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After having done many tedious, robotic proofs that various arrows in a given diagram have certain properties, I've begun to wonder whether or not someone has made this automatic. You should be able to tell a program where the objects and arrows are, and which arrows have certain properties, and it should be able to list all of the provable implications.

Has this been done? Humans should no longer have to do diagram chases by hand!

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    $\begingroup$ If the answer is yes, then I definitely want it! $\endgroup$
    – fosco
    Apr 11, 2012 at 18:07
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    $\begingroup$ Related: mathoverflow.net/questions/9930/… $\endgroup$
    – Qiaochu Yuan
    Apr 11, 2012 at 18:09
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    $\begingroup$ I have a feeling this is going to have the same problems that come when trying to list all possible computer programs. The list is possible to generate, but it's almost useless, because it contains too much noise. Humans are still needed. Checking human-generated diagram chasing would be better bet to work. $\endgroup$
    – tp1
    Apr 11, 2012 at 19:48
  • $\begingroup$ On the other hand even a program that only handled certain classes of diagrams would be of great practical use. $\endgroup$
    – user21725
    Apr 11, 2012 at 23:44

1 Answer 1

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I am developing a Mathematica package called WildCats which allows the computer algebra system Mathematica to perform category theory computations (even graphical computations).

The posted version 0.36 is available at https://sites.google.com/site/wildcatsformma/

A much more powerful version 0.50 will be available at the beginning of May.

The package is totally free (GPL licence), but requires the commercial Mathematica system available at www.wolfram.com. The educational, student or home editions are very moderately priced.

One of the things you can already do in Wildcats 0.36 is to apply a functor to a diagram and see the resulting diagram. In the new version 0.50, you will also be able to do diagram chasing.

Needless to say, I greatly appreciate users feedback and comments

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  • $\begingroup$ Nice, look forward to it. $\endgroup$
    – Helmut
    Apr 15, 2012 at 20:22
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    $\begingroup$ WildCats version 0.50 has been released. It is a major improvement over the previous release. I greatly appreciate users feedback and comments $\endgroup$
    – magma
    May 21, 2012 at 20:27
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    $\begingroup$ WildCats version 0.60 has been released. It is a major update over the previous release.Cones, Comma categories and Diagonal functors have been introduced. $\endgroup$
    – magma
    Dec 29, 2012 at 15:58

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