Jan
08
I’ve been slowly going through the book “Real World Haskell” by Bryan O’Sullivan, Don Stewart, and John Goerzen. Of course, I have been going through the online version.
I have gone through the first four chapters of the book. These chapters lay the basic framework for using and understanding the Haskell language. I have only 2 complaints at this point:
- The excercises sometimes seem a little excessive. In other words, they are not necessarily easy for a beginner to figure out.
- This isn’t really a complaint about the book, but rather a personal difficulty. Functional programming is a slightly demanding paradigm switch. I like it a lot and I already have a deep appreciation for it but it is not always easy to wrap my head around a new way of programming.
What I like about the book:
- Examples are short, concise, and generally easy to follow
- The layout is progressive and logical
- The exercises are challenging – often more challenging than I would expect. Yet, they make you learn the language!
- Online means easy and cheap access
- The user comments throughout the pages are useful to understanding Haskell. They often give a slightly deeper insight into what the book is showing.
Overall I really like this book and am excited to continue on to what seems to be more real world examples and applications.