Lambda Calculus - Fundamentals of Lambda Calculus & Functional Programming in JavaScript
Why Hacker News recommends it
Repeatedly recommended as one of the most approachable introductions to lambda calculus and combinators.
What it is
Gabriel Lebec's Fullstack Academy talk introduces lambda calculus syntax, the history of mathematical logic, and the essence of functional programming using JavaScript. It also covers combinators, currying and Church encodings.
Recommended by 5 HN commenters across 5 different months, 2019 to 2024.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec triyambakam · 2020-09 · on “All you need is λ, part one: booleans”
Just last night I found this excellent introduction to the Lambda Calculus by Gabriel Lebec [1]. It's one of the best I've come across and covers briefly history, building up combinators (using Smullyan's names) leading up to implementing Church encodings and gives Javascript equivalents (or approximations when not possible). The slides themselves are also very aesthetically pleasing, Gabriel has a good sense of colour and design [1] [this video]
Strong rec autophagian · 2022-05 · on “Logic”
For anyone interested in the topic (combinatory logic as told through the medium of birds) I adore Gabriel Lebec's talk "A Flock Of Functions: Combinators, Lambda Calculus & Church Encodings in JavaScript" [this video]
Strong rec Zhyl · 2024-07 · on “Ask HN: What resources do you recommend for learning Haskell?”
I found these two videos on combinators and lambda calculus recently. They're only tangentially related to Haskell, but they are the most approachable videos on the topic I have ever seen. [this video] [LINK]
Recommends ayushgp · 2019-08 · on “Lisp is not based on the Lambda Calculus”
I suggest you to watch this video if you want to understand how 3 basic functions can be used to create whole language [this video]
Recommends zellyn · 2024-02 · on “A little closer to finding what became Moses Schönfinkel (2021)”
I would start with lambda calculus. If you pick the right intro video, they'll stray into combinators: [this video] is very good.