Home » forums » LtU Forum

Book: Pearls of Functional Algorithm Design

I've noted that a pre-publication page for a new book by Richard Bird, Pearls of Functional Algorithm Design, was up at Amazon. I guess it has some kind of relation with past functional pearls, something the summary on Amazon hints at, but haven't been able to find any information on the book anywhere else. Has anyone heard of this ?

By Francois Garillot at 2010-07-28 15:19 | LtU Forum | previous forum topic | next forum topic | other blogs | 15112 reads

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

Publisher's site

There's more at the Publisher's site Even a TOC.

Richard Bird takes a radically new approach to algorithm design, namely, design by calculation. These 30 short chapters each deal with a particular programming problem drawn from sources as diverse as games and puzzles, intriguing combinatorial tasks, and more familiar areas such as data compression and string matching. Each pearl starts with the statement of the problem expressed using the functional programming language Haskell, a powerful yet succinct language for capturing algorithmic ideas clearly and simply. The novel aspect of the book is that each solution is calculated from an initial formulation of the problem in Haskell by appealing to the laws of functional programming. Pearls of Functional Algorithm Design will appeal to the aspiring functional programmer, students and teachers interested in the principles of algorithm design, and anyone seeking to master the techniques of reasoning about programs in an equational style.

Myself, I'd wish they'd republish his "Algebra of Programming", though this book looks interesting.

By bashyal at Wed, 2010-07-28 16:56 | login or register to post comments

Seems like this can make a

Seems like this would make a great gift!

By Ehud Lamm at Thu, 2010-07-29 06:46 | login or register to post comments

Alternatively...

Too bad it's not Christmas; I'd love to say it "makes a great stocking stuffer" :-)

By Michael Vanier at Sat, 2010-07-31 05:55 | login or register to post comments

Look inside!

The preface of the book (via Amazon's "look inside" presentation) explains the connection with JFP and "pearls".

By joel.neely at Fri, 2010-07-30 11:54 | login or register to post comments

Sounds like a future front page story.

A number of months ago, I emailed Richard Bird saying how much I liked his Enumerating the Rationals paper, and his response mentioned that this book was coming out (although did not include that particular pearl). I do believe this book is worth a front-page story once it becomes available, or shortly before.

By Leon P Smith at Fri, 2010-07-30 19:20 | login or register to post comments

Awesome!

I just got a copy of Birds' "Algebra of Programming" this past week (I managed to find it for $35 or so) - this looks like it would be a great companion for my bookshelf.

By Austin Seipp at Fri, 2010-07-30 19:29 | login or register to post comments

Pearls of Functional Algorithm Design published

The book is published; at least, CUP have sent Richard a few copies, and I am honoured to have been given one of them. I understand that there'll be an inspection copy on the CUP stand at ICFP this week, available to order (but not to take away from ICFP).

By jeremygibbons at Sat, 2010-09-25 02:51 | login or register to post comments

Thanks for the update. Good

Thanks for the update. Good to know.

By Ehud Lamm at Sat, 2010-09-25 20:50 | login or register to post comments