[[ # "Learning Functional Programming Through Multimedia" Slashdot (03/16/04); Jones, Isaac Haskell is a purely functional programming language and the book, "The Haskell School of Expression: Learning Functional Programming Through Multimedia," is a great introduction to the platform now being used for cutting-edge programming language research. The Haskell community is still rather small, but working on tremendously innovative research such as the meta-programming environment Template Haskell implemented by the Glasgow Haskell Compiler, while Haskell can also be extended with Embedded Domain-Specific Languages for Web authoring, parsing, and controlling humanoid robots without changing the language itself. Paul Hudak's book prepares the reader to begin writing tools or participate in ongoing programming language research. Haskell prepares readers for new developments such as the arrows concept used by the Yale Haskell group; Yale-developed Yampa, a "Functional Reactive Programming" framework, shares concepts with the animation described in "The Haskell School of Expression." The book is written in a tutorial style with alternating conceptual and application chapters. The provided code examples may be insufficient for those who want to jump ahead, but the Web site provides fill-in code. Readers completing the examples given in the book will also need the "November 2002" version of the Hugs interpreter and the User's Guide. "The Haskell School of Expression" eases programmers who are unfamiliar with functional programming into complex components such as recursion; falling back on non-functional style is not allowed with Haskell. The book also tackles the difficult issue of monads by getting readers to use them very early on and explaining the concepts behind them later in the book. Although there is a lot of drawing and music involved in "The Haskell School of Expression," the author includes mathematical background such as the algebraic reasoning for shapes and music, as well as a chapter on proof by induction. Click Here to View Full Article http://books.slashdot.org/books/04/03/12/221232.shtml?tid=126&tid=156&tid=188&tid=192 ]] -- http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2004-6/0322m.html#item12 ------------ Graham Klyne For email: http://www.ninebynine.org/#Contact