haskell

The Haskell Road to Logic, Maths and Programming (Texts in Computing)
$25.00
The 'Haskell Road to Logic' is a wonderful introduction to the mathematics that lie behind functional programming and computer science. Readers should however be aware that this book is not, and does not pretend to be, a book about programming in Haskell. It is really a text book about topics in mathematics that are of particular interest to computer scientists. What distinguishes the book from many others is its use of Haskell to implement mathematical structures that are usually taught as abstract concepts. This approach makes the mathematics far more approachable for computer programmers than many other text books. Presumably it should also make for an excellent introduction to computer programming for the mathematically inclined.

While the book is easy to read and has a friendly writing style, it not particularly well suited to casual reading. To really understand the subject being discussed the reader will probably need to solve most of the exercises in the text. The good news is this requires minimal prior mathematical training (the authors expect familiarity with "secondary school mathematics"). Solving the exercises will also train the reader in writing, and proving the correctness of, short functional programs.

The book has a minor few faults. One is a relatively large number of minor errors (many of which are noted in the errata available on the book's website). Another is that some major topics are introduced in exercises without much discussion, particularly in the later chapters. But these are but quibbles in a review of a fantastic math book for programmers.

Introduction to Functional Programming using Haskell (2nd Edition)
$83.99
Bird and Wadler got me started on functional programming. Before that, I'd only seen discussions of C++/STL functors and functions like for, map etcetera.

B&W was dense, and magic. It reminded me of the first time I read the K&R C book, you're following along fine, and all of a sudden you're off the deep end!

The syntax, sort of ML-like adds to the 'magic' feel of it all. Overall I think it's a good book. But like with K&R, make this your second or third book, to ground you in the fundamentals after you've become somewhat familiar with the syntax and application of a particular fnal language.

That said, it covers a wide breadth of topics, and does justice to them as well. But this opinion comes from a newbie at functional programming, so caveat lector!

For me, it made me realise that there was a whole 'new' way of programming, vastly bigger than the few functions C++ had in its STL, and that C++ syntax mostly got in the way. However, perhaps because of this book, I never quite grokked Haskell/ML syntax either, though LISP I find easy (easier).

Purely Functional Data Structures
$50.00
This book is great for someone who already understands the basics of functional programming but wants to learn more. I should note that terseness is one of this book's greatest strong points. In other words, don't assume that just because the book is short that it will be a short read. There's just a lot of information packed into so few words!

Programming in Haskell
$49.99
Programming in Haskell by Graham Hutton is a great introduction to Haskell. Hutton gets into Haskell without complicating the subject. The book is just 184 pages. The book combined with Erik Meijer's lectures will make functional programming clearer for most of the folks out there.