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Is Lisp anything like Lambda Calculus? If so, then I should get in on that, since I taught myself LC in a day. I saw the sheer power and beauty of it when I had

Is Lisp anything like Lambda Calculus? If so, then I should get in on that, since I taught myself LC in a day. I saw the sheer power and beauty of it when I had "programed" ternary logic operators on paper with it. The only issue I had was the excessive use of parentheses. If there is a way to structure LC like Python (replacing the syntactical function of parentheses with space/indents), then I'd be sold on that for sure.

jerf 12y ago
In addition to other people's comments, I'd suggest Haskell is closer to being lambda calculus, due to aspiring to support "equational reasoning". It isn't "just lambda calculus" when you get right down to it, but then I don't know anything that is.
- superobserver 12y ago
  I've tried getting into Haskell, but nothing out there that shows me how to tinker with functional code. I am the sink or swim type, just show me the kiddie pool first!
  - tjradcliffe 12y ago
    This is the first useful thing I've found on Haskell: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Haskell http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Haskell The beginner track is very nice, taking you through the weird syntax, introducing pattern-matching with examples, and is relatively light on falsehoods.
    - superobserver 12y ago
      Hey, thanks!
franek 12y ago
> If there is a way to structure LC like Python There is Wisp (Whitespace to Lisp): https://bitbucket.org/ArneBab/wisp https://bitbucket.org/ArneBab/wisp http://draketo.de/light/english/wisp-lisp-indentation-preprocessor http://draketo.de/light/english/wisp-lisp-indentation-prepro... (I have never tried it.)
deleted 12y ago
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agentultra 12y ago
> Is Lisp anything like Lambda Calculus? In many respects, yes. http://www.lispworks.com/documentation/HyperSpec/Body/03_ababd.htm http://www.lispworks.com/documentation/HyperSpec/Body/03_aba... There are differences of course which should be pretty easy to spot if you know lambda-calculus well.
andolanra 12y ago
There's a lambda-calculus-like core to Lisps, but there's enough on top that I'm not comfortable saying that Lisp implementations are "just the lambda calculus." As for indentation-based syntax, there is a Scheme SRFI[^1] that specifies an indentation-based syntax, although I'm not sure how many Schemes actually ship with implementations. [^1]: Various extensions to Scheme are proposed as numbered SRFIs; the extension in question is SRFI 49, as defined by http://srfi.schemers.org/srfi-49/srfi-49.html http://srfi.schemers.org/srfi-49/srfi-49.html
- moron4hire 12y ago
  I might be mistaken, but I believe a Python-like syntax for Racket was the strategy undertaken for Pyret: http://www.pyret.org/ http://www.pyret.org/ I can't find any direct connection to Racket, though, and it's not part of the Racket package repository.
  - sparkie 12y ago
    The connection to Racket is the people behind it. Pyret was developed by students of Racket's developer, S. Krishnamurthi (with his support).
    - greghendershott 12y ago
      I think Shriram would point out he is one of many people responsible for the development of Racket.

jerf 12y ago

In addition to other people's comments, I'd suggest Haskell is closer to being lambda calculus, due to aspiring to support "equational reasoning". It isn't "just lambda calculus" when you get right down to it, but then I don't know anything that is.

superobserver 12y ago
I've tried getting into Haskell, but nothing out there that shows me how to tinker with functional code. I am the sink or swim type, just show me the kiddie pool first!
- tjradcliffe 12y ago
  This is the first useful thing I've found on Haskell: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Haskell http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Haskell The beginner track is very nice, taking you through the weird syntax, introducing pattern-matching with examples, and is relatively light on falsehoods.
  - superobserver 12y ago
    Hey, thanks!

franek 12y ago

> If there is a way to structure LC like Python There is Wisp (Whitespace to Lisp): https://bitbucket.org/ArneBab/wisp https://bitbucket.org/ArneBab/wisp http://draketo.de/light/english/wisp-lisp-indentation-preprocessor http://draketo.de/light/english/wisp-lisp-indentation-prepro... (I have never tried it.)

deleted 12y ago

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agentultra 12y ago

> Is Lisp anything like Lambda Calculus? In many respects, yes. http://www.lispworks.com/documentation/HyperSpec/Body/03_ababd.htm http://www.lispworks.com/documentation/HyperSpec/Body/03_aba... There are differences of course which should be pretty easy to spot if you know lambda-calculus well.

andolanra 12y ago

There's a lambda-calculus-like core to Lisps, but there's enough on top that I'm not comfortable saying that Lisp implementations are "just the lambda calculus." As for indentation-based syntax, there is a Scheme SRFI[^1] that specifies an indentation-based syntax, although I'm not sure how many Schemes actually ship with implementations. [^1]: Various extensions to Scheme are proposed as numbered SRFIs; the extension in question is SRFI 49, as defined by http://srfi.schemers.org/srfi-49/srfi-49.html http://srfi.schemers.org/srfi-49/srfi-49.html

moron4hire 12y ago
I might be mistaken, but I believe a Python-like syntax for Racket was the strategy undertaken for Pyret: http://www.pyret.org/ http://www.pyret.org/ I can't find any direct connection to Racket, though, and it's not part of the Racket package repository.
- sparkie 12y ago
  The connection to Racket is the people behind it. Pyret was developed by students of Racket's developer, S. Krishnamurthi (with his support).
  - greghendershott 12y ago
    I think Shriram would point out he is one of many people responsible for the development of Racket.