Learn Lambda Calculus in 10 minutes with OCaml

I'm going to teach you the basics of Lambda Calculus really quickly.

Lambda Calculus is deep. But I'm covering only the fundamentals here.

What is Lambda Calculus?

Lambda Calculus (LC) is a model to describe computations.

LC describes the syntax and semantics.

Syntax

A lambda expression (also known as lambda term) can be one of the following three things:

1. Variable


2. Application


3. Abstraction

Variable

A variable is just a string. For example:

• 
  

  Traditional:
  
  

  
  

  x
  

  
  


• 
  

  Programmer-friendly
  
  

  
  

  company_id
  

  
  

Application

Application (aka …

basics calculus functional fundamentals lambda learn ocaml programming semantics syntax