[plt-scheme] The Lambda Calculus behind functional programming

What would your reading list be for the self study, apart from Barendregt?

CS

Matthias Felleisen wrote:
>
> On Aug 29, 2007, at 2:27 PM, Grant Rettke wrote:
>
>> When I tell people that I'm learning Scheme the first thing they ask
>> me is "So have you learned lambda calculus?". I've learned enough to
>> say the words "lambda calculus" and that everyone says that lambda
>> calculus is the theoretical backbone of functional programming; but
>> that is it.
>>
>> The following question is a simple one, it makes no attempt to
>> generalize whether anything is worth learning, I think you get the
>> idea.
>>
>> So to revisit this again, what do you need to learn of the lambda
>> calculus relative to FP?
>
> A working programmer should have seen:
>  -- syntax
>  -- reductions (eval is a function via Church Rosser)
>  -- scope vs de Bruijn indices
>  -- beta vs beta-value, normal form [relevant in math] vs value
> [relevant in cs]
>  -- basic denotational semantics (typed PCF suffices)
>  -- typed lc plus type system, SNF
>  -- extended with some amount of fancy type system stuff (say explicit
> polymorphism)
>
> That's approx 10 weeks worth of course material. Or 2 weeks of
> self-study with a one-hour lunch break.
>
>
>> What would you tell folks about who have never looked at FP when they
>> ask you about lambda calculus?
>
> Engineers study calculus and some analysis plus physics so that they
> can build cars, bridges, etc and predict their behavior.
>
> Software engineers study lambda calculus so that they can build small
> software systems (apps, single programmer) and predict their behavior.
>
> -- Matthias
>
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