Welcome to the F# Survival Guide by John Puopolo with Sandy Squires. We wrote this book to introduce mainstream developers to the world of functional programming through the lens of F#, Microsoft's first fully-supported multi-paradigm language.
In the spirit of a survival guide, this book covers all of the essential elements of functional programming and the F# language. In this regard, the book is concept and keyword complete, covering the entirety of the core F# language and its pragmatic use.
This book is designed to be read in order, with new concepts depending on prior material. We've tried to keep each chapter short and focused, so that you can use each one as a "learning unit." We hope you like the format and pace of the text. Upon completing this book, you will be able to understand the majority of the official F# documentation, the F# samples that you'll find on the Web, and will be able to write your own, non-trivial F# programs.
As F# nears final release, we will update the CTO Corner blog with news and articles of interest, including code samples that cover more advanced F# material including code quotations, .NET reflection, database access, graphical programming, etc.
We hope you enjoy the book, and we'd love to hear your comments, corrections, and suggestions. To provide feedback, please use the e-mail link provided at the end of each chapter. Thanks for your time and happy reading!
