PureScript by Example

by Phil Freeman

Learn functional programming for the web by solving practical problems using the PureScript programming language. "PureScript By Example" will motivate functional programming techniques like maps, folds, type classes and monads by applying them to real-world problems such as form validation, AJAX callbacks and drawing with the canvas.

Genres: Programming, Technology, Programming Languages

235 pages, ebook

Reviews

[SY77 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great, practical examples. Nice exercises. You will learn not only PureScript, but also functional programming.

[Fabian Linzberger · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent introduction to purescript. may benefit from some prior familiarity with haskell.

[Shaun · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice introduction to PureScript with reasonable exercises. The book is relatively short and covers what you need to know to get going.

I think I would have found the book harder to read if I didn't already have some exposure to Haskell. On the other hand, my prior exposure to Haskell also made some parts a bit slow, as I was already familiar with some of the concepts.

That is, while the book is targeted at people without prior exposure to Haskell, some of the explanations end up a little too terse to understand the concepts. Luckily, PureScript uses the same terminology as Haskell, and there is no shortage of (monad) tutorials to read that would be just about as applicable to PureScript.

[Claudia Doppioslash · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good intro into Purescript, but it will be a a bit fast moving for someone who hasn't been previously exposed to typed FP. If you find yourself stuck, I suggest going through the Haskellbook (Haskell from first principles), Haskell and Purescript are similar enough that you can mix and match learning resources.

[Matvey Aksenov]

I really don't want to shit on any Haskell-adjacent material, but I didn't find this book particularly good.

The text itself is reasonably understandable, it just lacks any solid identity. As an intro to FP the book is way too fast and I bet nearly impenetrable without a serious previous exposure to Haskell. As a survey of PureScript ecosystem it's too weak; there is some discussion around spago and purs and some mentions of external libraries for JSON and React, but I really have no idea what PureScript tools exist and which libraries are recommended. The examples in the later part of book also felt completely irrelevant to any real world purpose of a JS replacement (I don't think I've used QuickCheck for anything non-trivial ever and I certainly wouldn't want to have to invent free monad-based DSLs in my frontends.). Overall, I'm fairly disappointed.

[Jay Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fast moving intro to FP. It will require some participation and effort by the reader to fully comprehend some of the material. The real world examples were helpful (especially the chapter on React). Writing style is concise and to the point. The code examples on github were really helpful to understanding the material.

[Michał Kowalski · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well written, but I can help the feeling it's missing support/maintenance. When reading it now, in 2018, I get a lot of basic errors - even the simplest "Hello World" example doesn't compile. Most likely something must have changed in the language in the meantime.

I think the idea with the language is nice, but as for now it's safer to learn a more stable language (e.g. Haskell).

[pluton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book about PureScript and thus about functional programming, even though not all FP concepts are explained deeply, so a newcomer may not understand everything. The book covers a lot of topics, including applicatives, monads, purescript FFI, property-based testing, and even free monads. The exercises are very helpful to understand the material, I wish there were more of them.
I read the older version while using the newer psc 0.11 compiler, so I had to fix a number of errors, but it wasn't hard (except for JSON parsing). It's available for free and you can also buy to support the author.

[Simon Vindum · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a decent introduction to PureScript. Coming from a Haskell background the content was easy to follow. I am, however, quite certain that if I did not have experience with Haskell I would have had difficulty grasping the concepts from the explanations in this book alone. I think the book should expand on the explanations if it wants to target people unfamiliar with Haskell. On the other hand, PureScript and Haskell are so similar that one could probably read this book alongside Learn You A Haskell.