Haskell WIP Books

This morning, I had a brief conversation with Simon Michael, the author of the awesome hledger accounting software, about the Haskell Books index. The Functional Programming for Physics Geeks book is now in early access, but I am not including it in the index yet because it is not complete.

The policy is documented in the Haskell Books Meta Page.

The index only includes books that have been published (are complete). Self-publishing services provide ways to give access to books that are still being written. This can be a great way for the author to get early feedback, but such books are not included in the index.

This decision was not easy to make, as there are benefits and drawbacks to both sides. In the future, I plan on moving the index to a new system that will make it much easier for the community to contribute/collaborate. There will be support for multiple indexes, which can be used to index books in different languages as well as other types of resources. Perhaps it would be worthwhile to add a “Haskell WIP Books” index to track books that are not yet complete. This would allow people to easily discover such books without risking a decrease in quality of the main index.

I am maintaining the index on this website, but software development for the migration to the new system is currently on hold. I hope to get back to it soon!

By the way, I am excited about the Functional Programming for Physics Geeks book! I have long dreamed about writing books that teach both programming and other subjects. Readers who are already capable programmers could use such a book to learn a new subject, while readers who already know the subject could use such a book to learn how to program. Motivated readers who know neither could use such a book to study both at the same time (“two birds one stone”). Readers who are not proficient in English could also use such a book to practice English. (Three birds?) I am happy to see such a book come out!