Type Theory is fundamental to understanding statically typed functional languages, but it's not an easy subject matter to breach.
If you've been wanting to get up to speed with it, but have battled with lack of time and motivation (as I have) a good chance to make progress is coming along.
The first meeting of the online Type Theory Study Group is coming up soon, on the 13th of November. It's not far away, but you can probably manage to get ready for it.
Some very competent people are going to be available to answer questions and having a deadline will help you power through PFPL.
Or at least that's my hope! :D
Why learn Type Theory?
If you are on the fence about whether or not you want to learn Type Theory, from the mailing list a few links to help you make a decision:
- StackOverflow: Daily Applications of Type Theory
- Wikipedia's article
- Bob Harper's Introduction
- the mailing list thread
Among the last expected applications: interactive storytelling, linguistics and AI.
Preparing for the study group TODO list
Assuming you are now, or you were already, convinced that you need to learn Type Theory here is a concise TODO list to get ready for the Study Group inaugural meeting:
- subscribe to the mailing list
- download the pdf of Bob Harper's, Practical Foundations of Programming Languages, 2nd Edition (it's an online draft)
- read the first two chapters before the 13th of November
- do the exercises
- prepare a list of questions for the meeting
- tune in on the 13th of November (medium still to be determined, keep an eye on the mailing list)
Non essential but useful stuff:
- star or watch to the github repo
- join ##typetheory on freenode
- follow @type_theory on Twitter
- join the Facebook group
- Start a local chapter? That should make it more fun :D
That's it, I hope you are able to join if interested. Should be good :)
Comments? Give me a shout at @lambda_cat.
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