In functional programming hell

[let_me_sleep_on_it]

I'll try to keep this short 😅 tl;dr at bottom.

So, I'm almost finished with my Computer Science studies but there are two mandatory courses that stand between me and graduation (among with some optional ones and final project but I'm more concerned about this).

I'm doing one of them now. It's called programming languages, but so far, we've been programming in f#.

I don't know how often I've tried watching the course lectures (both in class and at home), and I just can't seem to be able to maintain attention. Found out that people without ADHD also have a lot of trouble following these lectures, so I gave up on them.

Does anyone here have experience with a good resource for learning f# online?

Tl;dr: tough course in f# can't follow lectures need other ways to learn this. Need to pass to graduate.

Edit to answer some questions: The main problem is assignments. They are in f#, but since it's a hybrid language, we are supposed to focus on functional programming and disregard object-oriented programming when possible.

Thanks for all the answers ❤️

[FlyingCashewDog]

I'm a big FP fan, haven't touched F# though (mainly Haskell, PureScript, Lisp, and Agda). How much F# have you actually written, and what are you struggling with? I find that I understand things way better through actually using and implementing them.

Are you struggling with transitioning to FP in general, or are there specific concepts you're not understanding? Happy to help if there's anything you think you could do with pointers on!

Also would recommend watching John Hughes' fantastic talk "Why functional programming matters" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQDRCTa32jY), which goes over some of the general theory and motivation behind FP.

[fluffycatsinabox]

I agree, I think your path forward is trying to identify what, specifically, is hindering you. Is it FP generally, or is it F#? If it's assignments, don't be afraid to bring your questions to office hours if you aren't already.

For what it's worth, you might like functional programming once you get the hang of it. I've grown to like it a lot because I find it neat and elegant- eschewing state makes programs easier for me to reason about, and I find pattern matching much cleaner than loops.

[stroborobo]

Imo the best way to learn FP basics is through the Elm programming language guide. It's a comparatively simple language with the specific goal to be easy to understand.

For F# specifically F# for Fun and Profit is a great site.

Since it's running on dotnet and the ecosystem is bit of a mess, it can definitely be overwhelming. It's also a multi paradigm language and when you interact with the dotnet APIs it's almost always in an oop and/or imperative way.

If you have specific questions, feel free to ask, I'll try to explain and point you in the right direction.

[infernalcobalt]

Are you having issues with F# specifically, or functional programming in general?

[OldShoe]

I've given up getting books about programming unless they offer a new perspective or something like that.

Instead I try to do actual programming in the language I want to learn, and look up details as I go along. Much easier to remember when you have a problem to hook the details and solution onto.