Kindle Edition
USD 35.30

Available instantly

Paperback
USD 37.16

USD 37.16 with 29 percent savings

RRP: USD 52.09

USD 18.36 delivery Wednesday, 19 November. Details

Or fastest delivery Monday, 10 November. Order within 17 hrs 24 mins. Details

Only 6 left in stock (more on the way).

USD USD 37.16 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

The enhancements that you chose aren't available for this seller. Details

${cardName} not available for the seller that you chose

${cardName} unavailable for quantities greater than ${maxQuantity}.

Dispatches from

Amazon

Sold by

Amazon

Returns

Returnable until Jan 31, 2026 or within 30 days from receipt (whichever is later)

Payment

Secure transaction

Add gift options

USD 25.32

We dispatch over 6 million books worldwide on an annual basis to happy customers. Quality guaranteed. We dispatch over 6 million books worldwide on an annual basis to happy customers. Quality guaranteed. See less

USD 9.92 delivery 14 - 21 November. Order within 18 hrs 24 mins. Details

Only 2 left in stock.

USD USD 37.16 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

The enhancements that you chose aren't available for this seller. Details

${cardName} not available for the seller that you chose

${cardName} unavailable for quantities greater than ${maxQuantity}.

Dispatched from and sold by World of Books Ltd.

Other sellers on Amazon

New & Used (14) from USD25.32

Image Unavailable

Image not available for
Colour:

To view this video download Flash Player

Follow the authors

Real World Haskell: Code You Can Believe in Paperback – Illustrated, 5 Dec. 2008

by Bryan O′sullivan (Author), John Goerzen (Author), Donald Bruce Stewart (Author)

128 ratings

See all formats and editions

{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"USD 37.16","priceAmount":37.16,"currencySymbol":"USD","integerValue":"37","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"16","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":true,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"6j%2FXa64QU1Ij%2FFUoPXjprZX7eJX3apF7fERWcDeFOXuKt9%2B4ibm1OOfVnSC%2BO1P39npKzF5Yne6Pal0GjjP2qiqxmukgmwAWPG3W8jRo8wheeAWvnGHqeDd3YiitUqZS","locale":"en-GB","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"USD 25.32","priceAmount":25.32,"currencySymbol":"USD","integerValue":"25","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"32","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":true,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"6j%2FXa64QU1Ij%2FFUoPXjprZX7eJX3apF7yAkTRhaMqNxPZHWs19NzuRrCEN8R4tF2BtmVMkhFuYgH9ZnPaVGHN2GSvjyCOxMceIJ2GnveBkHOLyk%2FnDIlrw3Qi5e%2FkI87kHvcnhuc81gNS7VaZrpuDwRTyNZzh8aM5VVCRravXUuK%2FqTXgGRaZA%3D%3D","locale":"en-GB","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

This easy-to-use, fast-moving tutorial introduces you to functional programming with Haskell. You'll learn how to use Haskell in a variety of practical ways, from short scripts to large and demanding applications. Real World Haskell takes you through the basics of functional programming at a brisk pace, and then helps you increase your understanding of Haskell in real-world issues like I/O, performance, dealing with data, concurrency, and more as you move through each chapter.

Report an issue with this product

ISBN-10

0596514980
ISBN-13

978-0596514983
Edition

Illustrated
Publisher

O′Reilly
Publication date

5 Dec. 2008
Language

English
Dimensions

17.78 x 4.32 x 23.34 cm
Print length

710 pages

See all details

This item: Real World Haskell: Code You Can Believe in

USD37.16

Only 6 left in stock (more on the way).

Sent from and sold by Amazon.

+

Learn You a Haskell for Great Good!: A Beginner's Guide: A Beginner's Guide to Haskell

Learn You a Haskell for Great Good!: A Beginner's Guide: A Beginner's Guide to Haskell

USD39.19

Only 2 left in stock (more on the way).

Sent from and sold by Amazon.

Total price: $00

To see our price, add these items to your basket.

Try again!

Added to Basket

One of these items is dispatched sooner than the other.

Show details Hide details

Choose items to buy together.

Learn You a Haskell for Great Good!: A Beginner's Guide: A Beginner's Guide to Haskell
Miran Lipovaca

Paperback
USD39.19
USD 15.45 delivery
Only 2 left in stock (more on the way).
Soar with Haskell: The ultimate beginners' guide to mastering functional programming from the ground up
Tom Schrijvers

Paperback
USD42.20
USD 16.15 delivery

From the brand

Sharing the knowledge of experts

O'Reilly's mission is to change the world by sharing the knowledge of innovators. For over 40 years, we've inspired companies and individuals to do new things (and do them better) by providing the skills and understanding that are necessary for success.

Our customers are hungry to build the innovations that propel the world forward. And we help them do just that.
Your partner in learning
AI / Machine Learning
Software Development
Data & Data Science

Product description

Review

Select Guide Rating

About the Author

Bryan O'Sullivan is an Irish hacker and writer who likes distributed systems, open source software, and programming languages. He was a member of the initial design team for the Jini network service architecture (subsequently open sourced as Apache River). He has made significant contributions to, and written a book about, the popular Mercurial revision control system. He lives in San Francisco with his wife and sons. Whenever he can, he runs off to climb rocks.John Goerzen is an American hacker and author. He has written a number of real-world Haskell libraries and applications, including the HDBC database interface, the ConfigFile configuration file interface, a podcast downloader, and various other libraries relating to networks, parsing, logging, and POSIX code. John has been a developer for the Debian GNU/Linux operating system project for over 10 years and maintains numerous Haskell libraries and code for Debian. He also served as President of Software in the Public Interest, Inc., the legal parent organization of Debian. John lives in rural Kansas with his wife and son, where he enjoys photography and geocaching.Donald Stewart is an Australian hacker, currently completing his computer science doctorate at the University of New South Wales, Sydney. Don has been involved in a diverse range of Haskell projects, including practical libraries such as Data.ByteString and Data.Binary, as well applying the Haskell philosophy to real world applications, including compilers, linkers, text editors, network servers and systems software. His recent work has focused on optimising Haskell for high-performance scenarios, using techniques from term rewriting. He is the current editor of the Haskell Weekly News.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ O′Reilly
Publication date ‏ : ‎ 5 Dec. 2008
Edition ‏ : ‎ Illustrated
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Print length ‏ : ‎ 710 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0596514980
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0596514983
Item weight ‏ : ‎ 916 g
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 17.78 x 4.32 x 23.34 cm
Best Sellers Rank: 952,370 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 822 in Online Shopping
- 935 in Programming Languages & Tools
- 1,543 in Computer Information Systems
Customer reviews:
128 ratings

About the authors

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

John Goerzen
Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.
Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read book recommendations and more.
See more on the author's page
Don Stewart
Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.
Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read book recommendations and more.
See more on the author's page
Bryan O'Sullivan
Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.
Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read book recommendations and more.
See more on the author's page

Products related to this item

Page 1 of 1Start over

Related books

Page 1 of 1Start again

Sponsored

Customer reviews

128 global ratings

How customer reviews and ratings work

Customers say

Customers find the book practical, with one mentioning it's great for compute-intensive and network-heavy applications. Moreover, the book receives positive feedback for its readability, with one customer noting it's excellent for getting into Haskell. However, the writing quality and comprehension receive mixed reviews, with some finding it well-written and easy to understand, while others disagree.

Select to learn more

App use Readability Comprehension Writing quality

3 customers mention ‘App use’3 positive0 negative

Customers find the book practical, with one mentioning it's great for compute-intensive and network-heavy applications.

"Useful book" Read more

"Great practical book" Read more

"...though I have my doubts about its efficiency; it’s great for network-heavy applications, but is it quite so great for compute-intensive apps?..." Read more

3 customers mention ‘Readability’3 positive0 negative

Customers find the book easy to read, with one mentioning it serves as an excellent introduction to Haskell programming.

"...my way through this but it’s such a well written book, it’s a joy to read." Read more

"...In my view its worth reading if only to find out if Haskell is the right language for you." Read more

"Excellent book to get you into Haskell..." Read more

3 customers mention ‘Comprehension’1 positive2 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the book's comprehensibility, with some finding it explains difficult subjects in an understandable way, while one customer found it very hard to learn.

"...It also has a reputation of being very hard to learn. This is where “Real World Haskell” comes in...." Read more

"...to give the authors credit because this book explained a difficult subject in an understandable way...." Read more

"A book on a Programming Language can't get any better......" Read more

3 customers mention ‘Writing quality’2 positive1 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the writing quality of the book.

"Just working my way through this but it’s such a well written book, it’s a joy to read." Read more

"...Not because it’s badly written; on the contrary, it’s written very well. It’s because there’s a huge amount of technical stuff to put over...." Read more

"...Not because it’s badly written; on the contrary, it’s written very well. It’s because there’s a huge amount of technical stuff to put over...." Read more

Top reviews from United Kingdom

There was a problem filtering reviews. Please reload the page.

Avid Reader
Excellent book to get you into Haskell
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 December 2016
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

After a lifetime of programming in declarative languages like C, C++ and Java, I find it difficult to switch into the functional programming mindset. I suspect this is more to do with my age than anything else. I’m particularly interested in how to build systems that effectively make use of modern multi-core computers, assuming that we’ll soon have computers with hundreds of cores. In spite of what some experts say, I have grave doubts about our ability to reliably build such systems in the likes of Java; yes, there will some people who will be able to do it, but how will the common or garden developer do it?

Enter functional programming. Erlang has the ability to succeed with multi-cores, though I have my doubts about its efficiency; it’s great for network-heavy applications, but is it quite so great for compute-intensive apps? I’m not convinced yet that functional programming (Erlang excepted) has the ability *right now* to build hugely scalable multi-core apps - but I think the potential is there, and any developer putting the effort into becoming proficient at functional programming may be hugely rewarded in the future.

Given this hypothesis, how to go about it? Haskell has a reputation of being an extremely pure functional language. It also has a reputation of being very hard to learn. This is where “Real World Haskell” comes in. If you study this book right to the end, you’ll have made the mindset switch. Be warned though, it has 650 pages and is heavy going. Not because it’s badly written; on the contrary, it’s written very well. It’s because there’s a huge amount of technical stuff to put over. Recursion, folds, partial functions, lambda functions, typeclasses, and monads anyone? (Write programs using recursion in Java etc, and get used to stack overflows; not the best way to write highly stable apps).

Back in the 1990s I went through another mindset switch - from procedural thinking to object thinking. I’m finding this one harder. After studying a couple of hundred pages, and having studied Erlang previously, I began to experience the mindset switch. Unfortunately it was fragile, one minute I was thinking functionally and the next back to declarative. The real world intervened though, and I had to stop the study; so I slid back to declarative thinking. Real soon now I’m going to take another run at it. Of all the Haskell books, this is the one I’ll use. I’ve found others either too simple or too academic; for me, this book is just right.

Read more

5 people found this helpful

Helpful

Report
Mike
So far, so great...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 28 November 2020
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
Just working my way through this but it’s such a well written book, it’s a joy to read.

Read more

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Report
Vassil Keremidchiev
Great book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 February 2019
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
Great practical book

Read more

Helpful

Report
Paulo Matos
A book on a Programming Language can't get any better...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 26 June 2009
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
This book is rich in content and motivation to learn one of the most interesting programming languages nowadays. For beginners and experts alike this book as something to offer for all of us. If you want to learn something new, something different, something better. Check out this book!

Read more

Helpful

Report
Mátyás Lipták
Awesome, mind-bending read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 October 2013
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
A very nice, thought-provoking read. The theory and the hands-on examples are mixed in a perfect ratio to turn your imperative mind inside out.

Read more

Helpful

Report
Amazon Customer
Good
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 9 April 2018
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
Useful book

Read more

Helpful

Report
SteveOnCanvas
Its a fair attempt at explaining the incomprehensible
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 November 2010
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
If you like getting down and dirty with code then this is the book for you. Unlike some books that deal with the theory of Haskell first, Real World Haskel gets you walking though code right off the bat. At first I felt like I was making real progress but this was, for me at least, a false dawn as things slow down after the first few chapters, but I think this is the fault of the subject and not the book. Although some of the examples used were a little esoteric (a whole chapter on a bar code reader!) I have to give the authors credit because this book explained a difficult subject in an understandable way. In my view its worth reading if only to find out if Haskell is the right language for you.

Read more

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Report
Paul Richards
Simply not good enough
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 22 September 2012
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
I bought the Kindle edition of this book having done functional programming with other languages before (Lisp and Scala). The first third or so of this book was material very familiar to me from those other languages and even here I found the book hard work. There were mistakes where the description in the text did not match the sample code. There was an instance of sample code not compiling, and infact the compile error was printed into the book in place of where the program output was expected (maybe this is only present in the Kindle print). Sample code was often too abstract using identifier names that did not help me to understand what the sample code was trying to achieve (ironic for "real world" haskell). In other cases the sample code required functions that would only be implemented much later in the book (very confusing if you are trying out the samples as you read).

The next third or so of the book was new territory for me, and here I found myself often second guessing the text of the book. I suspected mistakes but did not have the confidence to know for sure. At this point the online version of the book proved to be very helpful ([...]). Here there are plenty of online comments from readers of the book that correct many of the mistakes and clear up confusion. Take a skim at some of the comments there before you buy to get an indication of the types of problems this book has.

I gave up on this book at roughly the two thirds mark, and am now instead reading "Programming in Haskell". I have yet to complete this alternative book but so far it is of much higher standard than Real World Haskell.

Read more

8 people found this helpful

Helpful

Report

Top reviews from other countries

tommaso
wow!
Reviewed in Italy on 27 February 2025
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

wow! many years ago I wrote my thesis on ML type system and its extensions possibilities, and now that I'm sixty this book is really a joy.
Haskell represents the legacy of ML philosophy and this book makes it available to everyone with clarity and freshness. I strongly advice it even if you will continue to program in c javascript php etc.
haskell helps you to think in a new clear way!

Read more
Report
Justin Hanekom
Five Stars
Reviewed in Canada on 24 July 2014
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
I love this computer language and I love this book. Well done!

Read more
Report
GB
Not an easy read, but definitely brilliant and worth studying
Reviewed in Germany on 16 May 2014
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
Having a background in science, with this book I felt the way I used to feel with college textbooks back in my student days - you're happy if you can digest a page or two in a day. But once you understood the stuff, the knowledge becomes a part of your internal thinking and reasoning.

Chapter 10 with its ad-hoc monadic parser is ``a newbie killer''. The discussions of parseByte on the website with the text of the book helps. Reading on the state monad helps to understand the chapter too.

Read more
Report
Amazon Customer
How to enjoy this book:
Reviewed in the United States on 28 March 2016
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
It is not the easiest language to learn. i recommend learning some other programming languages. Maybe python basics. Then maybe something higher level like C or C++ if you insist, or maybe Java. If your already an experienced programmer you may have the same experience as me. I found Haskell to be really interesting and a unique fun approach to solving issues. But keep in mind this is a functional language and object oriented programming is absent in this language. As a book i feel like its a good run though of how to program in Haskell. It provides interesting examples in it as well as being able to make a QR code scanner. If you read this book don't just skim though it. You will need to probably practise the examples multiple times and experiment a little. But if your paying attention and thinking about what they are saying in the book you should get the hang of it.

Read more
Report
punter
Comprehensive, clear, convenient
Reviewed in France on 9 July 2015
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
Out of several Haskell textbooks on my bookshelf (pretty much all you can find on Amazon & internet bar Bird's books), this is the one I refer to most often and quickly find an answer.

You may need other Haskell books too but you can't go wrong with this one.

Read more
Report

See more reviews

Get to Know Us

Make Money with Us

Amazon Payment Methods

Let Us Help You

US$USD - U.S. Dollar United Kingdom

Amazon Business
Service for
business customers

© 1996-2025, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates