Lambda Calculi

Graduate text on mathematical foundations of programming languages, and operational and denotational semantics.

Well-respected text for computer science students provides an accessible introduction to functional programming. Cogent examples illuminate the central ideas, and numerous exercises offer reinforcement. Includes solutions. 1989 edition.

This handbook with exercises reveals in formalisms, hitherto mainly used for hardware and software design and verification, unexpected mathematical beauty. The lambda calculus forms a prototype universal programming language, which in its untyped version is related to Lisp, and was treated in the first author's classic The Lambda Calculus (1984). The formalism has since been extended with types and used in functional programming (Haskell, Clean) and proof assistants (Coq, Isabelle, HOL), used in designing and verifying IT products and mathematical proofs. In this book, the authors focus on three classes of typing for lambda terms: simple types, recursive types and intersection types. It is in these three formalisms of terms and types that the unexpected mathematical beauty is revealed. The treatment is authoritative and comprehensive, complemented by an exhaustive bibliography, and numerous exercises are provided to deepen the readers' understanding and increase their confidence using types.

The book contains a completely new presentation of classical results in the field of Lambda Calculus, together with new results. The text is unique in that it presents a new calculus (Parametric Lambda Calculus) which can be instantiated to obtain already known lambda-calculi. Some properties, which in the literature have been proved separately for different calculi, can be proved once for the Parametric one. The lambda calculi are presented from a Computer Science point of view, with a particular emphasis on their semantics, both operational and denotational.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Third International Conference on Typed Lambda Calculi and Applications, TLCA '97, held in Nancy, France, in April 1997. The 24 revised full papers presented in the book were carefully selected from a total of 54 submissions. The book reports the main research advances achieved in the area of typed lambda calculi since the predecessor conference, held in 1995, and competently reflects the state of the art in the area.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Typed Lambda Calculi and Applications, TLCA 2005, held in Nara, Japan in April 2005. The 27 revised full papers presented together with 2 invited papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 61 submissions. The volume reports research results on all current aspects of typed lambda calculi, ranging from theoretical and methodological issues to applications in various contexts.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Typed Lambda Calculi and Applications, TLCA 2011, held in Novi Sad, Serbia, in June 2011 as part of RDP 2011, the 6th Federated Conference on Rewriting, Deduction, and Programming. The 15 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 44 submissions. The papers provide prevailing research results on all current aspects of typed lambda calculi, ranging from theoretical and methodological issues to applications in various contexts addressing a wide variety of topics such as proof-theory, semantics, implementation, types, and programming.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Joint 25th International Conference on Rewriting Techniques and Applications, RTA 2014, and 12th International Conference on Typed Lambda-Calculi and Applications, TLCA 2014, held as part of the Vienna Summer of Logic, VSL 2014, in Vienna, Austria, in July 2014. The 28 revised full papers and 3 short papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 87 submissions. The papers provide research results on all aspects of rewriting and typed lambda calculi, ranging from theoretical and methodological issues to applications in various contexts. They address a wide variety of topics such as algorithmic aspects, implementation, logic, types, semantics, and programming.