Review: F# Deep Dives

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Some days ago, Manning published the final version of a new F# book: “F# Deep Dive“.  I have read MEAP version of the book, and even had a chance to review the final one.

Book is written by the team of famous F# experts such as: Chris Ballard, Keith Battocchi, Colin Bull, Chao-Jen Chen, Yan Cui, Johann Deneux, Kit Eason, Evelina Gabasova, Dmitry Morozov, Don Syme and composed by Tomas Petricek and Phillip Trelford.

First of all, I want to mention that it is not a usual book about F# or another programming language. If you are novice to F# and looking for a guide of language constructs – this book is not the best choice for you. BUT,  if you are already familiar with F# basic syntax constructs, can read simple F# code samples and want to see the language in action – this book is for you.

Book is organized as a collection of independent packages written by different authors. Each author tells his own story about F# application to a practical domain, shows how it was used, how it affected an application design and describes why it was done in such a way. Experts show an application of F# to financial and statistical models, internals of Fsharp.Formatting, numerical computing, social networks analysis, real-world usage of type providers, developing MVC application in idiomatic F#, power of F# Async in action, game development, social web apps in F# and many other interesting topics.

One problem with this book, at least for me, that it is difficult to read it cover to cover. Chapters are written by different authors in a different language, sometimes it was hard for me to catch a sense of computation in a completely new domain. So, for all future readers, I recommend to reorganize chapters according to interests and read parts that most valuable for you first.

Finally, I want to say that the book is really good. Everyone will find interesting topics and a new experience. You will get a broader vision of F# application in a real life. You will see how a functional approach can change and simplify the architecture of real life apps. If you are looking for what to read next – take a look at “F# Deep Dives“, this book is really deserves it.

If you want more F# books – visit fsharp.org.