lambda calculus
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English
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Etymology
[edit]Coined by Alonzo Church after the use of the Greek letter lambda (λ) as the basic abstraction operator in the calculus.
Noun
[edit]lambda calculus (countable and uncountable, plural lambda calculi)
- (computing theory) Any of a family of functionally complete algebraic systems in which lambda expressions are evaluated according to a fixed set of rules to produce values, which may themselves be lambda expressions.
- 2009 March 2, John C. Baez with Mike Stay, “Physics, Topology, Logic and Computation: A Rosetta Stone”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)[1], page 50:
- In the 1930s, while Turing was developing what are now called ‘Turing machines’ as a model for computation, Church and his student Kleene were developing a different model, called the ‘lambda calculus’ [29, 63]. While a Turing machine can be seen as an idealized, simplified model of computer hardware, the lambda calculus is more like a simple model of software.
Usage notes
[edit]- When referring to lambda calculus, it is often prefixed with the definite article. I.e., both "lambda calculus" (without a definite article) and "the lambda calculus" are commonly used, and mean the same thing.
Meronyms
[edit]Derived terms
[edit]Related terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]algebraic system
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