Computing (FOLDOC) dictionary
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abstraction begins with a lower-case lambda (represented as
"" in this document), followed by a variable name (the "bound
The body is taken to extend as far to the right as possible
so, for example an expression,
x . y . x+y
is read as
x . ( y . x+y).
A nested abstraction such as this is often abbreviated to:
x y . x + y
The lambda expression ( v . E) denotes a function which takes
an argument and returns the term E with all
free occurrences
( x . x) 42
represents the identity function applied to the constant 42.
lambda, a list of zero or more variable names and a list of
zero or more terms, e.g.
(lambda (x y) (plus x y))
Lambda expressions in
Haskell are written as a backslash,
"", one or more patterns (e.g. variable names), "-@#" and an
expression, e.g. x -@# x.
(1995-01-24)