The Fun of Programming

Functional programming has come of age: it is now a standard course in any computer science curriculum. Ideas that were first developed in the -laboratory environment of functional programming have proved their values in wider settings, such as generic Java and XML. The time is ripe, therefore, to teach a second course on functional programming, delving deeper into the subject. This book is the text for such a course. The emphasis is on the fun of programming in a modern, well designed programming language such as Haskell. There are chapters that focus on applications, in particular pretty printing, musical composition, hardware description, and graphical design. These applications are interspersed with chapters on techniques, such as the design of efficient data structures, interpreters for other languages, program testing and optimisation. These topics are of interest to every aspiring programmer, not just to those who choose to work in a functional language. Haskell just happens to be a very convenient vehicle for expressing the ideas, and the theme of functional programming as a lingua franca to communicate ideas runs throughout the book.