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Category Theory for the Working Hacker [video]

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Re: Category Theory for the Working Hacker [video]

#11

Post by tnecniv »

Nydhal wrote: post #8
Koshkin wrote: post #7

To be honest, Category Theory is the last thing a software developer ("working hacker") should worry about learning. It is indeed a fun subject, it has grown into a large branch of algebra, it has connections with functional programming (lambda calculus) etc. But if one wants to be a good programmer, there is so much of really useful and important (and difficult) stuff to learn before you can even come to appreciate…

I'm curious, what should come before as a far as a mathematical subject ? Graph theory ? Number theory ?

Depends on what you do. I work in robotics, so probability and linear algebra are the two most indispensable subjects I know. Graph theory might be a little more generally applicable.

At the end of the day, you don't need a lot of math to write CRUD apps. The more math you know, though, the more approaches you'll have to formulate and solve problems.

Re: Category Theory for the Working Hacker [video]

#12

Post by ajamesm »

Koshkin wrote: post #7

To be honest, Category Theory is the last thing a software developer ("working hacker") should worry about learning. It is indeed a fun subject, it has grown into a large branch of algebra, it has connections with functional programming (lambda calculus) etc. But if one wants to be a good programmer, there is so much of really useful and important (and difficult) stuff to learn before you can even come to appreciate…

Category theory doesn't make someone a better Java applications developer, which is EXACTLY why they should be learning it

Re: Category Theory for the Working Hacker [video]

#13

Post by a-saleh »

Koshkin wrote: post #7

To be honest, Category Theory is the last thing a software developer ("working hacker") should worry about learning. It is indeed a fun subject, it has grown into a large branch of algebra, it has connections with functional programming (lambda calculus) etc. But if one wants to be a good programmer, there is so much of really useful and important (and difficult) stuff to learn before you can even come to appreciate…

I thing that if you are the sort of person that really likes design patterns, the sort of applied category-theory that the likes of Erik Meijer, Bartosz Milewski, Rúnar Bjarnason or Gabriel Gonzalez talk about is actually a good next step after the GOF Desing Patterns :-)

Re: Category Theory for the Working Hacker [video]

#14

Post by willtim »

Koshkin wrote: post #7

To be honest, Category Theory is the last thing a software developer ("working hacker") should worry about learning. It is indeed a fun subject, it has grown into a large branch of algebra, it has connections with functional programming (lambda calculus) etc. But if one wants to be a good programmer, there is so much of really useful and important (and difficult) stuff to learn before you can even come to appreciate…

Have you actually watched the presentation? If not, I encourage you to do so. Category theory and abstract algebra help us understand what it means to build composable and reusable software components with well defined semantics. There is already ample focus on algorithms and discreet math at university courses, but very little of the above. This is despite the fact that modern software development is becoming more about composing existing code and less about reimplementing classic algorithms. So given the already ample focus on the topics you suggest, I think we can forgive Phil Wadler for giving a very brief glimpse into a promising subject that most hackers would dismiss as obscure/irreverent.

Re: Category Theory for the Working Hacker [video]

#15

Post by SomeStupidPoint »

tnecniv wrote: post #11
Nydhal wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious, what should come before as a far as a mathematical subject ? Graph theory ? Number theory ?

Depends on what you do. I work in robotics, so probability and linear algebra are the two most indispensable subjects I know. Graph theory might be a little more generally applicable. At the end of the day, you don't need a lot of math to write CRUD apps. The more math you know, though, the more approaches you'll have to formulate and solve problems.

A lot of graph theory is implemented as linear algebra, using things like adjacency matrices.

Re: Category Theory for the Working Hacker [video]

#17

Post by AvenueIngres »

Koshkin wrote: post #7

To be honest, Category Theory is the last thing a software developer ("working hacker") should worry about learning. It is indeed a fun subject, it has grown into a large branch of algebra, it has connections with functional programming (lambda calculus) etc. But if one wants to be a good programmer, there is so much of really useful and important (and difficult) stuff to learn before you can even come to appreciate…

I agree it isn't directly useful but I think that is good common knowledge to have and a little exposure can only help.

Re: Category Theory for the Working Hacker [video]

#18

Post by westoncb »

Nydhal wrote: post #8
Koshkin wrote: post #7

To be honest, Category Theory is the last thing a software developer ("working hacker") should worry about learning. It is indeed a fun subject, it has grown into a large branch of algebra, it has connections with functional programming (lambda calculus) etc. But if one wants to be a good programmer, there is so much of really useful and important (and difficult) stuff to learn before you can even come to appreciate…

I'm curious, what should come before as a far as a mathematical subject ? Graph theory ? Number theory ?

There isn't a specific branch of mathematics you need to know in order to learn Category Theory. Its main role is in providing a way of describing other parts of mathematics (similar to the way set theory and certain logics are commonly used to formulate definitions and proofs). In other words, it's a kind of 'foundation,' so there isn't really anything under it. (This is my understanding anyway—please correct me if I'm wrong here.)

That said, it will probably be rather difficult to comprehend if you haven't been exposed to a good amount of other work in pure mathematics first. If you wanted one other more introductory subject, I'd recommend checking out Abstract Algebra (lots of other mathematics are expressed in its terms, also; so independent of Category Theory it would probably be time well spent. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstract_algebra).

Re: Category Theory for the Working Hacker [video]

#19

Post by danidiaz »

Koshkin wrote: post #7

To be honest, Category Theory is the last thing a software developer ("working hacker") should worry about learning. It is indeed a fun subject, it has grown into a large branch of algebra, it has connections with functional programming (lambda calculus) etc. But if one wants to be a good programmer, there is so much of really useful and important (and difficult) stuff to learn before you can even come to appreciate…

Some basic notions of folds/unfolds, algebraic data types and recursion schemes are great to have, I think.

Re: Category Theory for the Working Hacker [video]

#20

Post by Jaxan »

tnecniv wrote: post #11
Nydhal wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious, what should come before as a far as a mathematical subject ? Graph theory ? Number theory ?

Depends on what you do. I work in robotics, so probability and linear algebra are the two most indispensable subjects I know. Graph theory might be a little more generally applicable. At the end of the day, you don't need a lot of math to write CRUD apps. The more math you know, though, the more approaches you'll have to formulate and solve problems.

A lot of linear algebra is implemented using graph theory, using things like sparse matrices.
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