2015/03/28 by Raul Rojas, Raúl Rojas, Rojas, Raul · 5 voices
Computer Science · #Computability, Logic, AI Algorithms #Logic, Reasoning, and Knowledge #Logic, programming, and type systems #cs.LO
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1503.09060
openalex publication_date 2015/03/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
This paper is a concise and painless introduction to the λ-calculus. This formalism was developed by Alonzo Church as a tool for studying the mathematical properties of effectively computable functions. The formalism became popular and has provided a strong theoretical foundation for the family of functional programming languages. This tutorial shows how to perform arithmetical and logical computations using the λ-calculus and how to define recursive functions, even though λ-calculus functions are unnamed and thus cannot refer explicitly to themselves.