Lambda-calculus, Combinators and Functional Programming

Provides computer science students and researchers with a firm background in lambda-calculus and combinators.

G. E. Revesz (Author)

9780521114295, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 25 June 2009

192 pages
24.4 x 17 x 1 cm, 0.32 kg

Originally published in 1988, this book presents an introduction to lambda-calculus and combinators without getting lost in the details of mathematical aspects of their theory. Lambda-calculus is treated here as a functional language and its relevance to computer science is clearly demonstrated. The main purpose of the book is to provide computer science students and researchers with a firm background in lambda-calculus and combinators and show the applicabillity of these theories to functional programming. The presentation of the material is self-contained. It can be used as a primary text for a course on functional programming. It can also be used as a supplementary text for courses on the structure and implementation of programming languages, theory of computing, or semantics of programming languages.

Preface
1. Introduction
2. Type-free lambda-calculus
3. Combinators and constant symbols
4. List manipulation in lambda-calculus
5. Rule-based semantics of ?-expressions
6. Outlines of a reduction machine
7. Towards a parallel graph-reduction
Appendix A: A proof of the Church-Rosser theorem
Appendix B: Introduction to typed ?-calculus
Bibliographical notes
References.

Subject Areas: Mathematical theory of computation [UYA]