Re: Lambda calculus and it relation to LISP

[David Kastrup]

luke.olbrish@cc.gatech.edu (Luke A. Olbrish) writes:

> gnuist007@hotmail.com (gnuist) writes:
> 
> > "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.
> 
> ((lambda (x) x x) (lambda (x) x x))

That's gibberish.  You probably mean

((lambda (x) (x x)) (lambda (x) (x x)))

which will (in Scheme, not Lisp) lead to infinite recursion.

While we are on the topic of Scheme and recursion:
((lambda (f n) (f f n))
 (lambda (f n) (if (= 0 n) 1 (* n (f f (- n 1))))) 5)

Recursion without a function actually calling itself!

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum
Email: David.Kastrup@t-online.de