[Haskell-cafe] why the name lambda calculus?

Rajesh S R srrajesh1989 at gmail.com
Tue Aug 23 18:19:49 CEST 2011


Slight digression. Why not Lambda "Algebra"?
In particular, what is the criteria for a system to be calculus and how's it
different from algebra?

On Mon, Aug 22, 2011 at 12:41 AM, Jack Henahan <jhenahan at uvm.edu> wrote:

> The short answer is "because Church said so". But yes, it is basically
> because λ is the abstraction operator in the calculus.
>
> Why not alpha or beta calculus? What would we call alpha and beta
> conversion, then? :D
>
> On Aug 21, 2011, at 12:37 PM, C K Kashyap wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> > Can someone please tell me what is the root of the name lambda calculus?
> Is it just because of the symbol lambda that is used?
> > Why not alpha or beta calculus?
> > Regards,
> > Kashyap
> > _______________________________________________
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> Jack Henahan
> jhenahan at uvm.edu
> ==
> Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about
> telescopes.
> -- Edsger Dijkstra
> ==
>
>
>
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>


-- 
Rajesh S R
http://rajeshsr.co.cc/blogs/
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