"Propositions as Types" by Philip Wadler
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN regards it as an entertaining and eye-opening introduction to why logic and functional programming are connected, and it is a frequent pick in favorite-tech-talk threads.
What it is
Philip Wadler's Strange Loop talk on Propositions as Types, the link between logic and computation (the Curry-Howard correspondence). He traces its history through Church, Godel and Turing and shows how it shaped theorem provers and programming languages.
Recommended by 9 HN commenters across 8 different months, 2015 to 2026.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec jcox92 · 2015-11 · on “Propositions as Types (2014) [pdf]”
+1 Probably my favorite talk at Strange Loop this year. It's worth watching just for the minute or so starting here: [this video]
Strong rec runT1ME · 2016-10 · on “Ask HN: What's your favorite tech talk?”
Propositions as Types: [this video] I think this can really really change how we look at everyday programming tasks everywhere from the type of tooling we choose to how we approach problems.
Strong rec imode · 2017-01 · on “Proofs are Programs – 19th Century Logic and 21st Century Computing (2000) [pdf]”
curry-howard and Wadler's "Propositions as Types" talk at StrangeLoop* opened my eyes pretty early on to the sweet, sweet utility of logic in my every day programming. it sounds odd to start with but I never realized why these things mattered prior to viewing this talk. props to wadler. best ~40 minutes I've ever spent. * [this video]
Strong rec jgautsch · 2018-08 · on “Curry–Howard correspondence”
Professor Philip Wadler has a fantastic talk titled "Propositions as Types" that introduces the Curry-Howard correspondence, some history behind it and ideas following it. In fact it's one of my favorite talks. Well worth a watch if you haven't seen it: [this video]
Recommends chrislloyd · 2015-11 · on “Propositions as Types (2014) [pdf]”
If you're finding the paper too dense, Philip gave a extremely entertaining talk on the same subject at Strange Loop this year: [this video]
Recommends mietek · 2016-07 · on “Very Long Proofs”
If you’re using the right language, proofs are programs; it’s as simple as that. “Compressing” a proof, then, amounts to doing what good programmers are already doing — noticing patterns and eliminating redundancy. I’ll refer you to an authority on the subject, Phil Wadler. If you like watching videos, try < [this video] . If you’d rather read an entertaining paper, try < [LINK] .
Recommends yawaramin · 2018-04 · on “Ask HN: What is your favourite tech talk?”
Philip Wadler's 'Propositions as Types': [this video] Bonus: that was the talk that introduced Lambdaman to the world.
Recommends pmiri · 2018-10 · on “Ask HN: What are some of the best technical talks you've heard?”
Propositions as Types by Philip Wadler A really in depth look into why functional languages stand out as a programming paradigm. The short of it being that they parallel perfectly (almost proof for proof!) with mathematical logic. [this video]