Magical Haskell

A Friendly Approach to Modern Functional Programming, Type Theory, and Artificial Intelligence

Anton Antich

• Publisher: Apress
• Year: 2025
• Print ISBN: 9798868812811
• eBook ISBN: 9798868812828
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Programming
• Index: Computer Science

Discover a unique and fun approach to adopting modern typed functions programming patterns. This book uses playful metaphors and examples to help you learn Haskell through imagination, building on math without relying on imperative crutches or technical complexity. You'll use math to build completely different Typed Functional patterns from the ground up and understand the link between building Mathematics through Types and constructing Haskell as a programming language.  

Intended for working with various applications, especially AI-powered apps, the book gently builds up to what are normally considered complex and difficult concepts all without needing a PhD to understand them. Illustrative explanations will guide you to tackle monads, using monad transformer stacks to structure real programs, foldable and traversable structures, as well as other Type classes. This book will also help you structure programs efficiently and apply your own abstractions to real-life problem domains. Next, you'll explore exciting advancements in AI, including building with OpenAI APIs, creating a terminal chatbot, adding web functionality, and enhancing with retrieval-augmented generation. Finally, you'll delve into AI multi-agents and future directions using Arrows abstraction, reinforcing Haskell's design.

Magical Haskell is a solution for programmers who feel limited by imperative programming languages but are also put off by excessively mathematical approaches.

What You Will Learn

• Grasp a solid math foundation without complex technicalities for Types and Typeclasses.
• Solve problems via a typed functional approach and understand why it's superior to what's available in the imperative language world ("if it compiles, it runs").
• Build your own abstractions to efficiently resolve problems in any given domain.
• Develop AI frameworks in Haskell, including chatbots, web functionality, and retrieval-augmented generation.

Who This Book Is For

Haskell programmers of all levels and those interested in Type Theory.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. Wizards, Types, and Functions
• 2. Type Construction
• 3. Very Gentle Type Theory and Category Theory Intro
• 4. Basic Typeclasses or “Show Me a Monoid”
• 5. Functor, Bifunctor, and Applicative Functor Enter an Elevator …
• 6. O, Monad, Help Me Compose!
• 7. Input, Transformer Stack, Output
• 8. Blackjack: Full Haskell Program
• 9. Let’s AI
• 10. Terminal AI Chat Agent
• 11. Web-Enabled AI Framework and GHC “Guts”
• 12. Down the Rabbit Hole
• 13. AI Multi-agents, Arrows, and the Future
• Back Matter