Ask HN: Should an engineer try to understand type theory? I'm studying to become a software engineer, and I was wondering if I should bother learning type theory. I have TAPL by Pierce in mind in particular. What are the possible benefits if I successfully tackle the book? Also, other readings (not as in-depth as the book) are also welcome. |
If you want to program in Rust (for example) I think the mathematically oriented intro material won't help you so much.
If you want to make something like Rust there is a lot of interesting literature at the graduate level and a fairly clear path that you write a PhD thesis and really do write a language but it is more like Cyclone or Alef, DIBOL or LISP 2 or something like that.
If you are solid on algorithm theory, combinatorics and similar subjects than type theory could be a good addition.