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Beginning Elm - A gentle introduction to Elm programming language
Hi there! Thanks for stopping by. I hope you will find this book helpful for learning Elm — a delightful programming language for building robust front-end web applications.
I first discovered Elm when I listened to a Functional Geekery podcast episode featuring Richard Feldman and Tessa Kelly. When I heard Tessa mention that it’s almost impossible to have runtime errors in Elm, I was intrigued. None of the languages I have worked with during my fifteen years as a programmer offered such a guarantee, so I started experimenting with Elm. To my delight, I not only found Tessa’s claim to be true, but also really enjoyed writing code in Elm.
Although it’s been more than seven years since Elm was created, it hadn’t caught most front-end web developers’ attention until recently. More and more programmers are experimenting with the language and using it in production. They are also sharing what they have learned with the ever-growing community.
I, too, am constantly learning new things about Elm on a daily basis. This book is an attempt to distill my understanding of Elm thus far. I will continue to update the material in this book as I gain more insight into the language and Elm ecosystem in general.
With that, I would like to invite you to join me on a wonderful journey into learning a very friendly yet extremely practical language.
This book assumes you have a basic understanding of programming, but no prior knowledge of Elm or functional programming is required. Nor do you need any mathematical background. If you have dabbled in a programming language before, you should have no trouble learning Elm with this book.
Contents:
Introduction - Get your feet wet with Elm 1
01 Introduction 2
Why Elm? 3
Feedback 4
Who This Book is For 5
Conventions Used in This Book 6
Acknowledgements 7
About the Author 8
02 Getting Started 9
Installation 10
Building a Simple Web Page 11
Elm Platform 12
Elm Programming Language 13
Elm Compiler 14
Elm Architecture 15
Elm Runtime 16
elm make 17
elm install 18
elm reactor 19
elm repl 20
Ellie 21
Conclusion 22
Syntax & Semantics - Learn Elm from the ground up 23
03 Elm Language Basics 24
Simple Arithmetic 25
Boolean 26
Comparison 27
Comments 28
Expression 29
Value 30
Constant 31
If Expression 32
Function 33
Let Expression 34
Case Expression 35
Indentation 36
String 37
Regular Expression 38
List 39
Array 40
Tuple 41
Record 42
Conclusion 43
04 Benefits of Using Elm 44
Immutability 45
Pure Functions 46
Solving Complex Problems with Simple Functions 47
Easy to Test 48
Type System 49
Easier Code Organization 50
Fuzz Testing 51
Pattern Matching 52
Conclusion 53
Architecture - Understand how the Elm Architecture helps us build robust front-end web applications 54
05 Elm Architecture 55
Model View Update - Part 1 56
Virtual DOM 57
Model View Update - Part 2 58
Side Effects 59
Commands 60
Conclusion 61
06 HTTP Requests 62
Fetching Data Using GET 63
Decoding JSON - Part 1 64
Decoding JSON - Part 2 65
RemoteData 66
Retrieving Data on Initialization 67
Conclusion 68
07 Single-Page Apps 69
What is a Single-Page App? 70
Restructuring Code 71
Creating Post Module 72
Creating List Posts Page 73
Navigating to List Posts Page 74
Editing a Post 75
Deleting a Post 76
Creating a New Post 77
Conclusion 78
08 Interact with JavaScript 79
Sending Data to JavaScript 80
Subscriptions 81
Receiving Data from JavaScript 82
Protecting Boundaries between Elm and JavaScript 83
Saving App State in Local Storage 84
Retrieving App State from Local Storage 85
Interacting with Web Components 86
Conclusion 87
Where To Go From Here? 88
About the Autor:
Hi there, my name is Pawan Poudel. I have been programming for more than fifteen years. My first encounter with programming was with GW-BASIC when I was in eighth grade. However, it wasn’t until I discovered C in college that I really started to enjoy programming. Since then, I have programmed in C++, Java, C#, Objective-C, Swift, Python, Ruby, and JavaScript.
Before moving into web development, I spent more than five years honing my mobile development skills building iOS apps. Lately, I have been spending most of my free time learning functional programming languages, mainly Elm and Haskell.
I believe programming is an art and a science. Therefore, I have deep respect f...
I first discovered Elm when I listened to a Functional Geekery podcast episode featuring Richard Feldman and Tessa Kelly. When I heard Tessa mention that it’s almost impossible to have runtime errors in Elm, I was intrigued. None of the languages I have worked with during my fifteen years as a programmer offered such a guarantee, so I started experimenting with Elm. To my delight, I not only found Tessa’s claim to be true, but also really enjoyed writing code in Elm.
Although it’s been more than seven years since Elm was created, it hadn’t caught most front-end web developers’ attention until recently. More and more programmers are experimenting with the language and using it in production. They are also sharing what they have learned with the ever-growing community.
I, too, am constantly learning new things about Elm on a daily basis. This book is an attempt to distill my understanding of Elm thus far. I will continue to update the material in this book as I gain more insight into the language and Elm ecosystem in general.
With that, I would like to invite you to join me on a wonderful journey into learning a very friendly yet extremely practical language.
This book assumes you have a basic understanding of programming, but no prior knowledge of Elm or functional programming is required. Nor do you need any mathematical background. If you have dabbled in a programming language before, you should have no trouble learning Elm with this book.
Contents:
Introduction - Get your feet wet with Elm 1
01 Introduction 2
Why Elm? 3
Feedback 4
Who This Book is For 5
Conventions Used in This Book 6
Acknowledgements 7
About the Author 8
02 Getting Started 9
Installation 10
Building a Simple Web Page 11
Elm Platform 12
Elm Programming Language 13
Elm Compiler 14
Elm Architecture 15
Elm Runtime 16
elm make 17
elm install 18
elm reactor 19
elm repl 20
Ellie 21
Conclusion 22
Syntax & Semantics - Learn Elm from the ground up 23
03 Elm Language Basics 24
Simple Arithmetic 25
Boolean 26
Comparison 27
Comments 28
Expression 29
Value 30
Constant 31
If Expression 32
Function 33
Let Expression 34
Case Expression 35
Indentation 36
String 37
Regular Expression 38
List 39
Array 40
Tuple 41
Record 42
Conclusion 43
04 Benefits of Using Elm 44
Immutability 45
Pure Functions 46
Solving Complex Problems with Simple Functions 47
Easy to Test 48
Type System 49
Easier Code Organization 50
Fuzz Testing 51
Pattern Matching 52
Conclusion 53
Architecture - Understand how the Elm Architecture helps us build robust front-end web applications 54
05 Elm Architecture 55
Model View Update - Part 1 56
Virtual DOM 57
Model View Update - Part 2 58
Side Effects 59
Commands 60
Conclusion 61
06 HTTP Requests 62
Fetching Data Using GET 63
Decoding JSON - Part 1 64
Decoding JSON - Part 2 65
RemoteData 66
Retrieving Data on Initialization 67
Conclusion 68
07 Single-Page Apps 69
What is a Single-Page App? 70
Restructuring Code 71
Creating Post Module 72
Creating List Posts Page 73
Navigating to List Posts Page 74
Editing a Post 75
Deleting a Post 76
Creating a New Post 77
Conclusion 78
08 Interact with JavaScript 79
Sending Data to JavaScript 80
Subscriptions 81
Receiving Data from JavaScript 82
Protecting Boundaries between Elm and JavaScript 83
Saving App State in Local Storage 84
Retrieving App State from Local Storage 85
Interacting with Web Components 86
Conclusion 87
Where To Go From Here? 88
About the Autor:
Hi there, my name is Pawan Poudel. I have been programming for more than fifteen years. My first encounter with programming was with GW-BASIC when I was in eighth grade. However, it wasn’t until I discovered C in college that I really started to enjoy programming. Since then, I have programmed in C++, Java, C#, Objective-C, Swift, Python, Ruby, and JavaScript.
Before moving into web development, I spent more than five years honing my mobile development skills building iOS apps. Lately, I have been spending most of my free time learning functional programming languages, mainly Elm and Haskell.
I believe programming is an art and a science. Therefore, I have deep respect f...
- GenresNonfiction
88 pages, Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 2018
2 people want to read
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 17, 2022
The author gives very clear and detailed explanations. I like that he repeats some of them multiple times, as sometimes it's not that simple to grasp the whole picture immediately.
Interesting examples are another positive side. They are not stopped on simple `Int` and `String`, so we can find many real-life scenarios.
I got lost on few places, but that's on me for not trying the code myself. I will definitely return to this book again.
Interesting examples are another positive side. They are not stopped on simple `Int` and `String`, so we can find many real-life scenarios.
I got lost on few places, but that's on me for not trying the code myself. I will definitely return to this book again.
Displaying 1 of 1 review