lambda/README.md

lambda

This is a small lambda calculus interpreter.

Usage

For best results you should run it using Nix, but using plain cabal should work in most cases as well!

To run the interpreter just do

cabal run lambda

Syntax

A lambda calculus term can be one of:

• a variable
• application of two terms
• lambda abstracion

This interpreter can handle lambda-terms and also supports declarations (assigning a name to a lambda-term). Following example should showcase all features:

> i = \x.x
> s = \x.\y.\z.x z (y z)
> k = \x.\y.x
> s k k x
s k k x
(\x.\y.\z.x z (y z)) k k x
(\v$0.\v$1.k v$1 (v$0 v$1)) k x
(\v$0.k v$0 (k v$0)) x
k x (k x)
(\x.\y.x) x (k x)
(\v$0.x) (k x)
x

Behind the scenes the interpreter just exhaustively applies beta- and eta-reductions.

Prelude

You can supply a prelude (a collection of functions that are loaded when the interpreter is started) to the interpreter in a file prelude.lmd.