Why learn F#? With this guide, you'll learn how this multi-paradigm language not only offers you an enormous productivity boost through functional programming, but also lets you develop applications using your existing object-oriented and imperative programming skills. You'll quickly discover the many advantages of the language, including access to all the great tools and libraries of the .NET platform.

Reap the benefits of functional programming for your next project, whether you're writing concurrent code, or building data- or math-intensive applications. With this comprehensive book, former F# team member Chris Smith gives you a head start on the fundamentals and walks you through advanced concepts of the F# language.

• Learn F#'s unique characteristics for building applications
• Gain a solid understanding of F#'s core syntax, including object-oriented and imperative styles
• Make your object-oriented code better by applying functional programming patterns
• Use advanced functional techniques, such as tail-recursion and computation expressions
• Take advantage of multi-core processors with asynchronous workflows and parallel programming
• Use new type providers for interacting with web services and information-rich environments
• Learn how well F# works as a scripting language