What are some resources for learning Lambda Calculus? [closed]

Answer 1

If you are done with the Wikipedia entry, follow its link to the online Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, do the assignments, or read the book.

Answer 2

I think the reference on the subject of lambda-calculus itself still is Barendregt's book.

Beyond that it pretty much depends on what "part" of lambda-calculus you are interested in : typing ? proof theory ? term rewriting ? functional programming ?

Each of these is a field in itself, and I don't know of any book that covers it all.

Answer 3

Well, there's always An Introduction to Lambda Calculus. I've tried reading it a few times, but always got stuck. I have a nagging feeling that I already know most of this stuff and would probably have an easier time understanding it if it was presented in terms of Lisp/Scheme rather than math. You might have better luck, though :)

Answer 4

Try writing a lambda calculus interpetter, ideally in a functional language using the build in syntax of the language rather than via a parser. This is surprisingly easy and a good way to improve your feel for it.

Answer 5

I found "An introduction to Lambda Calculi for Computer Scientists" by Chris Hankin to be pretty good, but I only really used it for one class - not used it in the real world :)

Answer 6

The book that really made me start to use and understand lambda calculus was "Representation and Inference for Natural Language" by Blackburn and Bos. This is a book about natural language processing using Prolog. Another book you might consider is "Natural Language Understanding" by Allen. Finally, if you like lambda calculus, you will probably also enjoy combinatory logic, as the combinators can be defined as lambda expressions. For this, I strongly recommend Smullyan's book of puzzles, "To Mock A Mockingbird." Toward the end he uses the combinators to build a rudimentary programming language.