Books

Books and tutorials covering many aspects of Haskell.

Language and library definition

Simon Peyton Jones: "Haskell 98 language and libraries: the Revised Report", Cambridge University Press, 2003, Hardback, 272 pages, ISBN 0521826144, £45.00

Book Description
Haskell is the world's leading lazy functional programming language, widely used for teaching, research, and applications. The language continues to develop rapidly, but in 1998 the community decided to capture a stable snapshot of the language: Haskell 98. All Haskell compilers support Haskell 98, so practitioners and educators alike have a stable base for their work. This book constitutes the agreed definition of the Haskell 98, both the language itself and its supporting libraries. It has been considerably revised and refined since the original definition, and appears in print for the first time. It should be a standard reference work for anyone involved in research, teaching, or application of Haskell.

The entire language definition is also available online: Language and library specification.

Textbooks

Graham Hutton: Programming in Haskell, Paperback: 200 pages, Cambridge University Press (January 31, 2007), English, ISBN 0521692695

Book Description
Haskell is one of the leading languages for teaching functional programming, enabling students to write simpler and cleaner code, and to learn how to structure and reason about programs. This introduction is ideal for beginners: it requires no previous programming experience and all concepts are explained from first principles via carefully chosen examples. Each chapter includes exercises that range from the straightforward to extended projects, plus suggestions for further reading on more advanced topics. The author is a leading Haskell researcher and instructor, well-known for his teaching skills. The presentation is clear and simple, and benefits from having been refined and class-tested over several years. The result is a text that can be used with courses, or for self-learning. Features include: freely accessible Powerpoint slides for each chapter; solutions to exercises, and examination questions (with solutions) available to instructors; downloadable code that's fully compliant with the latest Haskell release.

Paul Hudak: The Haskell School of Expression: Learning Functional Programming through Multimedia, Cambridge University Press, New York, 2000, 416 pp, 15 line diagrams, 75 exercises, Paperback $29.95, ISBN 0521644089, Hardback $74.95, ISBN 0521643384

Book Description
This book teaches functional programming as a way of thinking and problem solving, using Haskell, the most popular purely functional language. Rather than using the conventional mathematical examples commonly found in other programming language textbooks, the author draws examples from multimedia applications, including graphics, animation, and computer music, thus rewarding the reader with working programs for inherently more interesting applications. Aimed at both beginning and advanced programmers, this tutorial begins with a gentle introduction to functional programming and moves rapidly on to more advanced topics. An underlying theme is the design and implementation of domain specific languages, using three examples: FAL (a Functional Animation Language), IRL (an Imperative Robot Language), and MDL (a Music Description Language). Details about programming in Haskell are presented in boxes throughout the text so they can be easily referred to and found quickly.

The book's Web Site contains source files for all programs in the text, as well as the graphics libraries to run them under Windows and Linux platforms. It also contains PowerPoint slides useful for teaching a course using the textbook.

Simon Thompson: Haskell: The Craft of Functional Programming, Second Edition, Addison-Wesley, 507