wduquette 3 days ago

Is Martin-Lof's type theory foundational for stuff people are using today? Or is it an interesting idea that never came to fruition?

  • deterministic 3 days ago

    Martin-Lof's type theory is the foundation (or inspiration) for quite a few modern proof assistants. It is also an elegant non-set based foundation for constructive mathematics.

    • wduquette 3 days ago

      And there it is. Thanks very much!

  • grumpymuppet 3 days ago

    If you are interested in programming language theory (think language design) then, yes. In some sense, this kind of stuff is impossible to avoid.

    If you're an engineer focused on shipping product, probably not. It's not TERRIBLY useful for most day to day coding tasks.

    I would argue some understanding of theory is absolutely necessary if you want to make any significant tide change in CS. It's just that most people won't (myself included).

    • wduquette 3 days ago

      Oh, I get the importance of type theory in general. I hadn’t run into Martin-Lof before.

      • grumpymuppet 3 days ago

        Ahh, sorry, yeah. This stuff is classic. "Old" even.