Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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.

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.