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Re: Using 'λ'
From: |
Chris Marusich |
Subject: |
Re: Using 'λ' |
Date: |
Sun, 14 Oct 2018 12:29:29 -0700 |
User-agent: |
Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/26.1 (gnu/linux) |
Alex Vong <address@hidden> writes:
> [...] It seems many think λ is not newcomer-friendly [...].
I would go one step farther and argue that the name "lambda" itself is
not the best, regardless of whether it's written as "lambda" or "λ". I
agree with the authors of Structure and Interpretation of Computers when
they wrote ((sicp) 1.3.2):
"It would be clearer and less intimidating to people learning Lisp if a
name more obvious than ‘lambda’, such as ‘make-procedure’, were used.
But the convention is firmly entrenched."
But I digress. That ship has sailed, so the least we can do is to write
"lambda" instead of "λ" to keep Guix approachable/hackable for
newcomers. Every little bit counts.
--
Chris
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