Programming Elm: Build Safe, Sane, and Maintainable Front-End Applications

by Jeremy Fairbank

Elm brings the safety and stability of functional programing to front-end development, making it one of the most popular new languages. Elm's functional nature and static typing means that run-time errors are nearly impossible, and it compiles to JavaScript for easy web deployment. This book helps you take advantage of this new language in your web site development. Learn how the Elm Architecture will help you create fast applications. Discover how to integrate Elm with JavaScript so you can update legacy applications. See how Elm tooling makes deployment quicker and easier.

Functional programming offers safer applications with decreased runtime errors, but functional solutions that are type safe and easy to use have been hard to find, until the Elm language. Elm has the benefits of functional languages while compiling to JavaScript. This book provides a complete tutorial for the Elm language, starting with a simple static application that introduces Elm syntax, modules, and the virtual DOM, to exploring how to create a UI using functions. See how Elm handles the issues of state in functional languages. You'll continue to build up larger applications involving HTTP requests for communication. Integrate your Elm applications with JavaScript so you can update legacy applications or take advantage of JavaScript resources.

Elm also provides built-in tooling to alleviate the tooling creep that's so common in JavaScript. This book covers Elm's deployment and testing tools that ease development confusion. Dive into advanced concepts including creating single-page applications, and creating performance improvements. Elm expert Jeremy Fairbank brings his years of web development experience to teaching how to use Elm for front-end development.

Your web UIs will be faster, safer, and easier to develop with Elm and this tutorial.

What You Need:

You will need the latest version of Elm, 0.19, along with a browser to run the examples in this book.

Genres: Programming, Technology, Software, Nonfiction

310 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2018

Reviews

[Geoff Lanotte · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a good all-around introduction to Elm. I also appreciated the more advanced topics like Single-page applications and testing. Highly recommended for those interested in learning more about elm or for late beginners who need to cover more intermediate topics.

[Brian Dukes · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was evaluating this book primarily to see if it was a good fit for new developers on the team (that is, I am personally already familiar with Elm). I also just read Elm in Action. I appreciate some of the in depth chapters at the end, but found a lot of the prose and tutorials fairly clunky. I have a few take aways to discuss with the team, but I don't think I'll be recommending this one.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not technically finished with the book. But in my defence, the book is still being written.

What I've read and tried so far has been really useful for getting into Elm. And I appreciate that it's being updated to the latest Elm versions. Helpful, tutorial-style intro to the language.

[Peepee_KaaKaa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really like elm but I think this book could have been better organized.

[Forensor Prayer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Teaches you Elm from start to building your first SPA. Good introductory work, but it's not enough to start working in the real world.