If you are a programmer looking to gain knowledge of Haskell whoโs never been properly introduced to functional programming, this book is for you. Basic experience with programming in a non-functional language is a prerequisite.
With software systems reaching new levels of complexity and programmers aiming for the highest productivity levels, software developers and language designers are turning toward functional programming because of its powerful and mature abstraction mechanisms. This book will help you tap into this approach with Haskell, the programming language that has been leading the way in pure functional programming for over three decades.
The book begins by helping you get to grips with basic functions and algebraic datatypes, and gradually adds abstraction mechanisms and other powerful language features. Next, youโll explore recursion, formulate higher-order functions as reusable templates, and get the job done with laziness. As you advance, youโll learn how Haskell reconciliates its purity with the practical need for side effects and comes out stronger with a rich hierarchy of abstractions, such as functors, applicative functors, and monads. Finally, youโll understand how all these elements are combined in the design and implementation of custom domain-specific languages for tackling practical problems such as parsing, as well as the revolutionary functional technique of property-based testing.
- Write pure functions in all their forms โ that is basic, recursive, and higher-order functions
- Model your data using algebraic datatypes
- Master Haskellโs powerful type-class mechanism for ad hoc overloading
- Find out how Haskellโs laziness gets the job done
- Reconcile Haskellโs functional purity with side effects
- Familiarize yourself with the functor, applicative functor, monad hierarchy
- Discover how to solve problems with domain-specific languages
- Find more bugs with Haskellโs property-based testing approach