From: "Charles Matthews" <charles.r.matthews@ntlworld.com>
Subject: Re: Lambda calculus and it relation to LISP
Date: Sat, 5 Oct 2002 08:58:57 +0100 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <UYwn9.92$gY1.17544@newsfep2-gui> (raw)
In-Reply-To: 9e8ebeb2.0210041920.2e480123@posting.google.com
"gnuist" wrote
> I read the following quote in a book on emacs and similar
> things in a book on lisp.
>
> "The lambda calculus is a mathematical formalism
> having to do with the way functions instantiate
> their arguments. To some extent it is the theoretical
> basis for Lisp and plenty of other computer languages."
>
> I am interested in a little concrete elaboration
> of this statement by any mathematicians, logicians
> or practitioners/users of lisp and lisp in emacs.
There are a few obstacles in understanding what is going on here. For
example:
- the lambda calculus may be a 'mathematical formalism', but it is not one
mathematicians usually have a feeling for, unless they have cause to use it
in some way: what it is really is a very basic piece of syntax for computer
science;
- the underlying programming theory of lambda calculus is functional
programming, so on the whole it might be more accurate to call lambda
calculus a mechanism for expressing accurately the substitution of one
function in another, rather than instantiation (an operational rather than a
mathematical difference);
- you can call LISP a functional programming language if you want - not
everybody would so want;
- the untyped lambda calculus written in the usual compressed way
abbreviates heavily, and going a couple of steps back to a more tree-like
representation of combinators is much more perspicuous.
So, this connection can be made ... but joining it all up required a fair
amount of background.
Charles
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2002-10-05 7:58 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 32+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2002-10-05 3:20 Lambda calculus and it relation to LISP gnuist
2002-10-05 7:51 ` Luke A. Olbrish
2002-10-05 10:46 ` William Elliot
2002-10-12 0:28 ` Alfred Einstead
2002-10-12 4:02 ` William Elliot
2002-10-05 11:44 ` David Kastrup
2002-10-09 4:38 ` James Wong
2002-10-09 4:48 ` William Elliot
2002-10-05 7:58 ` Charles Matthews [this message]
2002-10-05 8:05 ` Gareth McCaughan
2002-10-06 12:03 ` William Elliot
2002-10-06 19:22 ` Gareth McCaughan
2002-10-07 4:58 ` gnuist
2002-10-07 7:14 ` William Elliot
2002-10-07 7:37 ` Barb Knox
2002-10-07 9:34 ` David Kastrup
2002-10-07 9:59 ` William Elliot
2002-10-07 11:10 ` Barb Knox
2002-10-07 14:34 ` William Elliot
2002-10-07 10:44 ` Christian Lemburg
2002-10-08 1:02 ` ozan s yigit
2002-10-07 10:59 ` Barb Knox
2002-10-08 3:05 ` David Kastrup
2002-10-07 23:12 ` Gareth McCaughan
2002-10-07 9:54 ` William Elliot
2002-10-07 22:48 ` Gareth McCaughan
2002-10-08 8:42 ` William Elliot
2002-10-05 14:46 ` Fred Gilham
2002-10-05 16:15 ` Kaz Kylheku
2002-10-06 12:22 ` Thaddeus L Olczyk
2002-10-06 13:46 ` Joona I Palaste
2002-10-12 0:36 ` Alfred Einstead
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