Re: Lambda calculus and it relation to LISP

[Joona I Palaste]

Thaddeus L Olczyk <olczyk@interaccess.com> scribbled the following
on sci.math:
> On 4 Oct 2002 20:20:49 -0700, gnuist007@hotmail.com (gnuist) wrote:
>>"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."

> To really see a PL that "implements lambda calculus"
> lok at Haskel, not Lisp.

Haskell, not Haskel. In Haskell the backslash \ means the lambda
operator. For example it's possible to say:

(\f. (f 1)) (\x. x + 1), which means:
(\x. x + 1) 1, which means:
1 + 1, which means:
2

Haskell gets its name from Haskell Curry, who has also been attributed
for the concept of "currying", which I'm told should really be called
"schönfinkeling".

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