Learn You Some Lambda Calculus
summary
Defines a tiny JavaScript-only lambda calculus subset and actually implements Church encoding for booleans and natural numbers, plus successor, predecessor and multiplication, then shows deferred evaluation for branching and uses the Z combinator (not Y, because JS is eager) to achieve recursion. Builds a working factorial encoded purely with functions and demonstrates results like factorial(5)=120 and factorial(6)=720. Provides a code repo with the examples.
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chapters (10)
- 0:00Introduction to lambda
- 1:17Lambda calculus history
- 3:47Setting up the challenge
- 7:31Defining lambda calculus
- 11:03Encoding booleans
- 16:11Encoding natural numbers
- 21:21Control flow and evaluation
- 24:21Implementing recursion
- 29:42Conclusion and takeaways
- 30:33Q&A session
