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Lambda Calculus - Fundamentals of Lambda Calculus & Functional Programming in JavaScript

Fullstack Academy · 227.6K views · 2017-08-25 · 1:02:15

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Overview

Gabriel Lebec's Fullstack Academy talk introduces lambda calculus syntax, the history of mathematical logic, and the essence of functional programming using JavaScript. It also covers combinators, currying and Church encodings.

On Hacker News

Repeatedly recommended as one of the most approachable introductions to lambda calculus and combinators.

Recommended by 5 HN people across 5 months · HN mentions 2019–2024

Topics

Computability & complexity theoryFunctional programming
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lambda calculuscombinatorsjavascriptcurrying

What people said

Zhyl · 2024-07 · Strong recommendation

I found these two videos on combinators and lambda calculus recently. They're only tangentially related to Haskell, but they are the most approachable videos on the topic I have ever seen. [VIDEO] [LINK]

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autophagian · 2022-05 · Strong recommendation

For anyone interested in the topic (combinatory logic as told through the medium of birds) I adore Gabriel Lebec's talk "A Flock Of Functions: Combinators, Lambda Calculus & Church Encodings in JavaScript" [VIDEO]

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triyambakam · 2020-09 · Strong recommendation

Just last night I found this excellent introduction to the Lambda Calculus by Gabriel Lebec [1]. It's one of the best I've come across and covers briefly history, building up combinators (using Smullyan's names) leading up to implementing Church encodings and gives Javascript equivalents (or approximations when not possible). The slides themselves are also very aesthetically pleasing, Gabriel has a good sense of colour and design [1] [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by Fullstack Academy, played through YouTube.

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