Introduction to Combinators and (lambda) Calculus

Download or read book Introduction to Combinators and (lambda) Calculus written by J. R. Hindley and published by CUP Archive. This book was released on 1986-05-29 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Combinatory logic and lambda-conversion were originally devised in the 1920s for investigating the foundations of mathematics using the basic concept of 'operation' instead of 'set'. They have now developed into linguistic tools, useful in several branches of logic and computer science, especially in the study of programming languages. These notes form a simple introduction to the two topics, suitable for a reader who has no previous knowledge of combinatory logic, but has taken an undergraduate course in predicate calculus and recursive functions. The key ideas and basic results are presented, as well as a number of more specialised topics, and man), exercises are included to provide manipulative practice.