You Learn a Haskell Great for Good!: A beginner's Guide 13431

it's all in the name: You Learn a Haskell Great for Good! is a hilarious, illustrated guide to this complex functional language. Packed with the author's original artwork, pop culture references, and most importantly, useful example code, this book teaches functional fundamentals in a way you never thought possible.

you'll start with the kid stuff: basic syntax, recursion, types and type classes. Then once you've got the basics down, the real black belt master-class begins: you'll learn to use applicative функторів, monads, zippers, and all the other mythical Haskell constructs you've only read about in storybooks.

As you work your way through the author's imaginative (and occasionally insane) examples, you'll learn to:

• Laugh in the face of side effects as you wield purely functional programming techniques
• Use the magic of Haskell's "laziness" to play with infinite sets of data
• Organize your programs creating by your own types, type classes and modules
• Use Haskell's elegant input/output system to share the genius of your programs with the outside world
• Short of eating the author's brain, you will not find a better way to learn this powerful language than reading You Learn a Haskell Great for Good!

Excerpt from the Introduction

Haskell is fun, and that's what it's all about!

This book is aimed at people who have experience programming in imperative languages—such as C++, Java, Python and—and now want to try out Haskell. But even if you don't have any significant programming experience, i'll bet a smart person like you will be able to follow along and learn Haskell.

My first reaction to Haskell was that the language was just too weird. But after getting over that initial hurdle, it was smooth sailing. Even if Haskell seems strange to you at first, don't give up. Learning Haskell is almost like learning to program for the first time all over again. It's fun, and it forces you to think differently.

NOTE

If you ever get really stuck, the IRC channel #haskell on the freenode network is a great place to ask questions. The people there tend to be nice, patient, and understanding. They're a great resource for Haskell newbies.

About the Author

Miran Lipovaca is a computer science student in Ljubljana, Slovenia. In addition to his passion for Haskell, he enjoys boxing, playing bass guitar, and, of course, drawing. He has a fascination dancing with skeletons and the number 71, and when he walks through automatic doors he pretends that he's actually opening them with his mind.

Chapter 1 : Starting Out
Calling Functions
baby's First Functions
An Intro to Lists
Texas Ranges
i'm a List Comprehension
Tuples
Chapter 2 : Believe the Type
Explicit Type Declaration
Common Haskell Types
Type Variables
Type Classes 101
Chapter 3 : Syntax Functions in
Pattern Matching
Guards, Guards!
where?!
let It Be
case Expressions
Chapter 4 : Hello Recursion!
Maximum Awesome
A Few More Recursive Functions
Quick, Sort!
Thinking Recursively
Chapter 5 : Higher-Order Functions
Curried Functions
Some Higher-Orderism Is in Order
The Functional programmer's Toolbox
Lambdas
I Fold You So
Function Application with $
Function Composition
Chapter 6 : Modules
Importing Modules
Solving Problems with Module Functions
Mapping Keys to Values
Making Our Own Modules
Chapter 7 : Making Our Own Types and Type Classes
Defining a New Data Type
Shaping Up
Record Syntax
Type Parameters
Derived Instances
Type Synonyms
Recursive Data Structures
Type Classes 102
A Yes-No Type Class
The Functor Class Type
Kinds and Some Type-Foo
Chapter 8 : Input and Output
Separating the Pure from the Impure
Hello, World!
Gluing I/O Actions Together
Some Useful I/O Functions
I/O Action Review
Chapter 9 : More Input and More Output
Files and Streams
Reading and Writing Files
To-Do Lists
Command-Line Arguments
More Fun with To-Do Lists
Randomness
Bytestrings
Chapter 10 : Functionally Solving Problems
Reverse Polish Notation Calculator
to London Heathrow
Chapter 11 : Applicative Функторів
Функторів Redux
Functor Laws
Using Applicative Функторів
Useful Functions for Applicatives
Chapter 12 : Monoids
Wrapping an Existing Type into a New Type
About Those Monoids
Meet Some Monoids
with Folding Monoids
Chapter 13 : A Fistful of Monads
Upgrading Our Applicative Функторів
Getting Your Feet Wet Maybe with
The Монада Class Type
Walk the Line
do Notation
The List Монада
Монада Laws
Chapter 14 : For a Few Monads More
Writer? I Hardly Knew Her!
Reader? Ugh, Not This Joke Again
Tasteful Stateful Computations
Error Error on the Wall
Some Useful Monadic Functions
Making a Safe RPN Calculator
Composing Monadic Functions
Making Monads
Chapter 15 : Zippers
Taking a Walk
Focusing on Lists
A Very Simple Filesystem
Watch Your Step
Thanks for Reading!
Colophon
Appendix : Updates