Talk:Category Theory

From Wikibooks, the open-content textbooks collection

Contents 1 Regarding changes already made 2 Strategy, Goals 3 Haskell 4 Merging with abstract algebra 5 Restart

[edit] Regarding changes already made

I frequently see things like "(see 354)"... Is this referring to page numbers? I hope this stuff isn't copyrighted...

Also, it was not clear what lay out of the sections the author intended.. i saw the word "Categories" repeated multiple times, i assumed that was telling me to back out maybe to a top level? I went ahead and made the modifications.. i figure whoever started this book can fix it if thats not right.. I hope that wasn't terribly rude..

It was hard to read without using html entities, the correct symbols were not displayed on my platform.. so I changed the characters to HTML 4.0 entities... 24.110.114.227 04:31, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Strategy, Goals

I wonder if a good approach to writing this book as a community would be to have the table of contents written, like a skeleton, and then an introductory paragraph or so to each section. This way other users could figure out where their content belongs in the heirarchy and just flush it out... Note: I have 0 experience writing wikibooks... 24.110.114.227 04:31, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

Here are some Ideas of things I think might be nice in a book on Category theory:

• Pretty little quotes at the beginning of each chapter which are vaguely reminescant to someothing analogous to the topic, or pertain to it more directly, with attributions. Perhaps a quote from one of the originators of Category theory...
• Visual Aids! diagrams, like those used in these slides: http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~sme/presentations/cat101.pdf Not sure what software should be used to generate them.. Dia? The gimp? your favorite image editor?
• Exercises for each chapter
• Maybe some historical context here and there or anecdotes, if it fits
• Notes for each chapter.. including references to sources and/or alternatively a suggested reading section

24.110.114.227 05:19, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Haskell

There is also a category theory chapter in the Haskell wikibook. -- Kowey 09:54, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Merging with abstract algebra

This is a bad idea. Category theory is an independent subject in math. It has connections with abstract algebra but it has perhaps deeper connections with logic and important applications in algebraic geometry and computing science.

We need someone to produce an outline of topics. -- User:SixWingedSeraph

I agree, this doesn't belong to abstract algebra. But since nobody is working on it since over a year, and it's little more than wikipedia article with same name, maybe it should be deleted. I'm a novice to category theory, so I don't feel comfortable to write a whole book about it. I've started Wikiversity learning project Introduction to Category Theory with undergraduate scope. I'll see if I can reuse some of this material. Tlep 22:48, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

This is a good idea. It makes no sense to have two books on category theory, one of which is even under abstract algebra, where it doesn't belong. The book under abstract algebra is almost empty, and there seems to be no regular contributor. Therefore merging the two categories means in practice that someone looks at the one under abstract algebra to see if there is anything worth copying to the other book (probably not), and then it's deleted. This makes sure that the few people who actually contribute do so to the same book. Hans Adler 81.111.51.198 21:43, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Restart

I have started editing this book. I intend to produce stubs for many more sections and chapters and I will shortly delete the proposal to merge this with the abstract algebra book. Suggestions will be welcome.--SixWingedSeraph (talk) 02:15, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

I have broken the book into pages and introduced some stubs. I have rewritten the Introduction and most of the chapter on Categories. The chapter on Natural Transformations covers the topic but I recommend it be rewritten in a more labeled style with bulleted lists, subsections, etc (like the Categories chapter) The other chapters need to be completely rewritten to fix the TeX, get rid of the page references (to someone's lecture notes, presumably), and so on. SixWingedSeraph (talk) 16:00, 13 August 2009 (UTC)

I will continue to work on this. This is a good project for retired category theorists. Younger mathematicians get no academic rewards at all for contributing to Wikis. Note: If you are interested in something special, just write it up! For example you could write up typed lambda-calculus as an example, or a section on sheaves, or an introduction to 2-categories. This book does not have to be done in order. SixWingedSeraph (talk) 16:05, 13 August 2009 (UTC)