Re: Using 'λ'

[ludo@gnu.org (Ludovic Courtès)]

Hello!

Chris Marusich <cmmarusich@gmail.com> skribis:

> Alex Vong <alexvong1995@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> [...] It seems many think λ is not newcomer-friendly [...].
>
> I would go one step farther and argue that the name "lambda" itself is
> not the best, regardless of whether it's written as "lambda" or "λ".  I
> agree with the authors of Structure and Interpretation of Computers when
> they wrote ((sicp) 1.3.2):
>
> "It would be clearer and less intimidating to people learning Lisp if a
> name more obvious than ‘lambda’, such as ‘make-procedure’, were used.
> But the convention is firmly entrenched."

I agree; “procedure” or even “function” would be much clearer…

> But I digress.  That ship has sailed, so the least we can do is to write
> "lambda" instead of "λ" to keep Guix approachable/hackable for
> newcomers.  Every little bit counts.

Agreed!

(And I’m saying this as the person who added λ to boot-9.scm.  :-))

Ludo’.