Anjana Vakil

You know that a tiny anonymous function, like a JS arrow function, can be useful when you’re feeling too lazy to think up a good name. But did you know that this humble little arrow can summon one of the most powerful & elegant abstractions in the history of computer science?

The lambda calculus lets us represent our programs - all their logic and data - with nothing but pure, anonymous functions. Numbers, booleans, logic, control flow, data structures… an arrow can do it all! 

In this session we'll live-code our way to a deeper understanding & admiration of the computational power of the lambda, an abstraction fundamental to functional programming.

2019

React Rally

The Universe in a Single Arrow: A Live Dive into the Lambda Calculus

In this session we'll live-code our way to a deeper understanding & admiration of the computational power of the lambda, an abstraction fundamental to functional programming.

You know that a tiny anonymous function, like a JS arrow function, can be useful when you’re feeling too lazy to think up a good name. But did you know that this humble little arrow can summon one of the most powerful & elegant abstractions in the history of computer science?

The lambda calculus lets us represent our programs - all their logic and data - with nothing but pure, anonymous functions. Booleans, numbers, operators, control flow, data structures… an arrow can do it all! In this session we'll live-code our way to a deeper understanding & admiration of the computational power of the lambda, an abstraction fundamental to functional programming.