←back to thread

Baking the Y Combinator from Scratch

(the-nerve-blog.ghost.io)
123 points mprast | 2 comments | | HN request time: 0.454s | source
1. tromp ◴[] No.43637905[source]
> you technically can't do name = term

But you can do

    let name = term in term2
by de-sugaring it to

    ((λname. term2) term)
replies(1): >>43639040 #
2. zarakshR ◴[] No.43639040[source]
This is not relevant since this de-sugaring cannot be performed if `name` is recursive (i.e., if `term` refers to `name`), which `Y` is. So the author's derivation is still required in the pure lambda calculus.