate Versions: Click to Display
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
The second edition of Haskell: The Craft of Functional Programming is essential reading for beginners to functional programming and newcomers to the Haskell programming language. The emphasis is on the process of crafting programs and the text contains many examples and running case studies, as well as advice an program design, testing, problem solving and how to avoid common pitfalls.
Building on the strengths of the first edition, the book includes many new and improved features:
Complete coverage of Haskell 98, the standard version of Haskell which will be stable and supported by implementations for years to come.
An emphasis on software engineering principles, encouraging a disciplined approach to building reusable libraries of software components.
Detailed coverage of the Hugs interpreter with an appendix covering other implementations.
A running case study of pictures emphasizes the built-in functions which appear in the standard prelude and libraries. It is also used to give an early preview of some of the more complex language features, such as high-order functions.
List comprehensions and the standard functions over lists are covered before recursion.
Early coverage of polymorphism supporting the "toolkit" approach and encouraging the resuse of built-in functions and types.
Extensive reference material containing details of further reading in books, journals and on the World Wide Web.
Accompanying Web Site supporting the book, containing all the program code, further teaching materials and other useful resources.
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
I got this book for a CS class in college but never used it (professors just love you to waste your money that way). I recently came back to this book after getting really into Python, especially the functional features.
The approach the book takes is more or less instructing someone who knows absolutely nothing about programming in the ways of functional thinking. This makes it perfectly easy for an absolute beginner with no imperative or OOP prejudices to learn Haskell--just as if they were taught hex before decimal they'd catch onto hex real quick.
This is also a great text for someone who's had some functional programming experience (map, filter, reduce, monads) and for whom recursion is a friend. I've become a much better Python programmer (and a better programmer in general) from just scanning the book every time in the bathroom.
However, for a student who's been doing Java or C/C++ for a year or two, this will be extremely confusing. They will already have adopted ... Read More
Rating: -
Very good introduction to Haskell and functional programming in general. Covers Haskell's type inference system and unconventional syntax in a comfortable, clear way. Lazy evaluation and its effects on the language are likewise explained in an clear approachable way.
There's lots of SICP-like exercises to practice with if you want, though their placement makes the book a bit confusing at times if you don't as it's hard to tell the exercises and the material apart sometimes.
I haven't looked at competing Haskell books, but after reading this one, I don't see the need to. This book doesn't explain monads particularly well (though most other explanations, besides one explanation in a reddit comment I saw, are equally not understandable, so that's no great fault).
Overall, a great book for programmers who want to get into functional programming or quickly learn Haskell.
Rating: -
This book makes an excellent gradually-paced introduction to Haskell, with plenty of examples and exercises, for those who are a little overwhelmed by the online "Gentle Introduction to Haskell". My only complaint is that it proceeds a bit too slowly for my taste, taking 150 pages to get around to discussing higher-order functions and other advanced topics that make Haskell worth learning. This is understandable, since it's intended to be usable as a textbook for a first programming course, but it's also frustrating for someone who already has programming experience. The other feature of the book that stands out is its price, which is quite reasonable for a textbook. All told, this is an good-quality Haskell textbook suitable for either new programmers or (by skimming the first several chapters) more experienced programmers looking to learn functional programming.
Rating: -
Most of the reviewers for this text so far seem to be more experienced programmers or computer scientists. So I am writing this review to give a different perspective.
My uni has this year chosen Haskell as the INTRODUCTORY language, apparently because it:
1) Is a clear implementation of some fundamental programming concepts
2) Puts everyone on an equal footing, since no-one is likely to have studied it (or even another functional language) before.
I have little formal background but have been messing around with scripting languages like TCL for a couple of years.
The initial transition to thinking from a functional perspective seemed very difficult. The idea of recursion as opposed "just sticking it in a loop" took a while to stick.
But I have found simply by working through the book I have progressed quickly and in only a few weeks it has become quite natural to think in a Haskell way.
I attribute this to the excellent ... Read More
Rating:  -
This book takes an interesting topic like functional programming and makes it hideously boring. In retrospect, I wish I'd bought Hudak's book instead. I read a review claiming that Mr. Thompson's book was better for newcomers to Haskell than Mr. Hudak's. I don't know where this idea came from; I later borrowed Hudak's "Haskell School of Expression" and found it to be more informative and faster-paced than this book. I give it two stars only because it is useful as a reference. If you're looking to learn Haskell and do cool things with it, get School of Expression instead.
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