Beginning Haskell: A Project-Based Approach

by Alejandro Serrano Mena

Beginning Haskell provides a broad-based introduction to the Haskell language, its libraries and environment, and to the functional programming paradigm that is fast growing in importance in the software industry. The book takes a project-based approach to learning the language that is unified around the building of a web-based storefront. Excellent coverage is given to the Haskell ecosystem and supporting tools. These include the Cabal build tool for managing projects and modules, the HUnit and QuickCheck tools for software testing, the Scotty framework for developing web applications, Persistent and Esqueleto for database access, and also parallel and distributed programming libraries. Functional programming is gathering momentum, allowing programmers to express themselves in a more concise way, reducing boilerplate and increasing the safety of code. Indeed, mainstream languages such as C# and Java are adopting features from functional programming, and from languages implementing that paradigm. Haskell is an elegant and noise-free pure functional language with a long history, having a huge number of library contributors and an active community. This makes Haskell the best tool for both learning and applying functional programming, and Beginning Haskell the perfect book to show off the language and what it can do.

Takes you through a series of projects showing the different parts of the language. Provides an overview of the most important libraries and tools in the Haskell ecosystem. Teaches you how to apply functional patterns in real-world scenarios. What you'll learnBuild small and large projects using the Haskell language. Profit from ecosystem tools such as Cabal, HLint, and QuickCheck. Implement efficient stream I/O via libraries like Conduit. Parallelize code to run on multiple processors or distributed across a network. Create domain-specific languages useable by business users, and to tackle specific problem domains. Build Haskell-backed websites using database and web-application libraries such as Persistent, Esqueleto, and ScottyWho this book is forBeginning Haskell is for programmers new to functional programming, who want to learn this new paradigm and how it can improve the quality of their code. Beginning Haskell is also a great choice for functional programmers wanting to get a taste of the Haskell ecosystem and its unique features, or who wish to learn about advanced type system features and patterns.

Genres: Programming

423 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 22, 2014

Reviews

[Edward · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book does touch upon many haskell libraries: conduit, lens, database access, even cloud haskell. If one uses it as a reference to when to use what with examples, then the book could be quite useful. But other than that, there's a lot left to be desired. For example, many code snippets are far from idiomatic; hlint can easily pick them apart.

Not recommended.

[Jan Kroken · Rating 5 out of 5]

was good back when I read it, but probably too out of date now

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Starts off well by gets a bit lost in itself halfway through. Could use some more practical examples.
Not sure what happened to the "project" professed on the cover? Be aware there are quite a lot of errors. However, on the bright side, the libraries and style used are much more up to date than the now dated Real World Haskell.

Still yearning for a much more pragmatic approach to this language!

[Seamus Brady]

Excellent introduction to Haskell