Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
The λ-calculus was originally introduced as a tool for the study of functionality and higher order logic. Later it was shown that the number-theoretic functions representable in the λ-calculus were precisely those represented in radically different approaches to the notion of computability such as Turing machines or the schemes defining the partial recursive functions we have seen previously. Thus as a tool for studying computability, the λ-calculus is completely general. It also inspired early work on the programming language LISP and can itself be viewed as a high level programming language. Though entirely too cumbersome for everyday programming needs there are well known methods for representing programs, written in standard imperative programming languages like FORTRAN, as λ-terms (see Tennant [1981]). One reason for doing so is in order to understand these programs as functions in the standard mathematical sense of the word. Once these terms are then modelled or interpreted in a mathematical structure like a Scott–Ershov domain one can claim to have understood them in terms of the functions they are names for or denote, hence the terminology denotational semantics. Although the study of the denotational semantics for programming languages falls outside the scope of this book, we will summarize in this chapter the results showing that the λ-calculus itself can be modelled using domains. In doing so we hope that we will have provided at least the basic material needed to make the transition from the mathematical theory of domains to the topic of program semantics.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.