Real World Functional Programming: Second review finished!

I've been working on the Real World Functional Programming in .NET book for quite some time now. In fact, I had the first discussions with Michael Stephens from Manning in March last year and I started thinking about the book at that time, so it has been occupying my mind for almost a year now! Until recently, I was feeling that we're not getting much closer to the end of this project, because writing a book is just a lot of work. However, I think I can finally see that we're getting closer to actually finishing the book. At Manning, we've recently finished the second review, which means that I've just got another set of very useful comments - a big thanks to all the reviewers! I'm also getting close to finishing the first draft of the whole manuscript (depending on the reviews, the content may still change a bit, but I expect to write at most one new chapter from now). Hopefully, the drafts will soon make it to the MEAP release of the book.

Working with Jon Skeet

Finishing the book is difficult and I'm glad that I won't be doing that only myself. Since the end of the last year, I was working with Jon Skeet, who is a C# MVP since 2003, famous StackOverflow.Com user (who answers all the C# questions, especially if they are tricky), but also an author of the great C# in Depth book published by Manning.

Jon has been reviewing the drafts I wrote and as a person who didn't write the text, he was able to send me a large number of extremely useful comments, add many clarifying points (for example when I omitted something, because I thought it is a detail, but in fact it was quite important thing!) and so on. With Jon's help, the book will also be written in a real English and not in the odd-english-like language that I'm using :-) for my writing. So, I'm very glad to work with Jon and I'm sure his contribution will make the book the best book for learning functional ideas and how to use them in practice, regardless of whether you're using C# or whether you're considering using the new F# language.

Real World Functional Programming at Amazon!

Another great news - which isn't that new, but I haven't written about it on the blog yet - is that you can now order the book from Amazon. I have to say that seeing your book at Amazon is quite cool :-). Of course, Amazon sells only the printed version of the book, which means that if you order from Amazon, you'll have to wait until it is fully completed and printed (which could be something like June 2009). If you want to get the access to the book earlier, including the current draft in the electronic format, you can get it from the MEAP early access program. Here are the links:

• Real World Functional Programming: With Examples in F# and C# - Amazon.Com (printed for $31.49)
• Real World Functional Programming: With Examples in F# and C# - Manning (Early access + printed for $54.99)

Writing a book is occupying most of my free time these days, so I apologize for writing just another "book update" style of blog post. I already have an interesting technical topic ready for the next post, so stay tuned!