I only just saw your reply. I hope it is not too late to reach you. Yeah, I was going to say that the most common algebra in programming seems to be monoids. B

I only just saw your reply. I hope it is not too late to reach you. Yeah, I was going to say that the most common algebra in programming seems to be monoids. Being aware of them would probably make some patterns people apply ritualistically more clear and obvious but I think that most experienced people have the notion implicitly. Category theory formulations are not as common in OCaml and I am hard pressed to find any practical use for them. No that is not quite true. Knowing concepts like fusion, natural polymorphisms, initial and final algebras, ana/cata/hylo morphisms make many fuzzy patterns concrete. And motivate many algorithms. But I have never found a use where a theorem was useful in deriving some part of a program.