The Definitive Guide to F# (Expert's Voice in F#) [Paperback]

Don Syme (Author), Adam Granicz (Author), Antonio Cisternino (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1430224312 | ISBN-13: 978-1430224310 | Publication Date: February 19, 2010 | Edition: 1

Expert F# 2.0 is about practical programming in a beautiful language that puts the power and elegance of functional programming into the hands of professional developers. In combination with .NET, F# achieves unrivaled levels of programmer productivity and program clarity.

Expert F# 2.0 is

• The authoritative guide to F# by the inventor of F#
• A comprehensive reference of F# concepts, syntax, and features
• A treasury of expert F# techniques for practical, real-world programming

F# isn't just another functional programming language. It's a general-purpose language ideal for real-world development. F# seamlessly integrates functional, imperative, and object-oriented programming styles so you can flexibly and elegantly solve any programming problem. Whatever your background, you’ll find that F# is easy to learn, fun to use, and extraordinarily powerful. F# will change the way you think about–and go about–programming.

Written by F#'s inventor and two major contributors to its development, Expert F# 2.0 is the authoritative, comprehensive, and in-depth guide to the language and its use. Designed to help others become experts, the first part of the book quickly yet carefully describes the F# language. The second part then shows how to use F# elegantly for a wide variety of practical programming tasks.

The world's foremost experts in F# show you how to program in F# the way they do!

What you’ll learn

• Explore F# and its features quickly and thoroughly in the introductory chapters
• Use F# with the newest .NET technologies such as WPF, LINQ, and ASP.NET AJAX
• Build reactive, asynchronous, and distributed applications with F#
• Interoperate with F# from other .NET languages, especially C#
• Test, profile, and performance tune F# applications
• Work with real-life examples and advanced programming features

Who this book is for

Expert F# 2.0 is for anyone interested in state-of-the art .NET programming. Professional programmers will find it engrossing. F# provides invaluable insight into the future of both C# and VB, which are now adopting some (but far from all) of the functional features of F#. Once programmers learn F#, few feel like returning to either C# or VB. The academic community will find F# the answer to a decades-long prayer: a language suitable for teaching computer science that also excites and empowers students because it can be used not just in the classroom, but also in the real world.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Getting Started with F# and NET
3. Creating Your First F# Program—Introducing Functional Programming
4. Introducing Imperative Programming
5. Mastering Types and Generics 
6. Working with Objects and Modules
7. Encapsulating and Packaging Your Code
8. Mastering F#: Common Techniques 
9. Introducing Language-Oriented Programming
10. Using the F# and NET Libraries
11. Building Graphical User Interfaces
12. Working with Symbolic Representations 
13. Reactive, Asynchronous, and Parallel Programming
14. Building Smart Web Applications
15. Working with Data
16. Lexing and Parsing
17. Interoperating with C and COM 
18. Debugging and Testing F# Programs 
19. Designing F# Libraries

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Don Syme is the inventor of F#. Since joining Microsoft Research in 1998, he’s been a seminal contributor to a wide variety of leading-edge projects, including generics in C# and the .NET Common Language Runtime. He received a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory in 1999.

For the past decade Adam Granicz has combined hard-core computer science and real-world business savvy to develop innovative computing solutions and manage projects that implement them. He received a M.Sc. in Computer Science from the California Institute of Technology in 2003 and is currently pursuing an MBA at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics.

Antonio Cisternino is Assistant Professor in the Computer Science Department of the University of Pisa. His primary research is on meta-programming and domain specific languages on virtual-machine based execution environments. He’s been active in the .NET community since 2001, and recently developed annotated C#, an extension of C#, and Robotics4.NET, a framework for programming robots with .NET. Antonio holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Pisa.

Product Details

• Paperback: 600 pages
• Publisher: Apress; 1 edition (February 19, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1430224312
• ISBN-13: 978-1430224310
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #415,076 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Read - Provides great depth and detail, July 20, 2010

By 

Jonathan W. Maccollum (Wilkesboro, NC United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Definitive Guide to F# (Expert's Voice in F#) (Paperback)

I purchased this book hoping to improve my existing C# knowledge with the power of better functional programming. This book has not only done that but has also provided me with the tools needed to write quick and elegant code in a performance-oriented way. With the aid of this book, F# is now one of my most powerful tools in development. The authors have packed this book with mini-examples that build upon themselves throughout each chapter. I have quickly been able to read and understand their examples and apply their design decisions to not only F# code that I write, but also the functional-leaning C# code in my current projects.

This book is a must have for any .NET developer.

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Book for Learning F# - With Caveats, July 3, 2011

By 

Jason - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Definitive Guide to F# (Expert's Voice in F#) (Paperback)

As a developer who has actively worked in the imperative paradigm since I began programming (other than a smattering of languages primarily used at my time in school), F# required an entirely new way of thinking. Although it allows for imperative programming, I wanted to remain true to the functional aspect of the language and I figured who better to learn from than the designer and language architect - Don Syme.

To be clear, this book is excellent and well-written. There are numerous examples and in-depth, detailed explanations. I highly recommend reading it - particularly if you want to get into some of the gritty details that you may not find if you aren't talking to the guy who knows the language best.

With that said, this book has a high "ramp up" factor. At the time I bought it, I had no experience in F#. The change of mindset, from imperative to functional perhaps would have been handled better with a book focused directly on that rather than learning the specific ins and outs of a language. If I did not have the drive to power through some portions of the book, I may have been bogged down in details that didn't matter at the particular time.

As long as you keep this second part in mind, I highly recommend Expert F# 2.0. It's well-written, clear, and technically in-depth covering all the major aspects (and many detailed aspects) of the language.

6 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This book is not for beginners, December 30, 2010

By 

L. Yang "sfobeach" (SF, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Definitive Guide to F# (Expert's Voice in F#) (Paperback)

The author of the book is the creator of F#, he knows everything about it. This is precisely the problem. It does not even tell a biginner how to start.