Functional Programming from First Principles
Many recent programming languages, such as Javascript, Ruby, and Scala, include elements of functional programming. These languages are large and complicated, which makes it difficult to grasp the essence of functional
programming.
Church’s Lambda Calculus is the oldest and simplest possible functional programming language. It has the following syntax:
<var> ::= a | b | … | z
<exp> ::= <var> | (\<var> <exp>) | (<exp> <exp>)
In this talk, we will illustrate the principles of functional programming using Church’s Lambda Calculus via a series of demos based on http://www.ioccc.org/2012/tromp/hint.html
About the Speaker:
Melvin Zhang is an avid programmer who enjoys minimal programming languages and elegant algorithms. At Cosmiqo International, Melvin is developing its sensor data aggregation and analytics platform. In his free time, he is trying to create the strongest AI to play Magic: the Gathering @ https://magarena.github.io/