Customer Reviews

Basic Category Theory for Computer Scientists (Foundations of Computing)

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You can find better introductions to category theory available on the net for free. Try searching for Lambert Meertens, Marten Fokkinga, and Jaap Van Oosten, for example. Or Barr and Wells, Triples, Toposes, and Theories. Or Asperti and Longo. Or watch Eugenia Cheng's videos on YouTube, which are fantastic.

But if you want to buy a book, get Barr and Wells, Category Theory for Computing Science. Unfortunately, you have to order it directly from the University of Montreal. It's a great book, by far the best intro to category theory available, *way* better than this! Then, after that, you can read MacLane...

This is a very short book: 70 pages of text + a bibliography. The first 50 pages are about general category theory, and the last 20 pages are specifically for computer scientists. My interest is in general category theory, and I bought this because I have a BS in CS and thought I'd find plenty of familiar examples. Unfortunately this book doesn't have nearly enough examples. I found it easier to skim some undergrad abstract algebra books in the library (groups, rings, vector spaces) and then continuing with category theory intros written for math students.

Anyone coming to this book from Pierce's "Types and Programming Languages" will be disappointed. While his "Types ..." book is a model of clear exposition, this book reads like a set of notes jotted down on the back on an envelope. The extensive bibliographic sections are more than fifteen years out of date. Much of the material referenced is no longer in print, and recent developments are, of course, not mentioned. Those seeking a very gentle introduction to category theory would do better with the book by Lawvere and Schanuel, who cover more of category theory than Pierce. Mathematically mature computer science readers will find everything they need to know about the subject in Mac Lane's book.

This is an excellent introduction to category theory, not just for computer scientists, but for mathematicians as well. The author has a very clear writing style--it's evident that he writes to help people to understand the subject, and not to show off his knowledge. The examples illustrating various principles are easy to understand, especially the ones used to illustrate adjoints, arguably one of the more difficult concepts in category theory. This book also comes with a very valuable annotated bibliography, enabling one to intelligently choose from the many books and articles in this burgeoning field.

Read this book before you tackle Mac Lane.

I'm still a beginner at category theory, but I'd like to say this is a nice textbook. The examples are easy to follow (mainly basic set theory), for people with a com sci background.

A later section explains CCCs (Cartesian closed categories) and its isomorphism to typed lambda calculus. I don't fully grasp the details but this is a very important result in higher-order logic, particularly because the substitution mechanism of lambda calculus can be modeled by category theory.

This book is not exactly what I would call easy going. I've managed to get through half of it in 7 months. However, I can say, with absolute confidence, that if you do the problems you will learn.

Most everything I've seen on category theory is a confusing mixture of different notations with seemingly identical meanings (but in fact the meanings are totally different). This book is no exception. Often, I have resorted to IRC to sort things out when some notation is simply impenetrable to me. My mathematical training stopped at complex calculus, so this may not apply to you if you've had abstract algebra or something a little more 'meta'.

There seems to be one typographical error, but I am not sure. In the example on the adjunction between products and exponentiation, the right adjoint is listed as "(_)^A x A" but in the diagrams it ends up as "(_)^A". This may be a sensible ellision, but it is not explained anywhere in the text and of it's not easy to find these things on the internet.

Author doing his best to explain category theory in terms of discrete math. Gives much more broader look, than all of the articles on this theme I've read. Price is high, though, but I guess, sometimes you can make such an investment in your knowledge of computer science.

Which stands for "Compact, Complete, and Comprehensible".
It is fairly easy to read, has every basic aspects of Category Theory, and has a lot of good examples.
If you would like to know the first step of Category Theory and you are in CS realm, this book is the one you have to try.

I have been reading several different category theory texts recently, and this one was very succinct and accessible. Particularly useful for understanding functional programming.