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Formalizing category theory in Agda
Journal article

Formalizing category theory in Agda

Abstract

The generality and pervasiveness of category theory in modern mathematics makes it a frequent and useful target of formalization. It is however quite challenging to formalize, for a variety of reasons. Agda currently (i.e. in 2020) does not have a standard, working formalization of category theory. We document our work on solving this dilemma. The formalization revealed a number of potential design choices, and we present, motivate and explain the ones we picked. In particular, we find that alternative definitions or alternative proofs from those found in standard textbooks can be advantageous, as well as "fit" Agda's type theory more smoothly. Some definitions regarded as equivalent in standard textbooks turn out to make different "universe level" assumptions, with some being more polymorphic than others. We also pay close attention to engineering issues so that the library integrates well with Agda's own standard library, as well as being compatible with as many of supported type theories in Agda as possible.

Authors

Hu JZS; Carette J

Journal

, , , pp. 327–342

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)

Publication Date

January 17, 2021

DOI

10.1145/3437992.3439922
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