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From: srinivas@madeleine.ics.uci.edu (Yellamraju Srinivas)
Newsgroups: comp.theory
Subject: Re: Intro Category Theory?
Message-ID: <26CC3FC9.14951@ics.uci.edu>
Date: 17 Aug 90 19:04:41 GMT
References: <VICTOR.90Aug16142815@vivaldi.itg.ti.com> <9008161733.aa29977@PARIS.ICS.UCI.EDU>
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To complement the references listed by Ira Baxter
(<9008161733.aa29977@PARIS.ICS.UCI.EDU> baxter@zola.ICS.UCI.EDU), here
are some more.

An excellent introduction to category theory for computer scientists
is the following report from CMU. Much of the material follows
Golblatt (1984). The author has done a good job of culling
definitions, concepts, and examples from several sources. In addition,
the report contains case studies of concrete applications of category
theory in computer science, such as type theory and solving recursive
domain equations.

@techreport(pierce:ct,
  author     = "Benjamin C. Pierce",
  title      = "A Taste of Category Theory for Computer Scientists",
  institution= "Computer Science Dept, Carnegie Mellon University",
  address    = "Pittsburgh",
  number     = "CMU-CS-88-203",
  year       = 1988
)


There is also a paper by Hoare which uses an example-based approach to
introducing category theory to computer scientists. The paper contains
three sections describing sets, pre-orders, and monoids. This is a
good way to learn the abstract language of category theory. It's a
good idea to read this paper before attempting any other.

@incollection(hoare:ct,
  author     = "C. A. R. Hoare",
  title      = "Notes on an Approach to Category Theory for Computer
		Scientists",
  booktitle  = "Constructive Methods in Computing Science",
  series     = "NATO ASI Series",
  volume     = "F55",
  editor     = "Manfred Broy",
  publisher  = sp,
  address    = "Berlin",
  pages      = "245-305",
  year       = 1989
)


Finally, if you are a serious student of category theory, the best
book on this subject is by Mac Lane, one of the founders of category
theory. The precision, succinctness, and clarity of exposition far
surpasses that in any other book. The author stresses the fundamental
unity of various categorical concepts such as universal arrows,
limits, adjoints, and representable functors.
However, as the title implies, this book presumes a fair amount of
mathematical background.

@book(maclane:categories,
  author     = "Saunders {Mac~Lane}",
  title      = "Categories for the Working Mathematician",
  publisher  = "Springer-Verlag",
  address    = "New York",
  year       = 1971
)

====
Y. V. Srinivas
Dept. of Information and Computer Science
University of California
Irvine, CA 92717
--
Y V Srinivas