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1. Quality writing returns to tech?
   For years, the quality of technical books has been plummeting. Within the first chapter of this book I recognized within it a modern miracle; a well-written book about programming. Not just accurate – but clear, engaging, and concise. I’ve bought 4 copies so far, and will probably purchase more as they keep getting lent out.

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2. Excellent overview on the F# language. Some unneeded content.
   Excellent coverage on all the language’s features.
   However there are some parts that I didn’t like:
   The first is that I think I didn’t need to read all the way on how to implement an inverted index search engine. Just the idea of how it’s implemented in some chapter would be fine. After all I bought an F# book, not a search engine book.
   The other, and for a similar reason, is that the book explains the .Net framework again. I understand that the book states that “no previous experience with functional programming or .NET is required” but, in my opinion, I should have read that somewhere in the cover.
   I could have used:
   More techniques that involves integrations with Type Descriptors.
   More functional programming techniques like the part that explains tail recursion, continuations, etc, it was an excellent chapter. I wish that part could have been longer. I would gladly trade it with the Events chapter or the search engine one.

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3. I’m about a quarter through now and it’s very good to understand
   I never used F# but I’m interested in learning it, so I got this book. I’m about a quarter through now and it’s very good to understand. It might be nice, if it would have some exercises, but that’s okay.

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4. Excellent book!
   I met Chris at PDC 2008 and was impressed with the summary of F# then, and have gotten each of his books for their concise explanations and examples.

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5. This should be your first F# book
   If you’re looking for your first F# book, get this one. After just a few chapters, you’ll see just how beautiful and simple F# is. The programs you’ll write will be shorter and easier to understand than programs you write in other languages. Your code will have all the safety of .NET’s static type system, but the brevity of dynamically typed languages such as Python. You’ll be able to walk away from your code for a year, and when you return to it you’ll immediately see what you were doing. You’ll be able to tap into the huge .NET ecosystem, and use libraries written in any other .NET language. Lastly, your F# programs will run on Linux and OSX using Mono. Chris Smith’s writing is clear, succinct, and fun to read. For your second book on F#, try 

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6. An okay first step for F#
   A good book, but as a seasoned C# developer I found it jumped around a lot. In the code samples the book often uses techniques it hasn’t even covered yet, and for the more bizarre and ugly aspects of the F# language(at least to a C# programmer’s perspective) it very often says “we’ll explain this later” without ever really doing so.
   Still, a good introduction to F# that left me wanting to learn more and understand why they did things a certain way.

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7. Cover all F# features but too shallow on each topic and some contains unnecessary content
   The book is written in narrative style. The author provides samples and explains them thoroughly, which is good for a first few chapters where the concept of data structure and language style are still familiar. But when it comes to a complex topic, for example Pattern Matching, without giving technical detail of what patterns are possible, you will be wonder if there is anything more that can become a pattern.. and where can it be used elsewhere. It’s the best if you can have the MSDN library for reference, but it’s not always the case (e.g. reading the book on a train).
   The multithreading chapter is bloated with Task Parallel Library, which is not really F# feature. It’d be better if the book can provide only F# features and focus only the detail of F# (and how to use it efficiently).
   My tip is if you are going to read this book, you should haven’t at least skimmed F# topics in MSDN/wiki and try to write some F# code first, it’ll help you understand the book content easier.

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8. One of the best explanations of computation expressions. Overall highly recommended

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9. Very good introduction

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10. Good intro to a ‘confusing’ programming style so far. I am not finished, I am just opining on the first 200 pages or so. I’m a bricklayer as a programmer, lots of C and C++ for well over 20 years, but never used this style of language before. I appreciate the slim profile ( less than one third the size of my Python book). One very strong feature is the small example snippets, they do a good job of showing the power of F#. One specific item, I think that the intro material on the List.fold and reduce could be expanded, that is one spot where I kinda slowed down in my reading. Frankly, looking at C++ is almost painful after looking at F# for a couple weeks.

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