F# for Scientists [Hardcover]

Jon Harrop (Author), Don Syme (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 4, 2008 | ISBN-10: 0470242116 | ISBN-13: 978-0470242117 | Edition: 1

"This work strikes a balance between the pure functional aspects of F# and the object-oriented and imperative features that make it so useful in practice, enable .NET integration, and make large-scale data processing possible."
—Thore Graepel, PhD, Researcher, Microsoft Research Ltd.

Over the next five years, F# is expected to become one of the world's most popular functional programming languages for scientists of all disciplines working on the Windows platform. F# is free and, unlike MATLAB® and other software with numerical/scientific origins, is a full-fledged programming language.

Developed in consultation with Don Syme of Microsoft Research Ltd.—who wrote the language—F# for Scientists explains and demonstrates the powerful features of this important new programming language. The book assumes no prior experience and guides the reader from the basics of computer programming to the implementation of state-of-the-art algorithms.

F# for Scientists begins with coverage of introductory material in the areas of functional programming, .NET, and scientific computing, and goes on to explore:

• Program structure

• Optimization

• Data structures

• Libraries

• Numerical analysis

• Databases

• Input and output

• Interoperability

• Visualization

Screenshots of development using Visual Studio are used to illustrate compilation, debugging, and interactive use, while complete examples of a few whole programs are included to give readers a complete view of F#'s capabilities.

Written in a clear and concise style, F# for Scientists is well suited for researchers, scientists, and developers who want to program under the Windows platform. It also serves as an ideal supplemental text for advanced undergraduate and graduate students with a background in science or engineering.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The hardbound book is a really solid treatment." (Computing Reviews, February 5, 2009)

From the Back Cover

"This work strikes a balance between the pure functional aspects of F# and the object-oriented and imperative features that make it so useful in practice, enable .NET integration, and make large-scale data processing possible."
—Thore Graepel, PhD, Researcher, Microsoft Research Ltd.

Over the next five years, F# is expected to become one of the world's most popular functional programming languages for scientists of all disciplines working on the Windows platform. F# is free and, unlike MATLAB® and other software with numerical/scientific origins, is a full-fledged programming language.

Developed in consultation with Don Syme of Microsoft Research Ltd.—who wrote the language—F# for Scientists explains and demonstrates the powerful features of this important new programming language. The book assumes no prior experience and guides the reader from the basics of computer programming to the implementation of state-of-the-art algorithms.

F# for Scientists begins with coverage of introductory material in the areas of functional programming, .NET, and scientific computing, and goes on to explore:

• Program structure

• Optimization

• Data structures

• Libraries

• Numerical analysis

• Databases

• Input and output

• Interoperability

• Visualization

Screenshots of development using Visual Studio are used to illustrate compilation, debugging, and interactive use, while complete examples of a few whole programs are included to give readers a complete view of F#'s capabilities.

Written in a clear and concise style, F# for Scientists is well suited for researchers, scientists, and developers who want to program under the Windows platform. It also serves as an ideal supplemental text for advanced undergraduate and graduate students with a background in science or engineering.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Wiley-Interscience; 1 edition (August 4, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470242116
• ISBN-13: 978-0470242117
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 0.9 x 9.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #698,137 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Warning: get a newer F# book June 7, 2010

By Seattle Reader

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

As much as I have enjoyed and learned from this book in the past few years, at this time I can only rate it one star, because the F# language has changed a lot since this book was published.

I Strongly Suggest: do not get this older F# book. Instead get a newer F# book.

Here are your new-enough choices on Amazon today:
Smith Programming F#: A comprehensive guide for writing simple code to solve complex problems (Animal Guide)
Syme Expert F# 2.0 (The Definitive Guide)
Pickering Beginning F#
Petricek Real World Functional Programming: With Examples in F# and C#
and lastly a pre-order-only until June 30: Neward Professional F# 1.0

F# is much newer than many programming languages, for example Python. At this point in Python's history, if you wanted to study Python, you could get by with a book on Python 2.x, rather than a book on current Python 3.x - in fact a lot of shops are still using Python 2.x

But nobody is using F# 1.x anymore! And here in the year 2010 you will hit many more difficulties learning F# from an old F# 1.x book than you would learning Python from an old Python 2.x book.

This old book is based on early versions of F# 1.x - get a newer book unless you can find this old one for cheap on a remainder table.

My suggestion applies to all F# books: avoid the old ones unless they are on sale for really, really cheap. Specifically: Pay regular price for any F# book published after October 1, 2009. Anything older, pay only a wicked cheap price.

Today June 7, 2010 I received my pre-ordered copy of the new Don Syme F# 2.0 book Expert F# 2.0 (The Definitive Guide). A good day.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful.Succinct.Functional. November 5, 2008

By Spk

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I am brand new to functional programming and this is my 3rd book having gone through both Foundations of F# and Expert F# which details the language very well. However, I was blown away with this book. While it does have some technical elements/examples to it, I found that it helped me bridge the gaps in some topics I did not fully grasp from the other two books.

This was written prior to the F# Sept 2008 CTP and due to changes in the language, one or two examples (again,let me stress just a few) needed to be modified in order to be compatible with the changes.

I enjoyed all the topics immensely but without a background in DirectX or 3D programming, while the chapter on visualization is beautiful, it is challenging. My readings in WPF3D helped a lot in parsing what was going on here. In addition, while there is information on using Windows Forms, I wished there was a section (or two!) on WPF. However, the F# Journal (by the same author) does have a few articles on WPF which are also very excellent.

The only thing is that, sometimes, the explanations for the examples are not very thorough, and it is a bit daunting as a beginner. One such example is the Powerset from 6.4.15 (p167) which took a while to work through. As such, I made a blog post just for this detailing how to get the solution for this.

This is not a book to, per say, 'learn F#', the previous two are for that. F# for Scientsts is great if you already have the basics at hand. All in all, I HIGHLY recommend this book. It is an excellent resource/reference and in my opinion, it is one of those books you have handy -> Just in case.

Overall A+.

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Pretty good book July 16, 2009

By lew

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Misleading title. There is nothing "scientific" in this book. This is more or less standard collection of basic data structures and algorithms. However, you do these differently in F# than in Java. If you want to program nontrivial problems in F#, you need this book all the time. The best F# book among available