* Daryoush Mehrtash <dmehrt...@gmail.com> [2009-02-13 11:31:06-0800] > Isn't the lambda expression a representation of something (potentially with > recursion) that yields "a value" and not the value itself?
The same terms may refer to different notions. If you think of values as mathematical objects, they are denotation of syntactic constructs (value 1 is denotation of "1", as well as of "(\x -> x-2) 3"). However, in operational (rather than denotational) semantics, "1" is value (result of evaluation; normal form) of "(\x -> x-2) 3", and is itself a syntactic construct. So, you really need to define (and understand) your terms before talking about them. > Even integer which we think of as values are represented in the same > way: > http://safalra.com/science/lambda-calculus/integer-arithmetic/ Church numerals are introduced in _untyped_ lambda calculus, while we are probably talking about _typed_ lambda calculus (as implemented in Haskell). In the later integers usually are introduced as a basic type. -- Roman I. Cheplyaka :: http://ro-che.info/ "Don't let school get in the way of your education." - Mark Twain _______________________________________________ Haskell-Cafe mailing list Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe
