3 ms·
The (lambda calculus) Y-combinator as a tattoo
- jacquesm 17y agoAnother one: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/science-tattoo-emporium/?nggpage=22&pid=147 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/science-tattoo-empori...
- daeken 17y agoI considered doing a Y-combinator implementation as a tattoo, but I ended up going for a simple lambda. Why? It's more generic, and simply perfectly suited to my work and interests. http://img129.yfrog.com/i/9e0.jpg/ http://img129.yfrog.com/i/9e0.jpg/
- elrodeo 17y agoI know, it depends on the syntax, but I'd say some parenthesis are missing (around the third lambda)... :)
- eru 17y agoNot if they take lambda to extent all the way to the right, I guess. I'd rather there are too many parens Like around the last (f (x x). I'd prefer a graphical representation along the lines of (http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~evans/cs655/readings/mockingbird_files/Graphical_lambda27.gif http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~evans/cs655/readings/mockingbird...) on my skin. (The image is taken from the excellent article http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~evans/cs655/readings/mockingbird.html http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~evans/cs655/readings/mockingbird...)
- camccann 17y agoJust be careful, if you're considering doing something like this: Make sure the tattoo artist is sufficiently lazy, as Y diverges under strict evaluation. Nontermination is typically undesirable in a tattoo (except in some subcultures).
- fexl 17y agoI might prefer this: S S I (S (S (C S) C) (C (S I I))) But then I'd be tempted to abstract the I out and apply to (S C C).
- fexl 17y agoHowever, when building functions with combinators it's clearer to use bound lambdas along the way: \I = (S C C) \U = (S I I) \R = (S (C S) C) \Q = (S R (C U)) \Y = (S Q Q)