Tagged: Lambda calculus

The lambda calculus and closures in Groovy


Alonzo Church (1903–1995)

Alonzo Church: Image via Wikipedia

No sooner had I written about the lambda calculus and Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs than I sat in a lecture on closures in Groovy and was presented with a structure like this (which multiplies two numbers, in this case 3 and 4):

a simple closure in Groovy

Which immediately reminded me of one of Alonzo Church‘s formulations of lambdas – eg:

A lambda calculus representation of a formula

More to come…

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Coming up… the lambda calculus


An example of a DFA state diagram

Image via Wikipedia

Another thing that The Annotated Turing taught me is what all those lambdas that I have seen over the last 25 years were about, or at least it introduced me to what they were about.

So I have just ordered a copy of Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs: and I can guess that some blog posts will eventually follow.

Oh no. Maybe I am turning into a LISP hacker – having finally reached the age that all these guys were when I first became aware of them (older, actually).

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