Learn You a Haskell for Great Good!: A Beginner's Guide

This book really blew my mind! It is superbly done. What I especially like about it is the way it hints at the underpinnings of Haskell (and functional programming) in category theory (and other formal systems); thus making them much more accessible and comprehensible. The discussions about monads are fantastic! The examples are first rate: it's well worth going through each and every one of them (slowly and carefully) to fully absorb the gold mine of insights each one can impart. (Even if you think you already understand the concepts: you might just find yourself seeing things in a novel and unexpected way! ;-) I truly hope the author will write another book. He has a real gift and talent; not only in explaining, but also in making things interesting. I actually found this book hard to put down. It really drew me in. (Not just any technical book can cast such a spell!) This book should be of great interest to F# programmers. F# materials alone will not give a reader enough insight into the milieu of functional programming to really appreciate monads (for instance). In fact, I say: to really learn C# you need to learn F#, and to really learn F# you need to learn Haskell. I also hope one day we'll have H# available as a fully integrated citizen of .Net (following in F#'s footsteps). Haskell to me is well worth learning because it is so pure. The lessons learned can then be mapped back to many existing technologies that one must work with. (Legacy technologies aren't going away anytime soon; but the good news is that the Haskell way of thinking can still be leveraged to great good in many venues.) The hand drawn artwork (done by the author himself!) added a lot to the tapestry and enchanting magic of this well crafted book. In conclusion: my greatest praise for this book is the way it took such a lofty and important topic and made it so amazingly accessible, fun, and fascinating. Kudos for a job well done!!!

One of the best books I've read, period. I just finished this book recently, however I've had prior exposure to the language (although never programming formally in it): typeclassopedia, Programming in Haskell, Erik Meijer's on-line lectures, etc. (the usual resources) as well as all 1200 pages from Chris Allen,and Julie Moronuki's "Haskell Programming from First Principles" book. While this book doesn't have exercises, I think it has the others beat in one category: simplicity. I'm also of the school where I think it's effective to show someone a concept(s) then let them go out to apply it to their own projects rather than giving them an assortment of examples/exercises to do. Also, although some of the other references/books assume the reader as a pure beginner, this is the only book that sincerely holds true to their word and treats them as a beginner from it's first to last pages. The others I noticed tend to assume the reader has more experience as a programmer and even with the language as well as functional programming itself (I could understand why in typeclassopedia's case). This book is very well written compared to the others as well. The explanations of the concepts are very clear and straight to the point, with nice analogies and examples. Although in the printed edition there are some typos, the free version (available online) has the corrections- all you have to do is visit the section you're reading. But what's great about that is, because their explanation is clear, you'll have the knowledge to catch it, run a double check on their website and be on your way. As mentioned, it's about simplicity. One thing I really appreciate about this book, is it makes everything about the language first. It may not cover the more technical things like testing, stack, cabal, etc. But if you just want to learn about Haskell syntax and it's concepts (from currying to monads), this is the book for it.

I always liked Haskell and wanted to learn it. I tried Real World Haskell but while I enjoyed the language a lot the book frustrated me with its organization and unwanted deviation from the main point of introducing the language. This book is such a joy though. I actually decided to buy it after reading most of it online from the author's website. I don't find his narratives particularly funny but his introduction of the language was concise and extremely easy to understand. Most importantly, the book is full of useful pointers and has a minimal amount of jargon that put me to sleep. I think the fact that he was a student when writing the book must have helped. The book doesn't have any exercise but I never am one to bother doing those. Still, I find myself testing things out and going back to earlier chapters where I can easily find the relevant information because they are so concise and straight to the point. Highly recommended.

La programmazione funzionale è un paradigma nient'affatto nuovo (si pensi al Lisp) che sta ora vivendo una seconda primavera, principalmente grazie alla grande resistenza agli effetti collaterali indesiderati (chi ha provato a programmare in C sa di cosa parlo!) e maggiore semplicità di debug anche su progetti grandi e complessi, ma anche grazie alla comparsa di nuovi linguaggi come F# di Microsoft e ancora di più Haskell. Il testo di Lipovača è ideale per chi parte da zero, sia con il linguaggio sia soprattutto con il paradigma. Non solo la sintassi e le funzionalità principali sono spiegate, e la filosofia è ben illustrata: ma soprattutto, lo stile invoglia a proseguire la lettura e andare avanti con la sperimentazione, virtù rara in questo genere di manuali. Sia che si voglia usare l'interprete Haskell come semplice calcolatore per risolvere problemi di media entità, sia che si desideri un'introduzione alla programmazione funzionale che consenta poi di passare a testi più approfonditi, Learn You a Haskell fro Great Good! è un investimento solido che ripaga molte volte il denaro speso.

One of the top 10 programming book. Allows you to get slowly into functional programming. Once you're done with this one, I suggest you look at Haskell from the first principles (the purple book).

I have been reading Real World Haskell, but after reading the first hundred pages I felt that I where missing a few things. I then bought Learn You a Haskell, which I find to be absolutely fantastic at explaining the basics of Haskell. The flow is on the verge of being perfect, whenever I think I'd like to move on, the book does. There is a little humor here and there, which I like, and the drawings are also quite enjoyable. It explains subjects, even some which where hard to grasp by other sources, really well. The combination of Real World Haskell and this book is great. This is a friendly book, which will dress you up nicely for the journey into the dragons den (Just kidding, Haskell is a beautiful language!)

This book taught me to how to make proper use of the Functor, Monoid, Applicative and Monad classes and their instances, something I've been meaning to get around to learning for ages. The explanations of these were exceptionally clear and easy to follow.

Este libro es una verdadera joya para aquellos interesados en aprender sobre programación funcional. Está escrito de manera clara y accesible, con explicaciones detalladas y ejemplos prácticos que hacen que el aprendizaje sea muy fácil y ameno. Lo que más me gustó de este libro es que no solo te enseña los conceptos básicos de la programación funcional, sino que también te guía a través de la implementación práctica de algoritmos y estructuras de datos en Haskell. Es un enfoque muy completo que te permite no solo entender la teoría, sino también aplicarla en situaciones reales. El autor tiene un estilo de escritura muy ameno y humorístico que hace que la lectura sea muy agradable. Además, el libro está estructurado de manera lógica y bien organizada, lo que facilita el seguimiento del contenido. En resumen, si estás interesado en aprender programación funcional y buscas un libro que te guíe de manera clara y accesible, este libro es una excelente opción. Con su estilo ameno, explicaciones detalladas y enfoque práctico, estoy seguro de que aprenderás mucho y disfrutarás del proceso.