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Re: Using 'λ'
From: |
Ludovic Courtès |
Subject: |
Re: Using 'λ' |
Date: |
Mon, 15 Oct 2018 11:45:27 +0200 |
User-agent: |
Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/26.1 (gnu/linux) |
Hello!
Chris Marusich <address@hidden> skribis:
> 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."
I agree; “procedure” or even “function” would be much clearer…
> 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.
Agreed!
(And I’m saying this as the person who added λ to boot-9.scm. :-))
Ludo’.