As Michael Swaine pointed out in It's Time to Get Good at Functional Programming, it's time for you to get good at functional programming.

That was a year ago, and it's even more true today, what with multicore processors and parallel programming continuing their march at the forefront of software development.

Among the programming languages Michael touched on was F#, a functional language for .NET. To tell the truth, Michael didn't have a lot to say about F# since it was relatively new at the time with not much information about it available. He did point out that F# was designed specifically for .NET, based on the OCaml language, gives you easy access to .NET libraries and tools, and is integrated well with Visual Studio. Clearly, more information would be better.

Which is why it's a particularly good thing that John Puopolo and Sandy Squires have released a freely available e-book entitled the F# Survival Guide, which covers all of the essential elements of functional programming and the F# language.

To get you started in functional programming, we've excerpted the first chapter entitled Introduction to Functional Programming. With that as background, you should have no problem moving on to F# in depth. And did I mention it is freely available? Check it out. It's a great vehicle for moving into the world of F# and functional programming.

-- Jonathan Erickson
jerickson@ddj.com