Expert F# (Expert's Voice in .Net)

Foundations of F#

About The Author


Don Syme is the main designer of F# and has been a functional programmer since 1989. 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.

Adam Granicz is the founder of IntelliFactory and a native of Hungary. He has done research on extensible functional compilers, formal environments, and domain-specific languages. He has consulted for EPAM Systems, the leading software outsourcing company in CE Europe, and he is an industry domain expert in gambling, airline and travel package distribution, reverse logistics, and insurance/health-care. He holds a Master's degree from the California Institute of Technology.

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.

Reader Reviews
This book is the perfect companion to bring along on your adventure into the world of F#! I had the pleasure of proofreading Expert F# several months ago and so, while it just became available at Amazon today, I've already spent many happy hours with it. F# is a wonderfully expressive and practical language and, at the same time, very elegant. This book will help the reader to apply this newfound power and to appreciate how even the most obscure features all seem to "hang together" so beautifully. The first half of the book teaches the language with an excellent example-driven approach; making it fun and useful from the start. Separate chapters cover each supported programming paradigm: functional, imperative, object-oriented and language-oriented; along with chapters on solid engineering techniques such as encapsulation and packaging, and working well with other .NET code. The second half of the book applies the language to various technologies (WinForms, web, database, ...) and to various very interesting domains including lexing and parsing, asynchronous and concurrent programming (a particularly strong suit). My absolute favorites were the symbolic differentiation and propositional logic samples in chapter 12 - these left me in a state of awe! Also, the second half covers more engineering concerns such as testing and debugging, interop and library design. Throughout the book are sprinkled many little nuggets of wisdom from the authors; especially helpful to those who (like me) are struggling to rationalize experience in OO and imperative programming with the functional mindset. The book contains an enormous amount of information; an essentially complete coverage of the language. However, it simply can't cover everything. Some topics missing include application to some specific technologies such as WPF and Silverlight. Also, functional data structures and meta-programming (with the extremely powerful F# quotations mechanism) are only lightly covered. It's a very well written and well organized book. It makes for a great read when you're first mastering the language and makes for a great reference to keep on your shelf thereafter. Comments (3) | | (Report this)