Real World Haskell: Code You Can Believe In

Author: Bryan O'Sullivan, John Goerzen & Don Stewart
Publisher: O'Reilly, 2008
Pages: 710
ISBN: 978-0596514983
Print: 0596514980
Kindle: B0026OR2FY
Aimed at: Developers with some familiarity with Haskell
Rating: 4
Reviewed by: Ian Elliot

Haskell is a functional programming language with an academic feel. It is mostly used in courses that aim to explain the ideas of functional programming. 

This particular book, published a decade ago, is an attempt, and not a bad one, to demonstrate that Haskell is a practical language.

Banner

It starts off with a sketch of the language and for me this is the least effective part of the book. It just doesn't go into enough detail, nor is it a logical presentation of the language. As a result if you don't already know Haskell you run the risk of simply becoming confused.

 

 

The book tends to introduce ideas without really motivating them and if you aren't a convert it isn't going to succeed in converting you. It's best described as a second level book in that, if you know the theory, it shows you the practice. I especially liked the introduction of monads and the project on creating a bar code reader using a mobile phone camera.

At the end of the day (book) you can't help but ask the question of whether or not Haskell makes anything significantly easier. Read the book and come to your own conclusion.

Banner

 

Related Reviews

Learn You a Haskell for Great Good! (No Starch Press, 2011)
Rated 4 by Alex Armstrong

 


SQL Server Advanced Troubleshooting and Performance Tuning (O'Reilly)

Author: Dmitri Korotkevitch
Publisher: O'Reilly
Pages: 497
ISBN: 978-1098101923
Print:1098101928
Kindle: B0B197NYD7
Audience: DBAs & database devs
Rating: 5
Reviewer: Ian Stirk

This book aims to improve the performance of your SQL Servers, how does it fare?



Modern Software Engineering (Addison-Wesley)

Author: David Farley
Pages: 256
ISBN: 978-0137314911
Print:0137314914
Kindle: B09GG6XKS4
Audience: Software Engineers
Rating: 3.5
Reviewer: Kay Ewbank

This book is subtitled 'doing what works to build better software faster' - does it teach you how to achieve that?


More Reviews

 

 

Last Updated ( Thursday, 05 November 2020 )